Field Reports: Weed-free feed required in wilds

As part of a larger effort to reduce invasive species on national forest, weed-free feed is being required for packers heading into Pacific Northwest wilderness area this year.

By 2009, the requirement will be expanded to all national forest lands, Forest Service officials announced last month.

Wildernesses areas in the Cascades already have required weed-free feed for many years. Starting this season, it becomes mandatory in other wilderness areas such as the Eagle Cap and Hells Canyon wilderness areas in Oregon.

Enforcement will concentrate on education and compliance this year until signage and outreach efforts are completed, officials said.

Info: www.fs.fed.us/r6/weeds.

Rich Landers

NATIONAL FORESTS

Gallatin expands food-storage rules

Gallatin National Forest food-storage rules for areas frequented by grizzly bears will now cover the entire, 1.8-million-acre forest in Montana.

Protecting people and bears is the goal, said Becki Heath, the forest supervisor in Bozeman.

Once they are introduced to food from human sources, bears can become dangerously aggressive if they do not get the handouts they are seeking, said Kevin Frey, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear specialist.

“Bears rooting around the campground edges can escalate into a bad deal,” he said.

The rules call for all unattended food and garbage to be stored in a hard-sided vehicle, a bear-proof container or hung 10 feet above the ground. In campgrounds, compliance will require cleaning up immediately after a meal and keeping coolers and food boxes in cars or trailers.

These rules have been in effect for years in nearby Yellowstone National Park.

The storage orders are in effect from March 1 to Dec. 1.

Associated Press

PREDATORS

Study cites wolves in elk decline

Wolves are reducing elk herds in parts of northwest Wyoming, says a state Game and Fish Department report.

The report finds wolves are affecting cow-calf ratios in four of the eight elk herds where they are present.

Biologists analyzed statewide elk population data, which the department has collected 1980 through 2005.

Wolf reintroduction began in 1995, when the federal government released 14 wolves in Yellowstone National Park. At the end of 2006, there were an estimated 36 packs in Wyoming, including 311 individual wolves.

“We have seen a downward trend (in cow-calf ratios) in many of Wyoming’s elk herds over this 26-year period,” Jay Lawson of the Game and Fish Department’s Wildlife Division said in a news release.

“That trend is likely due to long-term drought and other habitat-related factors. But in half of the herds occupied by wolves, we saw a significantly greater rate of decline after wolves were established compared to herds without wolves.

“We can’t attribute that increased rate of decline to any factor other than wolves.”

Associated Press