Craighead Institute In the News!
Here is a short video from our winter window display at Wild Joe*s CoffeeSpot in Bozeman. Look for the widlife overpass!
Here are various photos from our display:
December 2018. The Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act
We've got great news! The Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act was just introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and in the House of Representatives by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). The Act will designate wildlife corridors on federal lands and provide funds for wildlife corridor protection on non-federal lands across the country. This could be a huge win for America's biodiversity!!
Wildlife corridors are critically important habitat areas that allow animals to move from one area to another to find food, mates, and shelter and to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Wide-ranging animals like pronghorns, grizzly bears, monarch butterflies, Florida panthers, and more depend on these protected spaces for safe travel and survival. Despite one of the best national park systems in the world, 1 in 5 U.S. species are threatened with extinction because of climate change, habitat loss, and fragmentation. Wildlife corridors are one of the simplest yet most effective strategies to protect our natural heritage. The Craighead Institute has been at the forefront of mapping wildlife corridors and working to implement solutions on the ground and establish policy like this. This bill is critically important to safeguarding our wildlife and wildlands.
You can find links to a press release (http://bit.ly/CorridorActPR) and fact sheet (http://bit.ly/CorridorAct) on Wildlands Network's website.
We've got great news! The Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act was just introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and in the House of Representatives by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). The Act will designate wildlife corridors on federal lands and provide funds for wildlife corridor protection on non-federal lands across the country. This could be a huge win for America's biodiversity!!
Wildlife corridors are critically important habitat areas that allow animals to move from one area to another to find food, mates, and shelter and to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Wide-ranging animals like pronghorns, grizzly bears, monarch butterflies, Florida panthers, and more depend on these protected spaces for safe travel and survival. Despite one of the best national park systems in the world, 1 in 5 U.S. species are threatened with extinction because of climate change, habitat loss, and fragmentation. Wildlife corridors are one of the simplest yet most effective strategies to protect our natural heritage. The Craighead Institute has been at the forefront of mapping wildlife corridors and working to implement solutions on the ground and establish policy like this. This bill is critically important to safeguarding our wildlife and wildlands.
You can find links to a press release (http://bit.ly/CorridorActPR) and fact sheet (http://bit.ly/CorridorAct) on Wildlands Network's website.
June 2016
Craighead to give wilderness presentation in Big Sky
EXPLORE BIG SKY staff
One of the foremost ecologists in the region is coming to Big Sky in June.
Dr. Lance Craighead, executive director for the conservation organization the Craighead Institute, will give a presentation at the Big Sky Water and Sewer District on June 8, with a focus on the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area located in the Gallatin Range.
Craighead will discuss the current ecological value of this WSA within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and focus on a recently completed analysis pinpointing seven key at-risk species: grizzly, wolverine, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, cutthroat trout, and pika.
Craighead plans to present the information Craighead Institute scientists found in the 2015 assessment and will use it to inform the upcoming Custer Gallatin National Forest Plan Revision.
“Using this report as a foundation, we hope to encourage local citizens to work within the Forest Planning Process and contact political leaders to protect this area in order to mitigate climate change impacts and protect wildlife for its economic importance in the region: protecting wilderness protects jobs and tourist income,” Craighead wrote in a May 24 email.
Craighead is a field ecologist, population geneticist, and GIS technician with more than 20 years of experience in conservation planning.
The presentation will be held at the Big Sky Water and Sewer District building on June 8 at 6:30 p.m.
Craighead to give wilderness presentation in Big Sky
EXPLORE BIG SKY staff
One of the foremost ecologists in the region is coming to Big Sky in June.
Dr. Lance Craighead, executive director for the conservation organization the Craighead Institute, will give a presentation at the Big Sky Water and Sewer District on June 8, with a focus on the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area located in the Gallatin Range.
Craighead will discuss the current ecological value of this WSA within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and focus on a recently completed analysis pinpointing seven key at-risk species: grizzly, wolverine, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, cutthroat trout, and pika.
Craighead plans to present the information Craighead Institute scientists found in the 2015 assessment and will use it to inform the upcoming Custer Gallatin National Forest Plan Revision.
