YELLOWSTONE CENTER FOR RESOURCES ���� ��� ��� ����� � � � � ����� � � �� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ���������� � �� �� ����� ����� ANNUAL2003 REPORT FISCAL YEAR YELLOWSTONE CENTER FOR RESOURCES 2003 ANNUAL REPORT FISCAL YEAR (OCTOBER 1, 2002, TO SEPTEMBER 30, 2003) Yellowstone Center for Resources National Park Service Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming YCR–AR–2003 2004 Suggested citation: Yellowstone Center for Resources. 2004. Yellowstone Center for Resources Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2003. National Park Service, Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, YCR–AR–2003. Photographs not otherwise marked are courtesy of the National Park Service. Front cover: clockwise from top left, museum staff interprets historic vehicles at the Roosevelt Arch centennial celebration; Yellowstone bison by Alice Wondrak Biel; crowd at the arch celebration; grizzly bear #264; dragonfly photo taken as part of macroinvertebrate study. Title page: Grizzly bear #264 and cubs. Back cover: Wickiup in Yellowstone National Park, by Alice Wondrak Biel. ii Contents Introduction .......................................................................................iv Part I. Resource Highlights ................................................................1 Part II. Cultural Resource Programs ..................................................7 Archeology..................................................................................................... 7 Ethnography................................................................................................ 10 History.......................................................................................................... 15 Museum, Library, and Archives................................................................ 22 Part III. Natural Resource Programs ...............................................29 Air, Land, and Water .................................................................................. 29 Aquatic Resources and Fisheries.............................................................. 32 Geology and Geothermal Resources....................................................... 40 Vegetation .................................................................................................... 46 Wildlife......................................................................................................... 51 Bears ...................................................................................................... 51 Birds....................................................................................................... 56 Bison ...................................................................................................... 59 Lynx ....................................................................................................... 66 Ungulates............................................................................................... 66 Wolves ................................................................................................... 70 Part IV. Professional Support Programs ...........................................75 Spatial Analysis Center............................................................................... 75 Resource Information and Publications.................................................. 78 Research Permitting and Support ............................................................ 79 NPS Servicewide Benefits-Sharing EIS................................................... 80 Funding, Personnel, and Administrative Support.................................. 81 Appendix I. Personnel Roster for 2003 .............................................85 Appendix II. Publications, Reports, and Papers ...............................89 Appendix III. Partnerships ...............................................................93 Standing Partnerships ................................................................................ 93 Project-Based Partnerships..................................................................... 101 iii Introduction Highlights of this year’s YCR Annual Report include an expanded Partnerships section (appendix III), featuring not only a description of each of 34 standing partnerships in which YCR personnel are involved, but also a table listing 79 project-based partnerships. These partnerships and agreements with other federal and state agencies, academia, and public organizations are critical to our continued successes in stewardship. The Research Permit Office authorized 221 research permits to investigators from 33 U.S. states and 7 for- eign countries, again showing the park’s value as a scientific laboratory as well as a pleasuring ground. Interdivisional partnerships were also a highlight of FY03. Spatial Analysis Center staff initiated a col- laborative project with the park’s Division of Maintenance to locate and document all of Yellowstone’s water and wastewater components; because the locations of sewers, valves, and other elements were previously recorded only in employee memory or on paper maps several decades old, this project will greatly improve the Maintenance Division’s ability to manage its facilities. The park celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Roosevelt Arch on August 25, 2003, with a gala event. All of the park’s divisions helped in some way to make the celebration a success; YCR’s contribution included a special issue of Yellowstone Science devoted to the history of the arch, written and produced by staff from the Branch of Cultural Resources and the Resource Information and Publications Team. Encouraging news for natural resource managers in FY03 included an increase in juvenile cutthroat trout found in recent years, viewed as an encouraging signal that the lake trout removal program’s effects are sig- nificant, and making a major contribution to the preservation of Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Grizzly bear recovery parameters were met again in 2003, and have now been achieved every year since 1998. Wolves also met the minimum population size as outlined in the recovery plan for the fourth successive year, but de-list- ing cannot proceed until approved state management plans are in place. Fort Yellowstone was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in FY03, and the long-awaited Ecology of Ungulates and their Winter Range in Northern Yellowstone National Park, Research and Synthesis, 1962–70, by William J. Barmore, Jr., was published. A volunteer program was initiated to aid in the conser- vation of some of the park’s historic structures, and park managers worked with members of several park- affiliated Tribes on a project that will result in a variety of new media interpreting past and present Native American experience in Yellowstone. We hope this report continues to assist us in attaining the goals of the YCR, which are to provide out- reach, contribute to literature, promote interpretation, and most of all, strive to learn more about the resources we are mandated to manage and protect. For more information about specific topics of interest, readers may contact us at (307) 344-2203, or visit the park’s web site at www.nps.gov/yell. John D. Varley Director, Yellowstone Center for Resources iv Wolf Project Leader Doug Smith with a Swan Lake pack wolf during the 2003 capture effort. Part I. Resource Highlights WOLF RESEARCH Beginning in summer 2003, wolf project staff began efforts to document summer predation patterns by wolves. Documenting the predatory habits of wolves in summer is problematic due to the lack of snow for tracking, increased nighttime activity of wolves, lack of pack cohesiveness, and smaller prey, leading to quick consumption and loss of evidence. Traditionally, the best data concerning wolf summer food habits have come from analysis of scat contents collected at den and rendezvous sites. In the summer of 2003, project staff collected a record 530 wolf scats from the Bechler, Druid Peak, Leopold, Geode, Nez Perce, Cougar Creek, Swan Lake, and Slough Creek wolf packs at their den and rendezvous areas. When analyzed, these samples will provide relative indices of prey selection and consumption patterns during the summer. An important element of post-restoration wolf research concerns trophic cascade effects (i.e., how the restoration of a top predator to the Yellowstone ecosystem has affected the rest of the system’s food chain). One aspect of this research concerns wolves’ effects on scavenger guilds. Research on wolf and scavenger interactions has been conducted since 1998, through support from Canon, U.S.A., and the Yellowstone Center for Resources (YCR). This research, largely done in winter, has monitored how wolves influence the abundance and distribution of carrion, both spatially and temporally, as well as how they facilitate food acquisition by other carnivores. Although a great deal has been learned about the magnitude and relative importance of wolf-killed carcasses to the winter scavenger communities, little is known about the impact on summer scavengers, both vertebrate and invertebrate. It is hoped that this focus on summer scaveng- ing will offer a complete picture of the ecological relationship between wolves and scavengers relative to seasonal variation, abundance, and diversity. In summer 2003, project staff increased monitoring efforts on 2 Resource Highlights summer carcasses to document scavenger utiliza- Creek; by dipnetting adult spawners at LeHardys tion and behavioral interactions between wolves and Rapids; and by a netting