Yellowstone Center for Resources
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YELLOWSTONE CENTER FOR RESOURCES SPATIAL A naly sis es rc u o s RESOUR e CE R N L A T A U R R U A T L L U R e C s o u r r c c e s I nfo rmation R ES EA RCH Support ANNUAL2001 REPORT YELLOWSTONE CENTER FOR RESOURCES 2001 ANNUAL REPORT Hand-painted Limoges bowl, Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, ca. 1910. Part of the Davis Collection acquired in 2001. Yellowstone Center for Resources National Park Service Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming YCR–AR–2001 2002 In memory of Donay Hanson 1960–2001 Suggested Citation: Yellowstone Center for Resources. 2002. Yellowstone Center for Resources Annual Report, 2001. National Park Service, Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, YCR–AR–2001. Photographs not otherwise marked are courtesy of the National Park Service. Front cover: clockwise from top right, Beatrice Miles of the Nez Perce Tribe; Yellowstone cutthroat trout; Golden Gate Bridge by W. Ingersoll, circa 1880s, from the Susan and Jack Davis Collection; low northern sedge (Carex concinna) by Jennifer Whipple; and center, Canada lynx. Back cover: mountain chickadee. ii Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................ iv Part I. Resource Highlights ............................................................................... 1 Part II. Cultural Resource Programs ............................................................... 7 Archeology ...................................................................................................... 8 Ethnography .................................................................................................. 11 History........................................................................................................... 15 Museum Collections ..................................................................................... 20 Research Library and Archives ..................................................................... 24 Part III. Natural Resource Programs ............................................................. 27 Air, Land, and Water ..................................................................................... 27 Aquatic Resources ........................................................................................ 29 Geology and Geothermal Resources............................................................. 36 Vegetation ..................................................................................................... 41 Wildlife Resources ........................................................................................ 43 Bears ....................................................................................................... 44 Birds ....................................................................................................... 48 Bison ....................................................................................................... 50 Elk and Other Ungulates ........................................................................ 55 Lynx ........................................................................................................ 56 Wildlife Management and Monitoring ................................................... 57 Wolves .................................................................................................... 58 Part IV. Yellowstone Center for Resources and Parkwide Support ............. 61 Spatial Analysis Center ................................................................................. 61 Resource Information ................................................................................... 63 Research Support .......................................................................................... 66 Funding and Personnel.................................................................................. 66 Appendix I. Personnel Roster for 2001 ........................................................... 69 Appendix II. Publications, Reports, and Papers............................................ 73 Appendix III. Partnerships .............................................................................. 75 iii Introduction At the Yellowstone Center for Resources (YCR), it is time to celebrate our successes and evaluate our setbacks as we look back on the calendar year 2001. We hope that these annual reports continue to provide a useful record of natural and cultural resource management and science activities that occurred within the park. For some projects, additional information may be available in technical publications or special reports (see Appendix II). This year, a new appendix highlights partnerships in which YCR staff were involved with other federal and state agencies, academia, and public organizations. Yellowstone National Park, the University of Utah, and the U.S. Geological Survey entered into an agreement to establish the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory to strengthen the long-term monitoring of volcanic and earthquake unrest in the region. Yellowstone also became a host site for the Greater Yellowstone Network biological inventory program, involving the staffs of Yellow- stone and Grand Teton National Parks and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. As Yellowstone’s popularity as a place to do research increased in 2001, investigators from 47 states and 6 foreign countries were involved in 259 research projects, 40 of which were new. Former Yellowstone district interpreter Roger Anderson came on board in July as chief of the Resource Information and Publications group. He got right to work coordinating the YCR’s sixth biennial scientific conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, “Yellow- stone Lake: Hotbed of Chaos or Reservoir of Resilience?” The conference was noteworthy for its interdisciplinary nature, addressing management issues, natural features, and human history associated with Yellowstone Lake. Proceedings will be published in late 2002. The Branch of Cultural Resources celebrated several important acquisitions in 2001, the Susan and Jack Davis Collection of Yellowstone memorabilia, and eight White Motor Com- pany motor coaches used by the Yellowstone Park Company in the 1930s. The Branch of Natural Resources began a three-year survey to collect baseline information on the status of the threatened lynx in Yellowstone. The process of developing a field operations plan for bison management in and near the park was begun. With the hiring of a new aquatic re- sources team leader and a fisheries biologist, the aquatic resources program became fully staffed for the first time since the National Park Service assumed control of the program following the 1996 closure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in the park. Since the creation of the YCR in 1993, staff have been striving to learn more about the resources we are mandated to manage and protect, provide outreach, contribute to literature, and promote interpretation. We hope this report continues to help us attain these goals. For more information about specific topics of interest, readers may contact us at (307) 344-2203 or investigate the park’s web site at www.nps.gov/yell. John D. Varley Director, Yellowstone Center for Resources iv The Canada lynx, listed as a threatened species in 2000, is the subject of a new study in Yellowstone. Part I. Resource Highlights LYNX STUDY BEGINS Historically reduced by persecution and habitat destruction, the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) in the conterminous U.S. was listed as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during 2000. Despite evidence that lynx were still found in the park, no rigorous effort had been made to document their presence. In 2001, Wildlife Resources Team staff began a three-year survey to collect the baseline informa- tion needed to assess the status of the lynx in Yellowstone National Park (YNP). A GIS-based topographical analysis was used to identify prime lynx habitats. Intensive surveys will be conducted in these prime habitats through 2004 using ground- and aircraft-based snow tracking during the winter, and hair snares to obtain DNA samples in the summer. From January to April 2001, 28 ground-based snow tracking surveys were completed on transects distrib- uted widely throughout the park, ranging from 0.6 to 129 miles in length and totaling 286 miles. One prob- able and one possible lynx track were detected during snow tracking surveys. Tracks of red squirrels, weasels, and marten were abundant. Tracks of snowshoe hares were less abundant in habitats dominated by lodgepole pine compared to sites that principally supported Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir. Staff also identified tracks of wolves, red fox, coyote, grizzly bear, black bear, and river otter. The habitat model appeared to successfully predict the location and extent of lynx habitat in YNP. Staff completed four air-based snow tracking surveys in northwest, southeast, and east central YNP on transects that totaled 488.4 miles in length. The aerial surveys enabled staff to effectively search large areas for lynx tracks. No lynx tracks were detected using this method, but staff saw individuals and tracks of grizzly bears, coyotes, and bobcats. For the summer sampling, staff set up 160 hair-snare stations on 32 transects on the east side of the park, sampling a 200-square-mile area (14 × 14 miles). From July to October 2001, staff collected a total of 154 2 Resource Highlights hair samples: 38 from the hair snares, 90 from the and menus, all representing various periods in ground near the snares,