“Using this report as a foundation, we hope to encourage local citizens to work within the Forest Planning Process and contact political leaders to protect this area in order to mitigate climate change impacts and protect wildlife for its economic importance in the region: protecting wilderness protects jobs and tourist income,” Craighead wrote in a May 24 email.
Craighead is a field ecologist, population geneticist, and GIS technician with more than 20 years of experience in conservation planning.
The presentation will be held at the Big Sky Water and Sewer District building on June 8 at 6:30 p.m.
May 2016
Howie Wolke mentioned our work in an editorial in the Bozeman Chronicle on May 11: A wild plan for the Gallatin Range.
Howie Wolke mentioned our work in an editorial in the Bozeman Chronicle on May 11: A wild plan for the Gallatin Range.
April 2016
David Quammen wrote an entire issue of National Geographic Magazine about the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. You can hear him talk about it on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/tags/128847314/yellowstone-national-park
David talks about an encounter with grizzlies while hiking with Lance Craighead and talks about Frank and John (about 25 minutes into the interview).
December 2015
Todd Wilkinson writes about our Wilderness Study Area Report and the need for safe refuges for wildlife.
http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/opinion/columnists/the_new_west_todd_wilkinson/wildlife-need-islands-of-safe-natural-habitat/article_951baf90-e845-5e30-9900-c79900361c02.html
November 2015
Lance Craighead had an editorial published in the Billings Gazette about the importance of the Endangered Species Act. The article can be found at:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/tell-your-montana-lawmakers-to-support-endangered-species-act/article_982512fc-d453-5115-93ad-d425b33e820e.html
Lance Craighead had an editorial published in the Billings Gazette about the importance of the Endangered Species Act. The article can be found at:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/tell-your-montana-lawmakers-to-support-endangered-species-act/article_982512fc-d453-5115-93ad-d425b33e820e.html
September 2015
Lance Craighead recently completed a review of the current scientific research available for a suite of focal species in the Hyalite Porcupine Buffalo-Horn Wilderness Study Area. This report was commissioned by the Lee and Donna Metcalf Foundation to help provide a scientific foundation for decision-making by the Forest Service and other parties as the status of this WSA is determined. The report is in the draft stage but will be finalized in early October. A meeting to discuss the draft report will be held on Friday, September 18 in the Bozeman Public Library. We held a public presentation on September 28 in the Bozeman Public Library that was featured in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (click to follow link).
Lance Craighead recently completed a review of the current scientific research available for a suite of focal species in the Hyalite Porcupine Buffalo-Horn Wilderness Study Area. This report was commissioned by the Lee and Donna Metcalf Foundation to help provide a scientific foundation for decision-making by the Forest Service and other parties as the status of this WSA is determined. The report is in the draft stage but will be finalized in early October. A meeting to discuss the draft report will be held on Friday, September 18 in the Bozeman Public Library. We held a public presentation on September 28 in the Bozeman Public Library that was featured in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (click to follow link).
Thanks for helping the Craighead Institute in the Gallatin Valley with the GIVE BIG campaign.
We ended up with $2,270 which was 0.95% of the grand total raised ($237,535.55).
The event had participation from a wide range of Gallatin Valley non-profits, 101 in total. Most of them have a primary focus on the community and on human-oriented causes. The categories used to describe non-profits were: Animal, Arts and Culture, Community Improvement, Education, Environment, Health, Human Services, and Youth Development.
Health, Education, and Art were the big winners. Wildlife received about 5% of the total. This was more a reflection of who participated rather than overall values of the donors I believe. I did a quick analysis of the results with a simpler break down:
Craighead Institute is now a Conservation Partner with Bozeman Audi!
April Craighead will present a paper at the North American Pika Conference
(April 17-18th, 2015) in Golden Colorado
for more information see:
http://www.tetonscience.org/teton-research-institute/pika-conference
(April 17-18th, 2015) in Golden Colorado
for more information see:
http://www.tetonscience.org/teton-research-institute/pika-conference
Craighead Institute Film Showing: GRIZZLY!
