Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources

A Lifetime of Geologic Discovery Mammoth Hotel Strike Fossil Beetles

Volume 5 Number 4 In Old Infancy

This year marks the 125th anniversary The scale of time in which scientists the lands and resources we continue to of Yellowstone, first national park in the work ranges vastly, affecting each value, we hear more discussion about world. I thought first how this issue pre­ researcher's perspective. So also do the how to factor humans into our mission to sented stark contrasts in how researchers time frames within which humans view conserve parks "unimpaired for future define and document the history of the such things as the vegetation ofthe north­ generations." "old" park. While we wonder today if the ern range, patterns in weather and geyser As Brit Fontenot points out in his ar­ unceasing wetness of 1997 is an aberra­ eruptions, and fluctuating numbers of ticle, Yellowstone is not-and, even in tion or the start ofa new trend-possibly animals that influence their attitudes about its infancy, was not-isolated from hu­ the result ofElNiiio or global warming- · whether or how we should manage park man influences and societal trends af­ Scott Elias reminds us that over "just" the resources. fecting the rest of our nation and other last 125,000 years, conditions and plant Perhaps I had underestimated how environments. This October, we cel­ and animal species were often quite dif­ strong the cultural-natural connections ebrated the cultural-natural connections ferent from those in Yellowstone's more are, or should be, among our· scientists with our fourth biennial scientific confer­ "recent" climate history-the last 14,500 and managers. How humans view their ence. Historians, writers, ethnographers, years-reconstructed through studies of own role over time in relation to the archeologists, biologists, geologists, and fossil beetle data. environment also influences their atti­ others met to discuss People and Place: Changes in the park climate, and other tudes about landscape management. Na­ the Human Experience in Greater things, come up again in our interview tional park policy is often portrayed as Yellowstone. with geologist Irving Friedman, who dis­ attempting to exclude human influence We are eager to present more articles cusses dating lava flows and monitoring from the landscape. Too often, the park is on greater Yellowstone's cultural re­ geysers and hot springs. In a fortuitous described as a model (to emulate or not) sources, and encourage relevant submis­ accident, Dr. Friedman's geologic work for natural resource conservation. Only sions, just as we continue to seek new turned out to also be of great value to in recent years has it begun to gain wide­ information from natural scientists. And cultural resource managers. But, think­ spread recognition for its role in cultural we encourage researchers and managers ing only ofthe contrast between the scale resource preservation. And organization­ in both fields to discuss the connections of geologic and human history in greater ally, we still tend to view natural and between their disciplines. We know that Yellowstone, I was surprised to find that cultural resource research and manage­ it takes time to write such material. But, the park archeologist was quite familiar ment efforts as separate (and sometimes for students of greater Yellowstone, who with obsidian hydration dating and its conflicting). Yet, as we learn more about operate on human, not geologic, time applications in her field of study. how prehistoric and historic humans used scales, we think it would be worth it. SCM Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources Volume 5 Number 4 Fall 1997 Table of Contents

Reconstructing Yellowstone's Climate History 2 Data from fossil beetle assemblages and. a primer on geology remind us that Yellowstone's prehistoric environment ranged from glacial cold to summers hotter than the historic 1988, and that climate continues to influence which species thrive. by Scott A. Elias

Yellowstone Seen Through Water and Glass 9 His studies of obsidian led to a technique used by archeologists to date cultural artifacts; through monitoring chloride in park rivers he hopes to help protect geysers from changes associated with development. Interview with Irving Friedman

Striking Similarities: Labor Versus Capital in 15 Editor Yellowstone National Park Sue Consolo-Murphy In the park's 125th anniversary year, a historian reminds us that Art Director Yellowstone, a cultural icon, was and is not a wilderness isolated Renee Evanoff from noutside" events. Associate Editor by Brit T. Fontenot Sarah Broadbent Assistarzt Editor News and Notes Mary Ann Franke Printing • Yellowstone Signs Bioprospecting Agreement • Grizzly Bear 19 Artcraftlnc. Production, Mortalities Up Again in 1997 • Noted Limnologist Dies • MSU to Host Research Symposium • Decline in Spotted Frogs • Bozeman, Montana Bison Exhibited, Mugged• And More

On the cover: Autumn in the Yellowstone Scien"f~?i_s_·-f;ijµ'.Sb·½\Uarte~if:_~~fsllbnus·siotis are we1Co~:¢ii~?m-~-l inv~figators .. Boundary Creek thermal area conduct_inJ~ formaf'ff~"_e_~§[tl!r the·'_'ello__\VS,(~n,'e>:~fa,_--_ ~ditorial -_~orrcsp'o~<%~~-e.·~b~~u1d·bfs_e~tto in the southwest corner of the Editot; Yellowst_~J1}f~tfJ_elfpe;_ ye4owsf6,_ne'._C:!~11:t_Cr fot,ResOU~ces, p;Q\~~x i_6~i YCU8Wst0ne . _ ,_ .;<:\:; -_,;:?:f)r_--: :"'; ·_N,aiip.~~tP~~-!--WY 8'.?19?:- -' , ' "'->_ ·-.. -_ :·;_: ·_ . Yellowstone. See related inter­ The opinions e?{PieSs~J.jii\i~1io1\lsto11t;'SCi~h'.Ct?::are the aU_thOrs.' and·ll!af,fiQt-reflect-either view page 9. Photo by Jennifer National Parws~~)9C'.JjdliCy"'~t the_-_'v_ifWf Of:tfie?yenoW~!Orie C~1icfrJ~r,R~oui:~t · - Copyright © 199i;:"__ilie:.r~r1b·wstOne Ass9Ci~~OI1 f~r Natural-Science, ffi~toryi~__Educatio1,1. Whipple. Above, the cover ofan :;7:-_~<:;:,"~.- . ' ... early Yellowstone ParkAssocia­ Support for Yeli#t~;io'7\J}Cience· iS.proVi.de4JJY the Yellowstone A_ssd_da~"a~-fOr N.iturill tion Hotels brochure (1900s), Science, History &{£4':l~tiO,n; __a_nOn-pr9_fit_:ed}ictitional organization dediC_,at6d.fo servffig_ the see Historical Vignette page 15. park and its visit!)_~_._ f~i_more iidonnation'.afiout the Yellowstone Ass9Ciation, including ~ membersliip,_wri_fo.t~.f\O._Box-117; Yellowstone National Park, Y,Y ,82190. ~ Yellowstoi,~_Sci~~-~e is printed on re_c~cled paper with a linseed-oil;.based ink. Reconstructing Y~l~t@W'sitone' s .Climate History How Departing Glaciers, Left Their Mark

" ofthe researcl! th;t has,liei~fabJi~~ the • •pa,,lii's glaciatand p~l;,~~~Pl"giiJr>his- . tO")ii.(adapted(frOlll ..·· K,JI~,;,Age. lJfs(gry of National I/ . .ihfRod

LATE QUATERNARY

Pleistocene Epoch Early glaciations Sangamon Pinedale Holocene Interglacial Glaciation Epoch I L7 million 125,000 10,000 Present years ago years ago years ago

