Field Reports: Another weed thriving
Experts are concerned about a weed from Russia that is growing along the Utah-Idaho border and could choke native plants and spoil livestock and wildlife grazing areas.
“I think it’s going to be quite a problem,” said Jim Hull, a weed expert in Franklin County, Idaho.
The plant, known as Brassica Elongata, can stand 3 feet tall and spread seed pods when parts break off. It has four yellow petals.
Experts believe it entered the U.S. on a ship nearly a century ago, but probably didn’t do well in the rainy Northwest.
Franklin County is looking for grants to help pay costs of fighting the weed.
“If scientists took four years to identify it,” Hull said, “there’s going to be a learning curve.”
Associated Press
NATIONAL PARKS
Bay has whale crosswalks
A record number of humpback whales were sighted this summer in and around Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in southeast Alaska.
The 3.3-million-acre park with its wealth of whales, snowcapped mountains, tidewater glaciers and deep fiords is increasingly popular with humans, too.
Last year, the park welcomed 413,000 park visitors, 54,000 more than the previous year, and the number likely increased this year.
Park officials said a cruise ship vessel management program – including speed limits, daily vessel quotas, route restrictions and monitors – succeeded in preventing collisions between boats and whales in the park this year.
In the 1970s, fewer than 20 whales could be found in Glacier Bay. Nowadays, three to four dozen whales are in the park on any given summer day even though the number of boats has increased significantly to the daily limit of 36.
Elsewhere in Alaska this year, the National Marine Fisheries Service, has confirmed five reports of whales being hit by boats, mostly smaller boats.
Between 1978 and 2006, 62 large whales were confirmed struck by boats in Alaska, with 46 of those being humpback whales, most of them in southeast.
Associated Press
STATE PARKS
Yurts going to the dogs?
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is taking public comment on a proposal to relax its ban on pets in more than 250 yurts and cabins throughout the park system.
Some campers already sneak their pets inside the round, weather-tight huts available to rent for $27 per night, park staffers say.
The yurts aren’t designed for pets or anything other than sleeping, said Larry Hultin, a volunteer yurt host at Valley of the Rogue State Park. “It’s close quarters,” he said.
Of particular concern for the parks department, according to its survey, is whether past or prospective yurt and cabin campers are allergic to pet hair, fur or dander.
Jan and Adriana Klement, a couple that’s been visiting Oregon campgrounds for more than 20 years with their German shepherds, didn’t sympathize with the allergy argument.
People with allergies aren’t cut out for camping, Jan said: “They should stay at the Hilton.”
Associated Press
SHOOTING
Even guns pretty in pink
The .22-caliber Crickett rifle ($169.99) has a bright pink stock, and the Remington Express Jr. 20-gauge shotgun ($379.99) has a laminated pink-and-black stock emblazoned with the slogan “Shoot like a girl if you can!”
The guns are aimed, so to speak, at girls and women – who are part of a growing segment of all things outdoors.
Major retailers have begun marketing the guns. The pink rifle sold well enough last year in its first season in Gander Mountain stores that the pink shotgun was added late this summer.
In Baraboo, Wis., Jim Astle, owner of Jim’s Gun Supply – the store slogan is “I’ll get you loaded” – has been coating guns in pink and other colors for four years. His 12-year-old daughter owns a pink camouflage shotgun.
“Females want to shoot guns, but they want them to look pretty, too,” Astle said. “Guys could give a rat’s butt what their gun looks like.”
Milwaukee Journal
PREDATORS
Park wolves get too friendly
Wolves in Yellowstone National Park were reported last winter to be approaching cars, snowcoaches and snowmobiles, raising suspicions that people have been feeding them.
Doug Smith, leader of the Yellowstone wolf project, said park officials received reports of two alpha wolves from the Hayden Valley pack showing “fearless behavior” toward cars and snow machines.
The main danger isn’t so much to humans, he said, but the wolves are more vulnerable to being hit by vehicles.
Associated Press