When: February 4, Wednesday, at 7:30 PM
Where: Emerson Theatre, Bozeman, Montana
Why: A fundraiser for Craighead Institute, $10 donation per person,
kids <13 not expected to donate..
When: February 4, Wednesday, at 7:30 PM
Where: Emerson Theatre, Bozeman, Montana
Why: A fundraiser for Craighead Institute, $10 donation per person,
kids <13 not expected to donate..
This classic TV Special film from the Craighead Institute archives is the original documentary about the Craighead team’s pioneering study of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park during the 1960’s. Silent auction items will be displayed in the lobby during the event.
Schedule:
6:30 - No-host bar with free hor d’oeuvres in the Emerson lobby
7:15 - Movie introduction: Film trailer for new Craighead Institute movie: Headwaters: Wyoming and the Western Water Dilemma, about western water issues and climate change: about 6 minutes
7:30 - Begin GRIZZLY! movie: about 50 minutes
8:20 - Question and Answer Discussion
8:45 - End of Silent Auction.
Silent auction items include:
Kayak trip in Baja with Sea and Adventures. http://www.kayakbaja.com/
3 night stay in cabin in Moose, Wyoming. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4067306
John Banovich drawing of bison
Blackbird Cafe $50 gift certificate
Patagonia clothing
Bearpaw bookends
6:30 - No-host bar with free hor d’oeuvres in the Emerson lobby
7:15 - Movie introduction: Film trailer for new Craighead Institute movie: Headwaters: Wyoming and the Western Water Dilemma, about western water issues and climate change: about 6 minutes
7:30 - Begin GRIZZLY! movie: about 50 minutes
8:20 - Question and Answer Discussion
8:45 - End of Silent Auction.
Silent auction items include:
Kayak trip in Baja with Sea and Adventures. http://www.kayakbaja.com/
3 night stay in cabin in Moose, Wyoming. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4067306
John Banovich drawing of bison
Blackbird Cafe $50 gift certificate
Patagonia clothing
Bearpaw bookends
The Craighead Institute was featured as Conservation Group of the Month for December at Wild Joe's Coffee Spot. This was our window display at Wild Joe's on Main Street in Bozeman.
Lance Craighead, Executive Director of the Craighead Institute, was inducted as a Fellow National of the Explorers Club in January, 2014. The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary, professional society founded in
1904 and dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, resource conservation, and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Fellowship is reserved for those who have distinguished themselves by directly contributing to scientific knowledge in the field of geographical exploration or allied sciences. This is a
distinct honor reflecting Dr. Craighead’s, and the Craighead Institute’s, years of service helping to map and conserve many of the world’s wild places.
An article announcing Lance's induction
was published in the Bozeman Daily
Chronicle on March 23rd
1904 and dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, resource conservation, and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Fellowship is reserved for those who have distinguished themselves by directly contributing to scientific knowledge in the field of geographical exploration or allied sciences. This is a
distinct honor reflecting Dr. Craighead’s, and the Craighead Institute’s, years of service helping to map and conserve many of the world’s wild places.
An article announcing Lance's induction
was published in the Bozeman Daily
Chronicle on March 23rd
Our conservation planning toolbox: Wild Planner, developed by Brent Brock, was highlighted in a video made by Denver Film Digital for the Intermountain West Funder Network.
Brent Brock and Craighead Institute made the Idaho State Journal June 1, though the Journal mistakenly represented the wildlife findings. (In Idaho, the wildlife model suggests the best route is along I-15, NOT over Bannock Pass and through the INL as the article below states.)
MSTI corridor reviewedBY MICHAEL H. O’DONNELL
[email protected]
POCATELLO — A highvoltage power line corridor through Western Montana and portions of Southeast Idaho can be selected that meets the concerns of private-property owners and wildlife advocates, according to an independent panel of experts that met in Pocatello Thursday.
They presented a review of potential corridors for the Mountain States Transmission Intertie (MSTI) that would bring a 500-kV power line from Townsend, Mont. to Jerome.
MSTI is estimated to cost $1 billion and would bring power from Montana to other Northwest and Pacific Coast states. It would carry up to 1,500 megawatts of power along its 350 to 390-mile length.