2 Yellowstone Science Yellowstone's Last Glaciers ,, ' / I The most recent large-scale glaciations I I of the Rocky Mountain region are the I Bull Lake and the Pinedale, both named I for places in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. During the 1960s, the general consensus among geologists was that the Bull Lake ice advances were the first since the Sangamon Interglacial warm­ ing period, which would mean that the Bull Lake Glaciation began no more than about 110,000 years ago. But evidence from the Yellowstone area has suggested r,-\I otherwise. Rapidly cooling lava forms / obsidian, a natural glass such as that found at Obsidian Cliffs, where molten lava is thought to have encountered Bull \ Lake ice. The rhyolite flows (extruded, .... fine-grained volcanic rock) at Obsidian Cliffs have been dated by obsidian hydra­ -.. tion at about 150,000 years old. On this basis, according to geologist Ken Pierce $ (1979), Bull Lake ice appears to have 0 formed in Yellowstone before the Im Sangamon Interglacial. In most Rocky Mountain regions, Bull Lake moraines extend farther down-val­ ley than Pinedale moraines. In the west­ ern Yellowstone area, Bull Lake ice reached an average of20 km (12.4 miles) Fig. 2. Map of Yellowstone National Park, showing extent and patterns ofmovement farther than the subsequent Pinedale Gla­ ofglacial ice during the last glaciation (from Elias, 1996). ciation. But on the north side of the park, Pinedaleicepushed beyond the Bull Lake Hayden Valley. The two ice limit, obliterating terminal moraines left masses came together and cov­ by the previous glaciation, which appears ered all but the southwestern Years Before Pinedale Glaciation to have occurred after the Sangamon In­ edge of the park, burying its Present in Yellowstone terglacial in some regions and before itin valleys and Central Plateau others. So Bull Lake Glaciation has not region under about 700 m 47,000 been clearly defined as an event in a (2,300 ft) of ice. Early ice advance single interval of time. The relationships between 34,000 The Pinedale Glaciation brought an Interstadial interval glacial and travertine deposits 30,000 immense cover of ice centered along a in northern Yellowstone, par­ Extensive ice advance north-south axis through Yellowstone ticular! y around Mammoth Hot 22,500 Lake in a line about 150 km (93 miles) Major ice recession Springs, were analyzed by Neil I 9,500 long, with ice flowing radially to the Sturchio and other geologists Minor readvance northeast, west, and southwest. Glaciers (1994). They found that some 15,500 from the Absaroka and Gallatin ranges of the travertine deposits are 15,000 L.__ Ice margins retreat and the Beartooth Highlands in the north covered by Pinedale deposits, rapidly filled the Lamar and Yellowstone river some overlie older glacial de­ valleys, then flowed northwest into Mon­ posits, and others lie within 14,000 ~ Park lowlands free of ice tana (Fig. 2), converging near Gardiner to pre-existing deposits. Their drain ice from northern Yellowstone. chronological reconstruction Glaciers in the southern Absaroka Range showed that an early ice ad- Fig. 3. Chronology based on travertine flowed west into Yellowstone, occupy­ vance occurred between deposits near Mammoth Hot Springs. ing the depression now filled by 47,000 and 34,000 years be- Yellowstone Lake, and then down the fore present (yr B.P.), and the Fall 1997 3 lower areas of the park were probably by the Yellowstone River, leaving many completely free ofice by about I 4,000 yr gravel-covered terraces along the canyon B.P. (Fig. 3). walls. (i:~ciarerratic....:.. a boulder gouged Evidence of the Pinedale Glaciation When glacial lakes drain, the results imt?fbedrock by glacial ice, carried are sometimes catastrophic. According abounds in the Yellowstone area. When alqng" with the ice flow, and then to Ken Pierce, at least two floods that blocks ofice were stranded during the ice (ifopped as the ice recedes. retreat at the end of the Pinedale Glacia­ were 45-60 m (150-200 ft) deep rushed tion, they became buried by glacial down the Lamar and Yellowstone drain­ ~oraine-_a,mound or ridge Jf,(iJ,f:{~,1 ages as Pinedale ice retreated. A flood outwash and lake sediments. The depres­ 'of . s'ofted glacial debris, deposited deposit from the late Pinedale period can sions left behind when the blocks melted ·1.~'ice,irfa,variety of land- 1 became kettle holes, now small ponds be seen between the road and the river that dot the landscape in many park loca­ about 5 km (3.1 miles) northwest of tions. Glacial deposits, characterized by Gardiner. A river channel bar deposit 20 · ·oiitwas/i ~ a long interval their poorly sorted load of boulders, m (65 ft) highand450 m (1475 ft) across, gl;ciatiqnsiil which the cli­ covered with giant ripples, extends for cobbles, sands, and silts, can be seen in • · s tqfeat least the present Soda Butte Creek, the Lamar Valley, and about a kilometer, along with other bars Yellowstone Canyon. A glacial erratic and boulder ridges. The downstream side boulder weighing about 500 tons was _?!:(_,-,',_<>, ' of the ripple crests is littered with boul­ ( are),'lti,yelyW'1f/11'Cli- deposited near Inspiration Point. Between ders up to 2 m (6.5 ft) in diameter. The d~"cf4iJ11°ga gl,afi'.'tron, Geode and Oxbow creeks, west ofTower floodwaters apparently swept up materi­ · te~.ii9r~refreat.ofic¢. Junction, is an ancient stream deposit that : als from moraines in the Deckard Flats formed when meltwater ran along the region and canied them downstream. edge of a Pinedale glacier. A deep chan­ Elsewhere on the north side of the park, nel that carried glacial meltwater can be late Pinedal.e floods scoured landscapes seen north of Gardiner, and Pinedale's and laid down flood deposits at the mouths tenninal moraines can be seen several of Reese Creek and Yankee Jim Canyon. miles further north of the park, at melted. Its initial outlet was near Lost The Northern Yellowstone Outlet Gla­ Eightmile Creek and near Chico Hot Lake, at an elevation of about 2,100 m cier, which flowed north out of the park Springs, Montana. (6,890 ft). As the ice receded and this during the Pinedale Glaciation, exited the The Grand Canyon ofthe Yellowstone, outlet channel was abandoned, new out­ park at Gardiner, leaving behind well­ however, was not marked by the flow of lets formed at lowerelevations nearTower preserved scour marks and deposits, es­ Pinedale ice. Geologic evidence indicates Junction. The use of progressively lower pecially where the topography and bed­ that the canyon was cut before the Pinedale outlets formed the canyon known as "The rock favor their development. On Dome Glaciation, by the YellowstoneRiverover Narrows," and the sediments that had Mountain divide above the Yellowstone many millennia. Ice from an earlier gla­ nearly filled Retreat Lake were cut through River, ice scoured the bedrock to form ciation filled the canyon and protected its walls from scouring as a Pinedale glacier flowed across it. The bedrock source of the large glacial erratics perched on the rim of the canyon near Artist's Point (Fig. 4) lies to the northeast, in the Beartooth Mountains. Ice also ·dammed the Yellowstone River near Canyon Village, creating a lake in the Hayden Valley area whose sediments have been exposed in the bluffs cut by Elk Antler Creek and other streams. Toward the end ofthe Pinedale Glacia­ tion, as ice flowing from the Beartooth region receded to the Tower Falls area, its southwest margin dammed the Yellowstone River, forming a lake that reached a depth ofabout 180 m (590 ft) in the canyon. Called "Retreat Lake" be­ cause it was created by the retreat of regional ice, it nearly filled with silt be­ Fig. 4. A glacial boulder near Inspiration Point. Courtesy of the fore the ice stopped receding and the dam Yellowstone archives, reference YELL 35135-2.