Where that line is constructed has sparked interest and concern among farmers, ranchers and county commissioners.
“Montana and Idaho are facing transmission siting decisions that will affect our landscapes and communities for decades to come,” said Dave Schulz, Madison County Montana commissioner and a member of the MSTI Review Project team.
Landowners and county commissioners in Bingham County will meet Thursday, June 7, at 7 p.m. in the Snake River Junior High auditorium to discuss the MSTI corridor route.
In addition to county commissioners, experts for the review project came from Western Environmental Law Center, Headwaters Economics, Sonoran Institute, Craighead Institute and Future West.
The experts had gathered input from county representatives, wildlife organizations and other sources to create a series of models to reflect the “path of least resistance” for obtaining land for the MSTI project and public support for its location.
Funding for the independent study came largely from NorthWestern Energy, the company pushing the MSTI project. Despite the funding source, Schulz assured those attending Thursday’s meeting that the project has been conducted without interference from the power company.
“Northwest Energy kept their hands out of the process,” Schulz said.
Using multi-colored maps to demonstrate the value of areas either for agricultural uses or wildlife habitat, experts demonstrated the data used in their models. Cameron Ellis of the Sonoran Institute explained “community” values.
“We tried to stay on public land and avoid private land,” Ellis said about the model’s creation. Other considerations included dovetailing with existing large infrastructure like interstate highways or power lines.
He said the study involved looking at about 1,160 different land management plans from local and state governments.
Brent Brock explained the creation of the model that took into consideration of wildlife habitat concerns like those impacting sage grouse and raptors.
“We live in an area that’s blessed with a lot of good wildlife habitat,” Brock said.
With that blessing comes a responsibility to lessen the impact of development and it was the job of the experts to use available data to construct a suggested route that did just that.
When the models for community and wildlife concerns were overlapped, they closely matched each other with a route that would traverse portions of Bingham and Bannock counties, but further west and into the more arid regions of those counties than alternative routes previously examined at BLM hearings held last year.
Research models provided by the experts at Thursday’s meeting show both community and wildlife concerns would best be addressed by a route for the transmission line that would come into Idaho at Bannock Pass, go over to the Idaho National Laboratory property, swing south to American Falls and then skirt the southern edge of Craters of the Moon National Monument on its way to Jerome.
Economics expert Julia Haggerty of Headwaters said whatever the route, counties along its path will benefit from an increased tax base. Because of the way Montana taxes utilities, some individual counties in Montana would be big winners with the power line generating more tax revenue than the entire existing tax base for those rural counties.
Idaho counties would not see that kind of windfall, but Haggerty said the increased tax base would still lessen the burden on existing property taxpayers.
The work done by the independent review project will be forwarded to the federal and state agencies that will ultimately decide the siting issues and the route.
An Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared for the project and a draft is due out this summer.
“This is only a tool,” Schulz said about the impact the expert models will have on the eventual route.
Post Published: 01 June 2012
Author: kevensen
Found in section: Top Stories
[email protected]
POCATELLO — A highvoltage power line corridor through Western Montana and portions of Southeast Idaho can be selected that meets the concerns of private-property owners and wildlife advocates, according to an independent panel of experts that met in Pocatello Thursday.
They presented a review of potential corridors for the Mountain States Transmission Intertie (MSTI) that would bring a 500-kV power line from Townsend, Mont. to Jerome.
MSTI is estimated to cost $1 billion and would bring power from Montana to other Northwest and Pacific Coast states. It would carry up to 1,500 megawatts of power along its 350 to 390-mile length.
Where that line is constructed has sparked interest and concern among farmers, ranchers and county commissioners.
“Montana and Idaho are facing transmission siting decisions that will affect our landscapes and communities for decades to come,” said Dave Schulz, Madison County Montana commissioner and a member of the MSTI Review Project team.
Landowners and county commissioners in Bingham County will meet Thursday, June 7, at 7 p.m. in the Snake River Junior High auditorium to discuss the MSTI corridor route.
In addition to county commissioners, experts for the review project came from Western Environmental Law Center, Headwaters Economics, Sonoran Institute, Craighead Institute and Future West.
The experts had gathered input from county representatives, wildlife organizations and other sources to create a series of models to reflect the “path of least resistance” for obtaining land for the MSTI project and public support for its location.
Funding for the independent study came largely from NorthWestern Energy, the company pushing the MSTI project. Despite the funding source, Schulz assured those attending Thursday’s meeting that the project has been conducted without interference from the power company.
“Northwest Energy kept their hands out of the process,” Schulz said.
Using multi-colored maps to demonstrate the value of areas either for agricultural uses or wildlife habitat, experts demonstrated the data used in their models. Cameron Ellis of the Sonoran Institute explained “community” values.
“We tried to stay on public land and avoid private land,” Ellis said about the model’s creation. Other considerations included dovetailing with existing large infrastructure like interstate highways or power lines.
He said the study involved looking at about 1,160 different land management plans from local and state governments.
Brent Brock explained the creation of the model that took into consideration of wildlife habitat concerns like those impacting sage grouse and raptors.
“We live in an area that’s blessed with a lot of good wildlife habitat,” Brock said.
With that blessing comes a responsibility to lessen the impact of development and it was the job of the experts to use available data to construct a suggested route that did just that.
When the models for community and wildlife concerns were overlapped, they closely matched each other with a route that would traverse portions of Bingham and Bannock counties, but further west and into the more arid regions of those counties than alternative routes previously examined at BLM hearings held last year.
Research models provided by the experts at Thursday’s meeting show both community and wildlife concerns would best be addressed by a route for the transmission line that would come into Idaho at Bannock Pass, go over to the Idaho National Laboratory property, swing south to American Falls and then skirt the southern edge of Craters of the Moon National Monument on its way to Jerome.
Economics expert Julia Haggerty of Headwaters said whatever the route, counties along its path will benefit from an increased tax base. Because of the way Montana taxes utilities, some individual counties in Montana would be big winners with the power line generating more tax revenue than the entire existing tax base for those rural counties.
Idaho counties would not see that kind of windfall, but Haggerty said the increased tax base would still lessen the burden on existing property taxpayers.
The work done by the independent review project will be forwarded to the federal and state agencies that will ultimately decide the siting issues and the route.
An Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared for the project and a draft is due out this summer.
“This is only a tool,” Schulz said about the impact the expert models will have on the eventual route.
Post Published: 01 June 2012
Author: kevensen
Found in section: Top Stories
April Craighead made the news again on her citizen science program, this time in the print edition of the New York Times on March 12th and online March 11th, 2012; see below to read on!
Matches Made in the Wilderness, in the Name of Science
Wolverine Weekend: Volunteers spend a weekend learning to track wolverines across Montana's rugged Helena National Forest.
By SEAN PATRICK FARRELL
Published: March 11, 2012
HELENA NATIONAL FOREST, Mont. — On most beautiful winter Saturdays, Erika Nunlist, a college freshman, can usually be found backcountry skiing in the Rockies. But Ms. Nunlist chose to spend a recent sparkling day searching for greenish lumps of wolverine excrement.
“Oh, yeah, I love collecting scat,” Ms. Nunlist, 19, deadpanned as she bagged a sample. “You wouldn’t have heard me say that when I had to do that for our dog around the house.” Gregg Treinish, an experienced outdoorsman, organized the outing to track the elusive wolverine, the largest member of the weasel family, across this rugged landscape. A dozen volunteers had come to learn how to track the animal’s prints and collect scat and hair samples as a part of an effort called Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation.
The program, which Mr. Treinish founded, enlists outdoor athletes as hardy field assistants to scientists in need of data from far-flung places. Some expeditions are group efforts, but much of the data is collected by the lone hiker who pauses on the trail to inspect a plant, or the rower who stops to observe a pod of whales. “Every single day there are tens of thousands of people who are outside getting after it,” said Mr. Treinish, 30, who was named a 2008 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for trekking the length of the Andes. “They’re going to these places that researchers wish that they could get to.” Mr. Treinish said he started the program out of a sense that adventure for its own sake was a bit self-indulgent. He soon found that others, from hard-core alpinists to day hikers, shared his yearning to contribute more to the natural good.