4 Yellowstone Science SOOOCEOF 0 INFORMATION !r'ftlQlboNI~ Ncffi&r.sc.Jri:wtt IOIII~ "'♦~~~~- -~~wcti.: ::1'W;;t.t.'9:::· •~ooo .!@;;#;!•.•.•••....•••• ··-·-···· -----~----- ...... ffP:I..... •• IW:~---- ~ Y«y~ GOOOQIC~ 20.000 ::::::1.:::::: ::::...... , ··::¥¥...... :: ? Ytrtoot:I Goot,glc:~ ,0,000 •••••• ? ••••••• --. --•• ,o.ooo ? J"""' ?(~ -- 60.000 ~ IE 70.000 ··••i.;.i;.;····· ······=······ j ::::.~::::: ------~------1-----~ 60.000 ------_...... """' . ~I II- .ofll«::olc:,he Ced ,0.000 ...... la,oo------~ ----- IMOOO Hi... Figures 5 and 6. Summary ofenvironmental history 120.000 of the Yellowstone region during the last 140,000 ---l.(:.ix:,~---· ...... wo:n····· ~C»ook years, based on geologic and paleontological dates, 1,0,000 ~.;,;-~•;,,;. • u H ""'"""'• • c«ilU • H " ~ JOOOfd - and map showing location offossil sites. ::::,;;.., ::::: ::::::e... ::::: ...... 1'0.000 - -- depressions and left mounds of debris in lodgepole pine may produce 21 billion the climate cooled again, the subalpine small ridges and hills. Exposed bedrock grains a year. With an extremely durable spruce-fir forest became dominant once here was polished smooth by the glacier. outer wall that resists decay, pollen may more, with a return to tllndra as Pinedale Elsewhere in the park, the interaction be preserved for thousands of years if it glaciation began. of receding ice and hot springs created lands in a lake or bog. A gap in pollen-bearing lake sediments interesting landscape features. In the Since the Bull Lake and Pinedale gla­ appears from the end of the Sangamon Mammoth Hot Springs area, the late ciers have largely obscured evidence more Interglacial through the early part of the Pinedale glacier melted erratically, litter• than 140,000 years old, paleoecology in Pinedale Glaciation. The first evidence ing the landscape with large blocks ofice Yellowstone begins at the last intergla­ of Pinedale environments comes from that were buried by sediments left by the cial, the Sangamon. Geologist Richard the pollen record of Grassy Lake Reser­ receding ice margin. When the ice blocks Baker has studied pollen and plant mac­ voir, just south of the park, which indi­ finally melted, they left a series of alter­ rofossils from lake sediments that were cates an interstadial interval that pro­ nating depressions and small hills, re­ deposited at several sites during gressed from cold to warm to cold again. ferred to as a "kettle and kame" land­ Sangamon and early Pinedale times (sum­ This interstadial is stratigraphically above scape. This topography is common marized i.n Fig. 5, with a map of the sites (and hence younger than) sediments con­ throughout the Yellowstoneregion, wher­ shown in Fig. 6). Sediments from taining pollen that indicate full-intergla­ ever blocks of ice were left stranded by Beaverdam Creek, near the east shore of cial conditions, but below (older than) the receding glaciers. Just south of Mam­ Yellowstone Lake, yielded botanical evi­ Pitchstone Plateau rhyolite lava flow, moth, the cone-shaped Capitol Hill and dence of a transition from late 'glacial to which is dated at 70,000 yr B.P. The early other nearby features are probably gla­ full interglacial environments, thought to Pinedale interstadial therefore probably cial sediments left by ice that was melted represent the onset ofSangamon climate. began about 95,000 yr B.P., when the by hot springs. A cold, pre-Sangamon climate supported vegetation sequence of tundra to spruce­ tundra vegetation that gave way to forest fir forest was repeated. However, the Late Pleistocene Vegetation typical of the subalpine zone today: warming pulse was not strong enough to spruce, fir, and whitebark pine. At the usher in full interglacial conditions; it An important tool in researching peak of the warm period, about 127,000 culminated in the establishment oflodge­ Quartemary paleoecology in Yellowstone yr B.P., regional forests were dominated pole pine forest in the Yellowstone re­ is palynology, the study of modem and by Douglas-fir, with limber and ponde­ gion from about 85,000 to 80,000yr B.P. fossil pollen. Many plants, especially rosa pine. These trees grew at sites above Because the Central Plateau region of wind-pollinated plants such as conifers, their modem elevational limits, suggest­ Yellowstone is underlain by rhyolite bed­ produce an abundance of pollen; a single ing a climate warmer than today's. When rock, which produces relatively infertile Fall 1997 5 soils that are unfavorable: to other re­ apparently able to survive the last glacia­ wolves, and dire wolves hunted camels, gional tree species, it was essentially tree­ tion in ice-free regions of northwestern musk-oxen, and American horses, as well less during periods when the climate was Wyoming. as antelope and bison. While their Old unsuitable for lodgepole pine, even though As conditions warmed, Yellowstone's World relatives have managed to survive spruce, fir, and whitebark pine were grow­ treeline climbed 450 m (1475 ft) in 300 through the Holocene, many of these ing elsewhere in the region. years as conifer forests became estab­ animals no longer existed here by 11,000 . ·When colder conditions returned about lished on higher ground. After 10,500 yr yrB.P. 80,000yr B.P., forests gave way to tundra B.P., the southern region of the park was Yet such comparisons can be mislead­ again. Increased pine, spruce, and fir pol­ covered with forests typical of modern ing, because the modem climate of the len at the Beaverdam Creek site indicate subalpine regions. Pollen assemblages African savannah is very different from that another warming took place after from Cygnet Lake Fen show that by about the Pinedale climate of northern Wyo­ 70,000 yr B.P., but lasted no more than a 10,000 yr B.P. lodgepole pine had spread ming, in which the faunas had a strong few thousand years. From about 68,000 northward to the Central _Plateau, where it arctic-subarctic element. During the late until at least 50,000 yr B .P., the landscape has been the dominant species ever since. Pleistocene, species that today are found was covered by tundra, based on pollen only in Alaska and northern Canada­ assemblages from a site at Solution Creek Late Pleistocene Mammals Arctic rodents, musk-oxen and caribou­ studied by geologists Gerry Richmond ranged across the grasslands of Wyo­ and J. Platt Bradbury. No pollen-bearing Because few deposits containing Pleis­ ming. So while the plains of Wyoming sediments have been found that date from tocene vertebrate remains havebeen found may have been as dry as the modem 50,000to 14,000yrB.P. Wedonotknow in Yellowstone, most of our knowledge African savannah, they were certainly far if glaciers were present before Pinedale of regional faunas comes from sites out­ colder. ice arrived about 30,000 yr B.P., or if the side the park. Probably the most impor­ Along with the extinction oflarge mam­ climate was just too cold and dry for tant ofthese is Natural Trap Cave (east of mals in Wyoming at the end of the last vegetation. the park near the Montana-Wyoming glaciation, mammoths, mastodons, cam- Several late Pinedale-age sites in the border), where sediments have preserved Yellowstone area have provided pollen bones characteristicoflate Pinedale times, Imagine thJfauna ofthe African assemblages that have been studied by dated from 21,000 to 11,000 yr B.P. s~v,annah~f?Sporte~ (0 a coqfer..; Among these remains, Miles Gilbert and Richard Baker and Cathy Whitlock. cliI_nate: N~i'.\]iAm~~~an, chee¼1:sC Blacktail Pond, which lies at just over Larry Martin (1984) have identified ex­ and lions in.place ofAfrican ones. 2,000 m (6,560 ft) near the northern park tinct animals (dire wolf, short-faced bear, Columbian',IJiarrn:noths instead of · · boundary, was deglaciated about 14,500 American lion, American cheetah, mam­ African elephants. Short-faced yr B.P., and the pond sediments began moth, four kinds of North American bears, gr~ywolves, and dire accumulating pollen about 14,000 yr B .P. horses, American camel, woodland musk­ wolves hul:lted camels, musk­ The oldest pollen assemblages indicate ox, and extinct species of bighorn sheep, OXen, andiflllenca:n 'horses, as that tundra vegetation gave way to spruce bison, and pine marten); species no longer well as antelope and bison. parkland by about 12,800 yr B.P. The native to the area (collared lemming and .. . . Blacktail Pond region supported only Arctic hare); and many mammals still spruce parkland in the early part of the found in northwestern Wyoming (ante­ els, giant sloths, and many other species late glacial warming, while the vegeta­ lope, gray wolf, cottontail rabbit, chip­ became extinct throughout North tion records from sites farther south, such munk, pocket gopher, and several spe, America. Why did this happen? Although as Buckbean Fen, show moisture-loving cies of rodents). While most ofthe extinct the obvious answer might be that these plants such as dwarf birch, and forests species from these deposits are large cold-adapted animals could not tolerate that included fir and poplar. The late­ mammals, all of the species still present the warm climates of the Holocene, these Pleistocene differences in climate and today are small- to medium-sized ani­ same species and their ancestors had sur­ vegetation between north and south have mals. The region east of Yellowstone was vived a dozen prevfous interglacial peri­ become even more pronounced in recent probably grassland throughout the late ods, at least one of which was probably times. Pleistocene, just as it is today, so it is not substantially warmer than any Holocene The Yellowstone area become forested surprising to find many grazing animals climate. about 12,000 yr B.P. Engelmann spruce in the fossil assemblages. So megafaunal mammals must have was the first conifer to become estab­ However, the variety of animal life been affected by some other <;nviron­ lished in most places, followed by seems to have been far richer in Pinedale mental factor, possibly the arrival of hu­ whitebark pine and lodgepole pine. Pol­ times than it is now. Imagine the fauna of mans. Ecologist Paul Martin coined the len records from northwestern Wyoming the African savannah transported to a phrase "Pleistocene overkill" to describe suggest that Engelmann spruce migrated cooler climate: North American cheetahs how hunting pressure combined with north as ice retreated, at a rate of about and lions in place of African ones. rapid climate change to wipe out most of 200 m (656 ft) per year. All of the conifer Columbian mammoths instead of Afri­ the megafauna on this continent. This species currently found in the park were can elephants. Short-faced bears, gray theory suggests that North American

6 Yellowstone Science megafauna was especially vulnerable to fire-adapted species such as lodgepole reconstructed a history ofclimate change late Pleistocene (Paleoindian) hunters pine, Douglas-fir, and aspen to in the Rocky Mountain region during the because the animals had little natural fear outcompete other species. For example, last 14,500 years, similar to studies I have of humans. who were newcomers on the lodgepole pine cones release their seeds done in the Midwest and the East. To continent then. Because the fossil evi­ when they are heated by forest fires, a determine the climatic tolerances of the dence is spotty, we may never know if the characteristic that ensures a large crop of beetles in the fossil assemblages, I used overkill theory is right. But whatever the seedlings will sprout in recently burned the mean July and mean January tem­ cause of the extinction, we are left with a landscapes, overwhelming those ofother peratures of the 3,186 North American collection of large animals that made it species. Consequently, southern locations where the species presently through the Holocene. If they wore T­ Yellowstone forests were dominated by occur to developed a climate envelope shirts, they'd probably say, "We Sur­ lodgepole pine and Douglas-fir from 9500 for each species. Then I overlapped the vived the Pleistocene-Holocene Transi­ until 5000 ·yr B.P, when they began re­ climate envelopes ofall the species found tion"! ceiving increased moisture and the mod­ in a fossil assemblage to produce a mu­ em closed spruce-fir-pine forest became tual climatic range (MCR) that repre­ Holocene Climates established. sents the climatic conditions suitable for The same atmospheric conditions that the·species in that assemblage. (This tech­ During the last 10,000 years, changing fostered a warm, dry climate in southern nique assumes that the present climatic climates in the Yellowstone region Yellowstone during the early Holocene tolerance range of a species can be ap­ brought about some large-scale changes increased the moisture further north, plied to its Quaternary fossil record, so in regional vegetation (Fig. 5). Today the which supported forests oflodgepole pine, that fossil occurrences of a given species northempart of the park is considerably juniper, and birch from 9500 until 7000 imply a paleoclimate within the same drier and warmer than the highlands to yr B.P. This region, like parts of central range.) The 20 fossil assemblages span the south. This is easily appreciated in and eastern Wyoming, apparently re­ the interval 14,500-400 yr B.P. Based on late spring, when the southern parts ofthe ceived more precipitation from summer the MCR analysis, the oldest assemblage park are buried under meters of snow monsoons that brought moisture from the reflects full glacial conditions, with esti­ while the Mammoth region is often snow Pacific. Then by about 1600 yr B.P., mated mean January temperatures 27. 7"C free-Yellowstone's "banana belt." But increasing aridity brought about the eco­ (50"F) colder than today, and mean July this has not always been so. Thanks in system we see today: broad parklands of temperatures 9.7"C (17.5'F) colder. This large part to the work of palynologist grasses and sagebrush with Douglas-fir climate is comparable to that estimated Cathy Whitlock, we have come to under­ and lodgepole pines on moister hillsides. from an Illinois assemblage, which was stand how topographic differences have dated at 21,500 yr B .P. affected regional environments. During Fossil Beetle Evidence Assemblages dating 13,200 yr B.P. and the early Holocene (9500-7000 yr B.P.), 12,800 yr B.P. signaled that late Pleis­ northern Yellowstone's climate was wet­ Beetles are the largest group of organ: tocene warming in the Rocky Mountains ter than today, while the southern region isms on earth, with more than one million was rapid and intense. The MCR recon­ was warmer and drier. known species. Their hardened carapaces structions indicate summer temperatures Fluctuations in the amount of incom­ (exoskeletons) preserve well in lake sedi­ well above full glacial levels and only ing solar radiation (insolation) have been ments, peat bogs, and stream sediments. 2.1 'C (3.8'F) cooler than today, although the primary cause of large-scale changes Studies oftheirfossil remains in the Rocky winter temperatures remained extremely in Earth's climate during the Quaternary Mountain region and elsewhere have cold. The same increase in summer tem­ Period. According to a theory developed shown that beetles are reliable indicatots peratures was found in MCR reconstruc­ in 1938 by Milutin Milankovitch, sum­ of climate change because their ranges tions ofbeetle assemblages from the east­ mer insolation (and consequently sum­ shift in response to regional temperature ern United States dated 12,800 yr B.P. mer temperatures) peaked from about changes. While changes in regional veg­ My MCR estimates show that mean 11,000 to 9000 yr B.P., at the transition etation may take centuries or thousands July temperatures were approaching mod­ between the last glaciation and the early of years, wholesale changes in beetle ern levels by 12,200 yr B.P., and by Holocene, a period when the Yellowstone species composition may occur in a given 10,000 yr B.P. several assemblages indi­ region is estimated to have received 8.5 region within a few years. For the same cate warmer-than-modem mean summer percent more insolation during the sum­ reason, the beetles used in climate change and winter temperatures. The warmest mer and 10 percent less during the winter studies are predators and scavengers; mean July temperatures, which were than it does today. plant-feeding beetles respond more slowly. 5.!'C (9.2°P) warmer than today, were Paleoclimate reconstructions suggest to climate changes because they cannot found in an assemblage dated 9850 yr that this increased summer insolation cre­ become established in new regions until B.P. from La Poudre Pass, Colorado. ated high pressure weather patterns in their host plants are present. Winter temperatures appear to have southern Yellowstone. Relatively warm Using74 beetles species from 20 fossil peaked slightly sooner. and dry conditions tend to increase fire assemblages found in 11 sites from north­ The insect record is practi,ally the only frequency in this region, and enabled ern Montana to central Colorado, I have fossil data from the Rocky Mountain

Fall 1997 7 SUGGESTED READING

Baker, R.G. 1986. Sangamonian and Wisconsinan paleoenvironments of Yellowstone National Park. Geo!. Soc. Amer. Bull. 97:717-736.

·• Elias, S.A. 1996. Ice-Age history of 0 ------national parks in the Rocky Moun­ .,...... , tains. Washington D.C., ti.: \/ '·-... {\.... ·· ... Smithsonian Inst. Press. 170pp. ii.. '! '···,.-..1 ·1' .,, Elias, S.A. 1996. Late Pleistocene and H;olocene seasonal temp~ra­ tures reconstructed froin fossil

73910111i1$1C beetle' assemblages in the Rocky • • • Mountains. Quat. Res., 46:311-318.

Figure 7. Reconstructions ofmean July and mean January temperatures in the Rocky Fritz, W.J. 1985. Roadside geology Mountain region. Shown as departures from modem temperatures at study sites. The · ·Of the,_;;yello\VStone CouD:t:rJ· estimates were derived from fossil beetle data, using mutual climatic range method. ·Mou~~n l'ress;' Miss?ufa.: ·. 149,pp; region to show this degree ofwanning in temperatures remained below modern .. Gilbeit,B.M.;anilb.b~Mariiii,'f984. early postglacial times. The pollen record, levels throughout the mid-Holocene and ,Late pi_~istocen~~f~S-~_i_l~pf~~mra1 although notentirely consistent, indicates persisted in the study region until the last ?{T!ap;~~fe,:_W-Y~~-~gi._:~w~e;_~µ~. ::/,::J:1;iatiq1;UloP:el: O,f .e~Ull6tiqrl. -r~ge_s. ·. that regional vegetation lagged behind 1,000 years. A brief wamung pulse in ·t'. ,:13s..::1l!i;~ P:s':;Mi.ftiii andiR'.G. both summer and winter temperatures postglacial climate warming on the order 'f ?-iaeni{lgifs:_:Q:a-~fgrlj~:\E,~ijHc~ihs: of 1,500 to 2,000 years. S.K. Short (1985) was inferred from a 900 yr B.P. assem­ i::·'A PI'ChistoriC:R~~iJ1UiiOn/nrliV~r­ found that the treeline at La Poudre Pass blage. By 400 yr B.P. mean July tempera­ l}fsity Afiiona:Prs~•~r_i!~~~~h~:"-if.!fC. remained below its modem elevation as tures had cooled to near-modem levels late as 6,800 yr B.P. Although I did not while winter temperatures had fallen be­ ' ' P.iercefK.L; 1971,ili'sf6ryafid dy­ attempt to reconstruct past moisture re­ low modern levels. Additional late Ho­ 'na.Iill;~~-' of glaciiti_bn,;i_n)l1_e,_r~efhem gimes from the insect record, it is at least locene insect assemblages are needed to Yello\V_~tone_Na~_o,_?:al~irk_are.i:U.s. ' GeoLSurv. Prof.PaJ>er729'Fi 90pp. partly corroborated by regional glacio­ clarify the timing and intensity ofclimate • • ;- -- • ') _-. y•)- logical data, as well as by the estimated_ changes during the last few thousand ShorlfS.K.,1985;1'alyiiologyofHo­ period of maximum summer insolation. years. {;.o,_Icfr~-~~f~r:9nt Regrettably, despite more than five loceri:e_ sedim~rits_::__ A study in northern Montana indicated Rang_e: vegCt_ii_fibri\: a'.fli:t_r~,eline extensive melting of regional glaciers years of searching I have yet to find a _cha~ges in the;]f1lj~_ipf¾~/to_f_est. · before 12,000 yr B.P. The Yellowstone good Pleistocene insect assemblage in Amef-_foan AsSP.bi~fiOn' :OfiStrati­ Plateau was apparently deglaciated be­ the park that could be used for a climate graphlc Palynofdgists Gont,ipution fore 14,000 yr B.P., and the Park Range change reconstruction. However, Series, 16, 7-30, · · · · ofnorthem Colorado by about 13,800 yr Yellowstone has many lakes, ponds, bogs, B.P. and streams, so it is only a matter of time Sturchio, N.C., I<;::L. l'ietce, _M.T. Murrell, and M,L. Sorey: f994. Ura­ By 9,000 yr B.P., the fossil insect data until the right sort of deposit is found. nium-s_eries ages• of travertines and indicate that summer temperatures, al­ timing of the last ·g1~ciatiOn· 1t1 the though still above modem parameters, northern Yellowstone area; Wyo­ were declining from their early Holocene ming-Montana. Quat. Res. 41:265- peak (Fig. 7). I estimate that mean July Scott Elias is a fellow at the Institute of 277. temperatures were 2.9"C (5.2'F) warmer Arctic and Alpine Research at the Uni­ than modern, and mean January tempera­ versity of Colorado at Boulder. His Whitlock, C. 1993. Postglacial veg­ tures were well below modern levels. book, Ice-Age History ofNational Parks etation and climilte Of G_rartd·Teton The fossil assemblages indicate a in the Rocky Mountains, is the culmina­ and southern YC',l,lo_"."stone National Parks. Ecol. Mori'ogr. 63:173-"198. gradual summercooling trend from 7,800 tion of l 2 years of research. Scott has dug Pleistocene fossils out of ancient to 3,000 yr B.P., with mean July tempera­ Whitlock, C., andP.J. Bartleiri.1993. tures reaching their current levels by about lake beds above treeline in the San Juan Spatial variatioris in Holode"Il.e cli­ 7,000 yr B.P. After 3,000 yr B.P., a Mountains of Colorado and in Glacier matic change m·- ·the Yellowstone re­ progression from warmer-than-modem National Park, Montana, and from bogs gion. Quat. Res. 39:231-238. to cooler-than-modem summers, and back and ponds in Rocky Mountain National to warm again is evident. Mean January Park. 8 Yelloivstone Science Yellowstone Science Interview: Irving Friedman Yellowstone Seen Through Water and Glass A Geologist Shares His Recollections of Discovery and His Concern for the Future of Yellowstone's Geysers