So last year he began a matchmaking service, connecting scientists to the appropriate members of the outdoorsy set.
Soon, data started tumbling in. Two of the world’s top climbers, scaling Mount Everest, found the highest-altitude plant life ever recorded, a yet-to-be-named moss. Hikers on thePacific Crest Trail in the West Coast are now collecting information on the pika, an alpine member of the rabbit family that is a valuable indicator species for climate change. And glacier trekkers are keeping an eye out for ice worms for a researcher in Alaska.
The payoff for adventurers is the feeling of giving something back to their wild playgrounds. Researchers have found this new relationship a bit tricky. Yes, it saves scientists time and money to have volunteer eyes and data-gathering in out-of-the-way places. And many have come to see the collaboration as a way to inject some adrenaline and pizazz into often slow and painstaking work.
But relying on data collected by neophytes for research that may be submitted for peer review can be risky. April Craighead, a wildlife biologist at the Craighead Institute, a conservation research group founded by her father-in-law in Bozeman, Mont., enlisted hikers to collect data for her work on the pika. Of the 40 or so who volunteered, she said, only a few followed through with usable observations. One volunteer boasted that he had photographed a badger eating a pika. She was thrilled — until the images arrived. “It wasn’t a pika, it was a ground squirrel,” said Ms. Craighead, who plans to continue working with volunteers after making some tweaks to the process.
Mr. Treinish said the collaboration with Ms. Craighead had suffered in part because of deep snow, which hampered the volunteers’ collection of data. Citizen science is not a new concept; for decades the Audubon Society has encouraged birders to spend their Christmases using binoculars to identify and tally their finds. Many parks, preserves and zoos have public outreach programs. Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation is a newer iteration of that model. Mr. Treinish started the group with a $250 donation, a cellphone and a lot of enthusiasm. He lives low on the nonprofit food chain, paying himself a minimum wage and taking in some extra money by working as an outdoor guide and lecturer. He sleeps in a shed behind a house he shares with roommates in Bozeman. His room in the house is stuffed with piles of camping gear.
Growing up in Ohio, Mr. Treinish said, he was a bit of a troublemaker, and, as an intervention, his family shipped him off to British Columbia for a monthlong wilderness program that he credits with changing his life. Today, the telephone is married to his ear as he lines up new projects: a trip for high school students to assess salmon habitats in Oregon, the development of data-collection protocols for Arctic rowers and the deployment of scuba divers along the entire length of the California coast to sample the water for plastic contamination. “I would love to see that we have changed the way that scientific information is gathered,” Mr. Treinish said.
Russell Hopcroft, a professor of marine life at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, sees the beauty and the thrift in linking his studies of the health of zooplankton, a major food source for fish, to a monthlong expedition being led by Paul Ridley, a Chicagoan who plans to row a 29-foot boat 1,100 miles across the Arctic Ocean with three companions this summer. Chartering a research vessel can cost more than $50,000 a day, Dr. Hopcroft said. “This is an incredible buy if they’re able to get some useful science done at the same time,” he added. Strapped to their boats will be a zooplankton dragnet, a sampling container and observational equipment. “They’ll be covering a big chunk of ocean, and there are things that we don’t learn from a satellite,” he said. “People are going to see this as having that edge to it, and you don’t get that with your science very often.” Mr. Ridley, 28, has also agreed to record whale sightings during the journey — another match made by Mr. Treinish.
Steve Gehman, a biologist who founded Wild Things Unlimited, a nonprofit research group focusing on “rare carnivores” in the Rockies, has high hopes for the volunteer wolverine trackers. Wolverines number fewer than 500 in the lower 48 states. They are known to ramble for hundreds of square miles over rugged and remote terrain in search of food and mates, which makes studying them arduous and expensive. The value of the amateur research becomes more important as science budgets dwindle, said Pat Shanley, a biologist for the Helena National Forest, who relies on the data. A few weeks after the first expedition, Ms. Nunlist returned to the forest with Mr. Gehman. Snow had lured her friends out for more skiing, but she was happy to be tracking wolverines again, and, despite the snow cover, she found more scat and hair samples. “I have my whole life to ski,” she said. “It’s a unique opportunity to go tracking, one that doesn’t come around every day.”