Irving Friedman earned a Ph.D. in Springs to determine whether the deposit a hundred thousand to perhaps half a geochemistry at the University of Chi­ was organically or inorganically depos­ million years but hadn't been precisely cago. His doctoral research was on phase ited, or both, and under what conditions it dated, and there was some question as to equilibria at high temperature and pres­ was deposited. I was also dating some of the validity of the dates. sure; "in other words, things that make the volcanic flows in the park as part of YS: How is obsidian formed, and is it rocks." This was followed by a post­ the Geological Survey's mapping effort. found in ·other places besides doctoral appointment to study the stable We were attempting to apply obsidian Yellowstone? isotope abundance ofnatural materials hydration dating to volcanic glass-ob­ IF: When volcanic flows of rhyolitic in the laboratory ofDr. Harrold Urey in sidian-that is present in many of the composition-that is, magma enriched the Institute for Nuclear Studies. Hired flows. in silicon, sodium, and potassium com­ by the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) in YS: Tell me about the obsidian hydration pared to the more common basalt-is 1952, he worked on mass spectrometry dating technique. Was this method origi­ extruded onto the earth's surface, the and the stable isotopes ofoxygen, hydro­ nally developed to date rocks? outer surface of the flow is chilled, form­ gen, and carbon to study geologic and IF: I and Robert. L. Smith of the Geo­ ing a glass called obsidian. The interior of hydrologic processes. He has a long as­ logical Survey developed the method the flow cools slowly, allowing time for sociation with Yellowstone's geothermal because of our interest in obsidian-vol­ individual crystals of various minerals features and issues. Dr. Friedman was canic glass of rhyolitic composition­ such as quartz and feldspar to form, re­ interviewed for Yellowstone Science in how it formed, and how it reacted with its sulting in a rock called rhyolite, a fine­ March of 1997. environment. This was one of those ser­ grained relative of granite. Obsidian is a YS: What was the purpose of your first endipitous discoveries that we thought glass that resembles bottle glass; it can be work in the park? might be used as a dating tool, particu­ black, brown, and even red, and it con­ IF: I was studying the deposition of larly in Yellowstone, where lava flows tains very little water in its structure. calcium carbonate in Mammoth Hot were thought to vary in age from less than Rhyolitic rocks are found in most places Fall 1997 9 where there has been extensive volcanic Obsidian Cliff in activity-New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Yellowstone Na­ Oregon, Arizona, California, as well as tional Park and a Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Iceland, Tur­ close-up ofobsidian key, New Zealand, and Russia. rock. In many places (but not in Yellowstone), the obsidian is found in close association with another volcanic glass called perlite, which is mined in huge tonnages. Perlite sometimes en­ closes small pieces of obsidian. Both materials have the same chemical com­ position except that perlite has a much higher water content. Perlite is not as transparent as obsidian, and instead of being hard and strong, it is opaque and 3,000 years ago. Ifwater would penetrate friable and made up of thin layers giving into obsidian at a significant rate, you it a pearly luster, hence the name. Al­ should be able to detect it in these arti­ though obsidian typically has less than facts. I was able to convince the curator to 0.3 percent water, perlite has something let me take a few of these obsidian chips in the order of 3, 4, 5 percent water. with me. We cut little slices of some of At one time it was thought that since these chips, ground down the slices until obsidian was certainly a product of vol­ they were thin enough to see through, and canism-it's just a super-cooled rock, if examined them under the microscope. you will-perlite was similarly a primary Sure enough, there was evidence ofwater product of volcanism. In this case, then, penetration into the obsidian: We mea­ duced the surfaces at different times in the magma that produced the perlite must sured the depth of penetration of water the past. For example, at Obsidian Cliff have a high water content. But this was into the obsidian during the 3,000 years the obsidian has some very thick hydra­ contrary to what Bob Smith and I thought, since the surface had been chipped. This tion rinds that correspond to the age ofthe because other evidence indicated that allowed us to determine a rate at which flow, which is about 180,000 years old. these magmas did not have a high water water traveled by diffusion into these But many samples also contained cracks content. Well, where did the water come obsidian artifacts-a rate that proved that having two different hydration thick­ from that is present in perlite? perlite was not a primary product of vul­ nesses which yielded ages that corre­ We thought that there must be some canism, as was obsidian, but that perlite sponded to what we thought was the time explanation other than the fact that perlite might have been formed from obsidian. of the Bull Lake Glaciation and the is originally from a melt of high water Also, we discovered that the rate of pen­ Pinedale Glaciation. content. The only other conclusion would etration of water was easily measured We postulated that these cracks were be that the additional water arrived sec­ and might be used to date geological created by the weight of ice-there was ondarily, after the rock cooled. And if material, such as the Yellowstone rhyo­ 3,000 feet of ice above the Obsidian Cliff that was so, it would indicate that water lite flows, as well as archeological mate­ flow during the Pinedale glacial advance could penetrate into obsidian rather rial. and probably the same amount during the quickly, geologically speaking-in hun­ YS: Did you apply this new dating tech­ earlier Bull Lake advance. That's a lot of dreds of years. This seemed unlikely, and nique to Yellowstone? ice that resulted in lot of pressure on the I looked for proof. IF: In cooperation with several geolo­ obsidian, and it must have caused cracks YS: Does a geologist look for proof only gists, I collected many obsidian samples, to form. Well, as soon as you form a in the rocks, or elsewhere? made thin sections, and examined them crack, water begins to penetrate the crack IF: I remember visiting the Field Mu­ under the microscope. As I expected, and to diffuse into the obsidian itself to seum in Chicago and seeing obsidian they all contained hydration layers of form a hydrated surface. Ifyou had cracks artifacts recovered from earth mounds in various thicknesses, and from the hydra­ formed during the first glaciation (the Ohio---<:eremonial blades and chipped tion thickness we calculated ages of the Bull Lake) and 80,000 years later another obsidian-that had been manufactured volcanic flows. Most ofthese ages agreed similar event causing additional crack­ by ancient people 0f the Mound Builder with those derived by other techniques. ing, you'd see some cracks formed by culture. These mounds had been dated as In addition, U.S. Geologic Survey ge­ one event and some by the second. And approximately 3,000 years old by car­ ologist Kenneth Pierce and I discovered indeed, the dating of the cracks matched bon-14 dating of associated charcoal. It that in some localities, the samples con­ up with the previous estimates of the occurred to me that here is obsidian that tained several different hydration thick­ dates of Pinedale and Bull Lake glacial had been chipped, creating new surfaces nesses, implying that multiple events pro- deposits. That was another interesting IO Yellowstone Science utilization in Yellowstone of obsidian past 3,000 years during which the obsid­ ma! features in the park, particularly the hydration dating. ian hydrated. geysers. YS: Wasn't the cultural resource connec­ One problem is that the present-day YS: Did this start back in the late 1970s tion an important breakthrough, with the temperature may not be exactly the tem­ or early 1980s when there was discussion dating of obsidians quarried in perature it was in the past. However, in about opening up the Island Park area for Yellowstone and traded across the conti­ most places the temperature hasn't geothermal leasing? nent by Native Americans? changed greatly for the past 5,000 years, IF: Yes. it was the time of the Arab oil IF: At the very beginning we depended and the small temperature changes that boycott, oil prices were sky-high, energy on archeologists to provide us with ob­ have occurred are not enough to affect companies were looking for alternate sidian from sites dated by carbon-14 so our results. It's only where you're deal­ energy sources, and geothermal was a big we could get some idea of hydration ing in very ancient (>10,000 years) man­ thing at the time. As an aid to prospecting rates. Later, when the obsidian hydration made objects or older geologic samples for geothermal resources, the U.S. Geo­ technique was developed, archeologists that you have to worry about what the logical Survey was asked to issue a bulle­ really seized on the technique because past temperatures were. In any case, you tin listing the world's geothermal re­ it's relatively cheap and in many parts of have to start from some datum-usually sources. Well, it turns out that the Island the world, particularly Central America, present day-and then estimate what Park area was listed as having the highest archeologists don't have any other dat­ changes might have occurred in the past. potential in the United States, which gen­ able material except obsidian artifacts­ YS: And this complicates dating the erated interest in geothermal exploration often obsidian chips that remain after the human activity. Elaborate on the rela­ in this area. The Forest Service proposed manufacture of knives or points. In the tionship between your geologic investi­ to issue geothermal leases in the area tropics, wood doesn't persist, and there gations and the archeological ones, ifyou adjacent to the west boundary of isn't much to date except artifacts, and will. Yellowstone and issued an Environmen­ the artifacts in many cases are rocks. You IF: My latest effort in the park was with tal Impact Statement (EIS) as required by can often date the time a rock was formed NPS archeologist Ken Cannon, who col­ law before proceeding. At the time, offi­ by geologic processes, but that's not what lected obsidian artifacts from occupation cials in Yellowstone were unaware of the archeologists want to date; they want sites along the shores of Yellowstone these proceedings since notices were not to date the time the rock was fashioned by Lake in areas that may be disturbed be­ sent to them. Just before it was too late to man, not the time that nature fashioned it. cause of road construction. There's a lot respond to the EIS, someone brought it to As a geologist, I'minterested in the latter, of geothermal activity along the lake my attention, as well as to the attention of but the archeologist is interested in the shore-it's probably one reason the Indi­ park officials. I don't know ifit was done former. ans occupied the sites. Obsidian found at with malice and forethought or if it was YS: I understand that you have been these sites would have been exposed to just stupidity. measuring ground temperature in higher temperature, and hydrated at a YS: And you got involved because ofthe Yellowstone. Is this connected with ob­ higher rate, than obsidian collected from park's concern? sidian hydration dating? sites where the ground was not heated IF: Yes. At about the same time, concern IF: Yes. Early on we postulated and geothermally. had been raised in Congress, and Con­ determined that the ground temperature­ Our ground temperature measurements gress asked the Geological Survey to the temperature to which the obsidian will also be useful for archeological ma­ comment on the possibility ofdamage to had been exposed while buried in the terials found in non-hydrothermal areas. thermal resources by geothermal devel­ ground-would have influenced the rate In addition to their use in calculating opment. The request was passed to USGS at which the obsidian hydrated. In the obsidian hydration ages, ground tempera­ geothermal experts who wrote a letter to laboratory we hydrated obsidian at high ture measurements are useful in other the Secretary of Interior who then sent it temperature under controlled conditions, ways. For example, researchers who study to the Senate. The letter pointed out that causing it to hydrate at temperatures from soil formation; they need to know the in all cases where there had been geother­ 95°C to as high as 200'C. In this way we rates of formation of soil-and this is ~al development adjacent to active gey­ determined the rate at which obsidian temperature dependent. In biological stud­ sers-in New Zealand, Iceland, and Ne­ samples from Obsidian Cliff would hy­ ies temperatures are also a factor. Like all vada-the geysers had permanently drate at different temperatures. Ifwe knew research, there are always other uses for ceased erupting. the temperature, we could determine at data than the investigator realizes when However, the letter concluded, they what rate it would hydrate, which then he starts. saw no problem with geothermal devel­ meant that you could actually date things YS: Another piece of work that I know opment adjacent to the park as long as it more precisely. If you had an obsidian you've been involved in is chloride flux was properly monitored and controlled. artifact that an Indian had created and left monitoring. The monitoring was to be carried out buried in the ground for 2,000 or 3,000 IF: Its original aim was to develop a from two wells drilled close to the park years, by measuring the present day tem­ data-base to help protect Yellowstone boundary-between the park and the Is­ perature you'd have a good estimate of Park from oil and gas and geothermal land Park area-to measure the pressure the temperature that existed during the development that could influence the ther- in the wells as an indication of what was Fall 1997 11 going on in the geothermal aquifer. Ifthe in the streams, the ground water, pressure was to fall, further utilization of ",,,they saw no problem with geo­ the aquifer and what the distur­ energy from the geothermal wells would thermal development adjacent to the bance effects might be? be stopped. IF: Thesearesomeofthethings park as long as it was properly Well, I saw the report to Congress and we are learning. The original got mad (I was younger), and I wrote a monitored and controlled ... In short, concept of chloride flux moni­ letter to the Director and sent copies to a we don't know what to monitor, and toring was to protect the park, lot of other people, pointing out how we can't control it, and therefore we but also, it's for research. The impractical this was. I said that the Sur­ shouldn't play Russian roulette with variations in chloride flux over vey didn't have a very good record of the years will allow a better un­ Yellowstone." being able to control development adja­ ------derstanding of the underground cent to anything. system and how it responds to YS: Who ever said government scientists rivers that drain the park-the Falls, magma movement beneath the park, earth­ couldn't disagree! What was the sub­ Madison, Snake, and Yellowstone. There­ quakes, and other tectonic-induced stance of your concerns? fore, if you just monitor the chloride in changes. IF: First, it is difficult to be sure that the these four rivers you can at least deter­ Because of the immediate concerns aquifer being monitored by the two wells mine if the whole system has been dis­ overpotentialdevelopmentatislandPark, is the same aquifer being tapped for en­ turbed by geothermal or other develop­ the first thing we did was to consider the ergy some miles away. Second, we don't ment. thermal features in the Boundary Creek know whatdegree ofpressuredrop would YS: By monitoring, do you mean river area·close to Island Park and the south­ cause damage to Yellowstone's geysers. gauging? western border of the park. In the 1960s, Third, we don't know ifthe natural aqui­ IF: To measure the chloride flux you I had taken a traverse across Boundary fer pressure is a constant. It may vary need two things. You want to end up with Creek to the Bechler River and discov­ from year to year, and in a seismically how many grams or pounds or whatever ered a thermal area-I'm sure people had active area such as Yellowstone, quakes ofchloride come out each year from each seen it, but.it was not on the maps. It's a couldcauseepisodic changes. Thedevel­ river. It is necessary to measure the water small valley with boiling springs and opers could claim that pressure changes, discharge by gauging streamflow on each other thermal features at the headwaters if observed, were not significant. Obvi­ river, and to sample the water for its of Silver Scarf Falls, which are warm. ously, developers with perhaps a billion chloride concentration-the amount of We also discovered other thermal fea­ dollars invested in a geothermal field and chloride in a given volume of water­ tures; in fact, middle Boundary Creek is power plant are not going to quietly fold periodically (about 30 times during the warm enough to bathe in. And I thought their tents and walk away because of a year). The amount ofchloride that leaves we should look at these thermal features, small pressure change in a monitoring per year-the chloride flux-<:an then be with the thought that ifgeothermal devel­ well. In short, we don't know what to calculated for each river, and the sum of opment in Island Park disturbed the monitor, and we can't control it, and the fluxes from the four rivers is the total Yellowstone system, the disturbance therefore we shouldn't play Russian rou­ chloride flux from the park. would first affect these nearby small ther­ lette with Yellowstone. When USGS chemist Dan Norton and mal areas which are not very deep-seated. So I thought of what could done that I began this project, the discharge from We. installed small weirs to measure would cost very little, and might give a the Yellowstone and the Falls was being discharge from several small hot springs database which would be useful in the monitored by the Water Resources Divi­ in this very remote area. There's no easy future in determining that Yellowstone's sion ofthe USGS. The Madison had been way to get in except walking 8 or 10 geothermal system had been disturbed. monitored, butmeasurements had stopped miles. We equipped the weirs with newly The total heat flow from a geothermal the year before. The Snake had been developed electronic monitoring devices system, or portion of it, is one important monitored for a few years in the 1930s that we thought would be able to monitor component in geyser activity (the plumb­ and then stopped due to lack of funding. these springs and store the information, ing system that supplies water is an­ The park provided funding to reactivate so we would only have to go back every other). But it's very difficult to monitor stream gauges on the Snake and Madi­ few months and retrieve the data. The heat flow. A number of people have sug­ son. Later on we thought it'd be useful to system worked for eight months, and gested that monitoring becarried out with monitor the Firehole and Gibbon, which then, as usual, everything quit. It became some constituent that comes up with the separately drained the two most active expensive and impractical to send people heat. Chloride is the one usually chosen thermal areas in the park. several times a month, winter as well as ?ecause it is easy to measure cheaply and I originally thought at least 20 years of summer, to service the equipment. It's a is a conservative constituent. In other baseline data would be necessary. This long hike in the summer, but it's a hell of words, it's something that does not disap­ might not be finished in my lifetime, but a thing to do on skis. It's at least 30 miles pear before you get to measure it. In tbe work could be continued by others. round trip. There's nothing. No shelter. Yellowstone all the chloride that leaves YS: So, do we understand about the We finally got a few thousand dollars the park has to come through four major relationship between the surface waters to go in once a year, in the winter, by 12 Yellowstone Science IF: Yes. We believe this cannot help but affect geysers, which are very sensitive to changes in these things: heat, water, and pressure. YS: Will chloride flux monitoring allow us to be able to detect small changes due to extracting hot water or steam from a geothermal well, and not only detect them, but do so in time to do something about it? IF: That we don't know. There's some doubt that it might. My original thought was that we having nothing to lose. It doesn't cost much, and it gives us a base from which to assess changes caused by earthquakes and the movement ofmagma. It may or may not have use as a warning tool, but in any case, it tells us more about what's going on in the natural system. So from several points of view it should be One of the weirs in the Boundary Creek area of Yellowstone that was continued. YS: What do you think is the biggest equipped with electronic monitoring devices to store information on chlo­ threat to Yellowstone's geologic re­ ride flux that could be retrieved every few months. sources, and what is the biggest geologic research need? helicopter to make a single measurement the chloride concentration was the same. IF: A big threat could still be geothermal, at the time ofminimum flow of 11 springs That threw us for a loop. but the biggest threat is gas and oil extrac­ and streams. That continued for eight Our explanation was that these hot tion. Gas and oil extraction is worse than years and was quite successful. We had springs are tapping a groundwater layer geothermal energy utilization, because the usual close escapes-I almost got that maybe 1,000 feetthickandismixing during geothermal development, nor· killed a few times !-butthese things hap­ with chloride-rich volcanic steam. The mally what you take out of the system is pen. rate of discharge of the spring is influ­ the heat; the extracted water is usually YS: And the results ofwhat you found out enced by the height of the water table pumped back into the ground. But in the from that work? above the spring. During snowmelt the case of gas and oil, you're removing IF: We found that the chloride flux in height of the water table increases, in­ more; you're removing the gas and oil. these small hot springs changed season­ creasing the pressure, which causes an Historically this extraction of material in ally in a surprising manner. The chloride increased flow out ofthe hot spring. How­ oil fields has caused earthquakes and flux went up in the spring and down in the ever, the local water table above the hot · subsidence. Normally, these effects fall. In the past it was assumed that the spring does not mix with thedeeperwater haven't been serious enough to cause chlorideflux, unlike concentration, would that feeds the spring, and therefore the serious concern, particularly in view of be constant; even in the springtime, though chloride concentration in the hot spring the large monetary gains associated with the hot spring discharge increased due to does not change even as the discharge oil development. snowmelt, the snow contains little chlo­ rises during the time of snowmelt. It has been proven that a series of ride, so the chloride flux would not change We recognized a similar pattern in the earthquakes about 35 years ago in Den­ in spite of the increased discharge. If this chloride flux in the major rivers, where ver were caused by pumping liquid waste was how the system worked, the chloride the chloride concentrations change a little down a deep well at the Rocky Mountain concentration in the hot spring discharge because of snowmelt, but the changes Arsenal near the old airport. Denver had should decrease in the springtime, due to were relatively small. Therefore the chlo­ been a seismically quiet area until the presumed dilution, and increase during ride flux in the rivers is also related to the pumping began, which coincided with low water in the fall. Well, it didn't. The height of the water table, which is sea­ the occurrence of swarms of earth­ chloride concentration remained constant; sonal, and it also varies from year to year. quakes-the largest was, I believe, 4.2- it isn't being diluted by snow melt. And in That's one reason that we need 20 years strong enough to rattle the bed and shake the fall, what little water that came out of records to establish a long-term, reli­ the house. A geologist pointed out the had the same chloride concentration as able, data baseline. perfect correlation between the amount the water that discharged during high YS: So, subtle changes in groundwater ofpumping and theearthquakeincidence. flow following snowmelt. No matter how levels and pressure caused by drilling To confirm the relationship between ad­ much water came out of the hot spring, might affect the park's thermal features. dition or removal of subsurface material Fall 1997 13 "We don't even know the extent of the geothermal resource here ... Where are the thermal features? How big are they? How do they change with time, and how are they affected by tectonic events in and near the park?"

and earthquakes, a test was carried out in the recently abandoned Rangely oil field in central Colorado. When pumping was instigated, local earthquakes were gener­ ated; the more they pumped, the greater the earthquakes. Earthquakes are known to be some of the events that cause changes in Yellowstone. We can't control those that "The New World mine occur naturally, but we don't want to situation did one good generate shallow earthquakes closeto the thing: it did mobilize major geysers of Yellowstone. interest and the realization YS: The biggest research need, then, is? IF: We don't evenknow theextent ofthe among people that you can geothermal resource here. Rick affect the park's resources Hutchinson was inventorying these re­ in many ways, not just by sources. He did a damngoodjob, but he's killing off the buffalo or not around to continue it. Where are the the elk ... but by contami­ thermal features? How big are they? How do they change with time, and how are nating them with the they affected by tectonic events in and residue from mining and Above top: Boundary Creek thermal near the park? The inventory needs to be by ruining the geothermal area. Lowerphoto:SilverScaif Falls. continued and expanded. features." Photos courtesy Jennifer Whipple. We need to have a system in place to do continual and better monitoring, not just for geothermal resources but for other components of the Yellowstone system. For example, the fluxes of heavy metals is not known. How much contamination should be initiated to fill the gaps. aspects. The New World mine situation of the park is caused by adjacent mines? YS: Geologists bemoan the fact that did one good thing: it did mobilize inter-, We should be looking at many constitu­ Yellowstone's geothermal curiosities est and the realization among people that ents-copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, to name were the major rea_son the park was cre­ you can affect the park's resources in a few. We need to know more about ated, but because they don't stand up and many ways, not just by killing off the what's happening-arethe fluxes ofthese move across the boundaries and don't buffalo or the elk or whatever, but by and other components increasing, or cause many legal problems, they tend to contaminating them with the residue from changing in various ways? There should receive less attention than do animals, mining and by ruining the geothermal be more geochemical monitoring, other which have more vocal constituencies. features. And that's the only good thing than just chloride flux. IF: That's right.I believe there should be about the New World situation. But we A serious problem in attempting to more discussion ofthe geologic resource need to take advantage of the public con­ protect the park is the lack of basic de­ issues. I'm sure that this has been done in cern and not let the momentumcreated by tailed geologic knowledge of areas sur­ the biologic sphere, but there needs to be this real danger to the park be dissipated rounding the park. Geologic mapping more consideration given to the geologic without action. ~ 14 Yellowstone Science Historical Vignettes Striking Similarities: Labor Versus Capital in Yellowstone National Park