A version of this article appeared in print on March 12, 2012, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: For Wilderness Adventurers, a Match Made in the Name of Science.
Wolverine Weekend: Volunteers spend a weekend learning to track wolverines across Montana's rugged Helena National Forest.
By SEAN PATRICK FARRELL
Published: March 11, 2012
HELENA NATIONAL FOREST, Mont. — On most beautiful winter Saturdays, Erika Nunlist, a college freshman, can usually be found backcountry skiing in the Rockies. But Ms. Nunlist chose to spend a recent sparkling day searching for greenish lumps of wolverine excrement.
“Oh, yeah, I love collecting scat,” Ms. Nunlist, 19, deadpanned as she bagged a sample. “You wouldn’t have heard me say that when I had to do that for our dog around the house.” Gregg Treinish, an experienced outdoorsman, organized the outing to track the elusive wolverine, the largest member of the weasel family, across this rugged landscape. A dozen volunteers had come to learn how to track the animal’s prints and collect scat and hair samples as a part of an effort called Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation.
The program, which Mr. Treinish founded, enlists outdoor athletes as hardy field assistants to scientists in need of data from far-flung places. Some expeditions are group efforts, but much of the data is collected by the lone hiker who pauses on the trail to inspect a plant, or the rower who stops to observe a pod of whales. “Every single day there are tens of thousands of people who are outside getting after it,” said Mr. Treinish, 30, who was named a 2008 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for trekking the length of the Andes. “They’re going to these places that researchers wish that they could get to.” Mr. Treinish said he started the program out of a sense that adventure for its own sake was a bit self-indulgent. He soon found that others, from hard-core alpinists to day hikers, shared his yearning to contribute more to the natural good.
So last year he began a matchmaking service, connecting scientists to the appropriate members of the outdoorsy set.
Soon, data started tumbling in. Two of the world’s top climbers, scaling Mount Everest, found the highest-altitude plant life ever recorded, a yet-to-be-named moss. Hikers on thePacific Crest Trail in the West Coast are now collecting information on the pika, an alpine member of the rabbit family that is a valuable indicator species for climate change. And glacier trekkers are keeping an eye out for ice worms for a researcher in Alaska.
The payoff for adventurers is the feeling of giving something back to their wild playgrounds. Researchers have found this new relationship a bit tricky. Yes, it saves scientists time and money to have volunteer eyes and data-gathering in out-of-the-way places. And many have come to see the collaboration as a way to inject some adrenaline and pizazz into often slow and painstaking work.
But relying on data collected by neophytes for research that may be submitted for peer review can be risky. April Craighead, a wildlife biologist at the Craighead Institute, a conservation research group founded by her father-in-law in Bozeman, Mont., enlisted hikers to collect data for her work on the pika. Of the 40 or so who volunteered, she said, only a few followed through with usable observations. One volunteer boasted that he had photographed a badger eating a pika. She was thrilled — until the images arrived. “It wasn’t a pika, it was a ground squirrel,” said Ms. Craighead, who plans to continue working with volunteers after making some tweaks to the process.
Mr. Treinish said the collaboration with Ms. Craighead had suffered in part because of deep snow, which hampered the volunteers’ collection of data. Citizen science is not a new concept; for decades the Audubon Society has encouraged birders to spend their Christmases using binoculars to identify and tally their finds. Many parks, preserves and zoos have public outreach programs. Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation is a newer iteration of that model. Mr. Treinish started the group with a $250 donation, a cellphone and a lot of enthusiasm. He lives low on the nonprofit food chain, paying himself a minimum wage and taking in some extra money by working as an outdoor guide and lecturer. He sleeps in a shed behind a house he shares with roommates in Bozeman. His room in the house is stuffed with piles of camping gear.
Growing up in Ohio, Mr. Treinish said, he was a bit of a troublemaker, and, as an intervention, his family shipped him off to British Columbia for a monthlong wilderness program that he credits with changing his life. Today, the telephone is married to his ear as he lines up new projects: a trip for high school students to assess salmon habitats in Oregon, the development of data-collection protocols for Arctic rowers and the deployment of scuba divers along the entire length of the California coast to sample the water for plastic contamination. “I would love to see that we have changed the way that scientific information is gathered,” Mr. Treinish said.
Russell Hopcroft, a professor of marine life at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, sees the beauty and the thrift in linking his studies of the health of zooplankton, a major food source for fish, to a monthlong expedition being led by Paul Ridley, a Chicagoan who plans to row a 29-foot boat 1,100 miles across the Arctic Ocean with three companions this summer. Chartering a research vessel can cost more than $50,000 a day, Dr. Hopcroft said. “This is an incredible buy if they’re able to get some useful science done at the same time,” he added. Strapped to their boats will be a zooplankton dragnet, a sampling container and observational equipment. “They’ll be covering a big chunk of ocean, and there are things that we don’t learn from a satellite,” he said. “People are going to see this as having that edge to it, and you don’t get that with your science very often.” Mr. Ridley, 28, has also agreed to record whale sightings during the journey — another match made by Mr. Treinish.
Steve Gehman, a biologist who founded Wild Things Unlimited, a nonprofit research group focusing on “rare carnivores” in the Rockies, has high hopes for the volunteer wolverine trackers. Wolverines number fewer than 500 in the lower 48 states. They are known to ramble for hundreds of square miles over rugged and remote terrain in search of food and mates, which makes studying them arduous and expensive. The value of the amateur research becomes more important as science budgets dwindle, said Pat Shanley, a biologist for the Helena National Forest, who relies on the data. A few weeks after the first expedition, Ms. Nunlist returned to the forest with Mr. Gehman. Snow had lured her friends out for more skiing, but she was happy to be tracking wolverines again, and, despite the snow cover, she found more scat and hair samples. “I have my whole life to ski,” she said. “It’s a unique opportunity to go tracking, one that doesn’t come around every day.”
A version of this article appeared in print on March 12, 2012, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: For Wilderness Adventurers, a Match Made in the Name of Science.
Read about April Craighead's pika research in the Winter 2011-2012
issue of Montana Naturalist magazine,
produced by the Montana
Natural History Center. See below!
Visit their website: http://www.montananaturalist.org/magazine/ where all past articles are available online.
Watch an amazing video on Grizzly bears in the GYE and see Lance's interview.
April Craighead in Bare EssentialsApril Craighead was published in the 2011 September/ October issue of Bare Essentials, an Australian publication that inspires people to explore and experience the wild wonders of this earth. April shares her concerns of the impact of climate change on pika populations. Visit their website to download your free copy of this month’s magazine: www.bare-essentials.com.au/subscribe-now/ - scroll to the botton of the page to find the Sept/Oct issue and April’s article or click below.
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Gertschen Interview: Talking about conservation and education with Lance CraigheadTo read the article at length visit Clearing Magazine, the online journal of community-based environmental education. Interview
by Chris Gertschen. |
Craighead Institute receives ESRI SAG AWARD!
2011_esri_sag_award_press_release_-_071411.doc | |
File Size: | 38 kb |
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Craighead Institute in the NewsAdventurers and Scientists for Conservation & the Craighead Institute were quoted in the Economy section of the New York Times last week in an article written to describe our citizen-scientists programs. You can read the full-length article at: http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/07/07/07climatewire-adventurers-embrace-their-inner-nerds-to-hel-44866.html
Click here to Listen to Lance on YPR 6-13-2011Lance Craighead on Realtime Series with George Cole Listen to Lance discuss citizen-science program's with Gregg Treinish, from Adventurers and Scientists on Yellowstone Public Radio's RealTime Series. http://www.ypradio.org/programs/local/realtime.html |
Listen to Lance on YPR 1-4-2011Lance Craighead on
Home Ground Radio with Brain Kahn Listen to the story of the Craighead Institute. Lance Craighead, executive director, is interviewed on Home Ground Radio with Brian Kahn on Yellowstone Public Radio. |