The Mammoth Hotel in 1884 afterthe controversial labor strike. Photo by F. Jay Haynes, NPS archives.

by Brit T. Fontenot

By the 1880s, Yellowstone National Park was well known to most Americans as a vacation wonderland, representing a place where the visitor could experience the strange, exciting, and exotic. Early park visitors, mostly eastern elites, regarded a trip through "Wonderland" as a welcome respite from the grit and grime accompanying late nineteenth-century urbanization and industrialization. Travelers envisioned Yellowstone as an island sheltered from the surge of American incorporation, an escape from negative aspects of change. Growing urban po'pulations, increasing corporate monopolization of industry, and recurring labor disputes symbolized the growing pains associated with late nineteenth century industrializing America. Preferred retreats like Yellowstone repre­ sented idealized and romanticized natural places, a refuge from humans and their aforementioned ills. Far from its idealized representation as an untouched wilderness, Yellowstone, even in its infancy, mirrored many cultural and industrial trends simultaneously occurring in Victorian America. In the fall of 1882, attempts to blur the lines between wilderness and civilization began in earnest. In the name of comfort and accessibility, park boosters Carroll T. Hobart, Henry F. Douglass, and Rufus Hatch ofthe Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, began construction of the 250-room National Park Hotel at Mammoth Hot Springs.' An ensuing labor strike by carpenters working on the structure at Mammoth serves as but one example of parallels between Yellowstone National Park and industrializing America. The example buttresses the notion that the park was not, and is not, a sheltered and isolated wilderness standing alone and resisting change. Yellowstone is deeply woven into the complex cultural fabric of our nation and its people.

1 Richard Bartlett, Yellowsrone: A Wilderness Besieged, Tucson, University of Arizona Press, p.129-130.

Fall 1997 15 porate interests. Workers, anxious about autonomy, wage rates, work hours, con­ ditions, and increasing mechanization, communicated their discontent by strik­ ing. For these Americans, strikes "signi­ fied an expression ofworking-class life. " 3 Similar issues confronted workers paf­ ticipating in the National Park Hotel strike in 1884. Second, the strike identified a distinct working-class culture living and laboring within the boundaries ofthe park. Manual laborers erected Yellowstone's infrastruc­ tures. They toiled in order that others might experience comfort and leisure. Problems confronting early park tour­ ism-accessibility and accommoda­ tions-were solved through the sweat of Building ofthe National Hotel, 1883. The Yellowstone Park1mprovement the workers. Yellowstone's laborers built Company began construction of the first Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in the lodgings, graded the roads, tended to 1883, on the site of the present Mammoth Hotel. Designed by L. F. the animals, cleaned, cooked, and per­ Buffington ("the father ofthe modern skyscraper"), this hostelry boasted formed countless other duties for park electric lights, quite a coup for a hotel located so far into the wilderness. It visitors. The park's working class repre­ was initially called the "National Hotel," but the name "Mammoth Hot sented a culture ignored by most people­ Springs Hotel" wasalso in use by the late 1880s. Built in Queen Anne style, one that park promoters like Hobart, it was 414feet long and 54 feet wide with three to four stories and several Douglas, and Hatch attempted to hide wings behind it. One construction workman died after afallfrom a scaffold from view in their efforts to maintain the there, and other workmen took physical possession of the hotel when they illusion ofan untouched, unspoiled, natu­ were not paid and held it hostage for many months. President Arthur ate ral wonderland. For park promoters, the a meal in the new hotel that first year with its roofhalf-finished and open notion of laboring in_ Yellowstone con­ to the sky. Note the "old Gardiner road, "visible at bottom center and right. tradicted the very intent of the park; "for Photo courtesy the Haynes Foundation Collection, Montana Historical the benefit and enjoyment ofthe people. "4 Society, Helena, Montana. Employing this logic, concessionaires and other park boosters planned for Strife between labor and capital was a acteristics ofAmerican incorporation, i.e., completion of the National Park Hotel hallmark ofAmerican industrial progress labor struggles in the National Park Hotel before the arrival of the first guests in the in the late nineteenth and early twentieth strike-something all too familiar to the summerof 1884. Single-mindedconcerus centuries. Yellowstone, however, repre­ remainder of the nation. for the comfort of Yellowstone guests sented a seemingly unlikely place to find The significance of the strike was two proved disastrous for the Yellowstone labor disputes much less qualities of in­ fold. First, it established intersections National Park Improvement Company dustrialization. This is partly due to where between Yellowstone Park and the re­ (Y.N.P.LC.). Failures to recognize the we feel comfortable looking for charac­ mainder of America, dispelling myths of carpenters' plight resulted in severe ten­ teristics of modernization. Attention to wilderness isolated and unaffected by sions between the laborers constructing these issues is more often directed to national trends. During the decade of the the hotel and Y.N.P.LC. management in densely populated, highly monopolized, 1880s thousands of industrial workers Yellows~one. and industrialized urban areas. Typically, throughout America declared authority In late February 1884, 35 carpenters Yellowstone embodies the antithesis of over the processes of production by pro­ employed by the Y.N.P.LC. seized pos­ such places and imagining Yellowstone testing, sometimes violently, the condi­ session of the incomplete National Park National Park associated with American tion of their working-class lives. During Hotel, located at park headquarters in trends of industrialization seems absurd. this decade alone, America witnessed Mammoth Hot Springs. "The carpenters," The challenge, therefore, is to peer be­ almost ten thousand strikes and lock­ reported the Livingston Enterprise, ''as­ neath the surface where the reality is far outs. 2 Yellowstone, too, was affected. serted their rights to the building on the different from the illusion. By 1884, the Generally, strikes broke out in response ground that the work was incomplete and world's first national park exhibited char- to tightening managerial control by cor- had never been turned over to the com-

2 Alan Trachtenberg, The lllcorporalion ofAmerica: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age, New York, Hill and Wang, 1984, p. 89. 3 Ibid. ~Bartlett, Yellowstone, p. 2. 16 Yellowstone Science pany."' Furthermore, the workers ada­ mantly refused to relinquish possession until the Y.N.P.I.C. paid each man, in full, several months worth ofbackwages. In a March 1884 letter, labor spokesman E.C. Kelly complained to Interior Secre­ tary Henry M. Teller of the difficulties faced by the striking men. Until they struck, according to Kelly, the carpenters labored faithfully for eight months with­ out compensation.6 In addition to their economic woes, cold temperatures and food scarcity exacerbated the workers' problems. Despite initial financial backing from the Northern Pacific Railroad, the Y.N.P.I.C.'s coffers were depleted; the company was bankrupt. The concession­ aire operated with a budget deficit for almost an entire year prior to the strike, since June 1883. By striking, the carpen­ Bath house on Hymen Terrace showing National Hotel and Assistant ters claimed the means of production Superintendent G.L. Henderson's house and barn, circa 1884. The long from a company devoid of any working building in the background to the right ofthe hotel was the headquarters capital. Under these conditions, conflict ofthe earliest in-park stagecoach company, established by Wakefield and resolution appeared hopeless. Kelly urged Hoffman in 1883. Note the horse at the hitching post and the carriage Secretary Teller to intervene on the above and to the right ofthe bath house, both ofwhich probably belonged worker's behalf. He pied to Teller for a to G.L. Henderson. Bathing in the hot springs at Mammoth was among the speedy settlement to the labor dispute, first uses of the waters at Mammoth and began as early as 1871, during described by historian Richard Bartlett as the days when hot soaking relieffor the tired and long dirty was considered "one ofthe first sit-down strikes in Ameri­ more important that preservation ofa few hot springs. Hymen Terrace, on 7 can history.'' which stands the bath house here, was an active hot springs area until the For over four months the bereft work­ 1930sandthe site ofa number ofearly bathhouses. Bathing in Yellowstone's ers occupied the shell that was the Na­ hot springs has been prohibited for many years to prevent damage to tional Park Hotel. Reports from the delicate thermal features and as a safety consideration for visitors. Photo Livingston Enterprise described the work­ courtesy the Haynes Foundation Collection, Montana Historical Society, ers as "destitute, being without proper Helena, Montana. clothing to protect them from the cold weather and all are without money ... halfnaked and halfstarved."' Conditions The inability to resolve the conflict to appoint the new company receiver. worsened. Threats of violence and de­ quickly lay mostly in confusions relating Hatch argued that the New Jersey district struction by both parties ensued. Com­ to proper parkjurisdiction. Neither party court should appoint the receiver; Hobart pany representatives threatened to remove knew exactly where to tum for action or and Douglas contended that since the the strikers by force with help from the advice. The disorganized and financially company was located in Wyoming Terri­ U.S. military. Strikers coun/ered with unstable Y.N.P.I.C., chartered under the tory, a Wyoming territorial court should promises of complete destruction of the laws ofNew Jersey, began to crumble. In make the decision.9 The strikers, too, wooden structure by fire if molested in the midst of this confusion, Hobart and were confounded. To emphasize the des­ any way. Each side maintained 24-hour Douglas combined their efforts against perate nature of their situation, striker W. armed vigils, but neither fired shots. their former partner, Hatch, for the power H. Briggle composed a letter to the Presi- suvingston Enterprise, (Livingston, Montana), Feb. 25, 1884. 6 Letter from·E.C. Kelly to Secretary of the Interior Henry M. Teller, March 12, 1884. File microcopies of the records housed in the National Archives of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior Relating to the Yellowstone National Park, 1872-1886; 1883-1884 Letters Received: No. 62, Roll 2. Yellowstone National Park Archives, Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming. 7 8artlett, Yellowstone, p. 146-147. 8 Livingston Enterprise, (Livingston, Montana), March 11, 1884; Livingston Enterprise, (Livingston, Montana), March 17, 1884. 9 8artlett, Yellowstone, p. 149. 10 Letter from W. H. Briggle to the President of the United States Chester Arthur, March 24, 1884. File microcopies of records housed in the National Archives of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior Relating to the Yellowstone National Park, 1872-1886; !883~ I884 Letters Received.: No. 62., Roll 2. Yellowstone National Park Archives, Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming.

Fall 1997 17 dent of the United States, Chester A. The Northern Pacific Arthur. Briggle wrote, "Where can we Railroad heavily pro­ get jurisdiction to force the company into moted Yellowstone a settlement-for the employees are in National Park(as this very needy circumstances."IO No com­ old poster shows)and pany official singlehandedly held the was the initial finan­ power to end the protest, and park regula­ cial backer for the tions concerning issues of jurisdiction building of the Na­ were extremely vague. No one knew who tional Hotel, but the held the authority to arbitrate the strike. Yellowstone National Finally, in June 1884, a Wyoming territo­ Park Improvement rial court appointed the new receiver who Company soon de­ took into their custody the property ofthe pleted those resources struggling Y.N.P.l.C., effectively ending and the company the strike. Under this new management eventually wentbank­ scheme the carpenters received their back ruptafteroperating in pay, and on July 3, 1884, they peacefully the red for an entire returned the hotel to the company. The ye'arpriorto the strike. National Park Hotel opened and received tourists in a state of partial completion. 11 The men held out for their wages for a little over four months, from February 24, 1884, through July 3, 1884. For the carpenters, the first sit-down strike in American history and the first organized labor resistance in Yellowstone National Park was successful. Identification of a strike in Yellowstone Park is extremely telling. Conditions surrounding the Na­ tional Park Hotel strike are exceedingly familiar to other struggles in other, more tural change in America. It is, in fact, a tying Yellowstone into the flow of the urban locations throughout America in dynamic, active, and willing participant cultural current. the late nineteenth and early twentieth in the continual evolution of American Fire and ice shaped the physical char­ centuries. This evidence hardly points culture. The identification of a labor dis­ aeteristics of Yellowstone, but people toward a Yellowstone isolated from pute is but one example bespeaking the created "Wonderland." The mystique of American trends of incorporation and relationships between the park, its work­ Yellowstone was constructed and mar­ industrialization7 uite the opposite. For ers, and American culture. American's keted by those who would use tourism to a brief moment, the National Park Hotel exclusive ideas of nature were summed make a profit. From the beginning, our strike highlighted what was once ob­ up by British literary critic Raymond culture marked the parameters for scured: similarities between Yellowstone Williams when he wrote, "The idea of Yellowstone based on their expectations and urban America. This evidence de­ nature contains, though often unnoticed, of the "Yellowstone Experience." Since clares that the park was home not only to an extraordinary amount of human his­ then, Yellowstone set the standard by elk, bison, eagles, and trout, but also to tory."12 which all other parks are judged. working-class men and women. The Na­ The occurrence of the National Park Yellowstone is indeed the "Crown Jewel" tional Park Hotel strike distinguishes Hotel strike firmly sews the patch that is of America's National Park System. Let Yellowstone's working-class culture, one Yellowstone into the great American quilt, us not forget those who polish the facets, not unlike those of the working-class butforreasons other than simply symbol­ and why. ~ elsewhere in the United States. ism. The strike establishes important in­ What begs contemporary recognition tersection points between Yellowstone Brit Fontenot is a second-year graduate and further study is that Yellowstone and the remainder of America and ex­ student in the Department of History at Park is a part of shifting national and poses the myth of an isolated wilderness. Montana State University-Bozeman. This cultural trends, and to what extent. The strike also positively identifies a article is part of his current master's Yellowstone was not, and is not, an iso­ working-class culture in the park similar thesis research on Yellowstone's work­ lated, silent observer of social and cul- to others in urban America, in essence ing class.

11 Bartlett, Yellowstone, p. 149. 12 William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York, W.W. Norton and Company, !996, p. 25.

18 Yellowstone Science N£WS~1~,--·'J:.l__i,.o_tes______'<~; / :+r"''>\¾-2'!0r Yellowstone Signs Bioprospecting The Yellowstone Experience," held on and recreating in bear country: Agreement October 15, 1997, panelists from the park, Human-caused grizzly mortalities con­ WFED, and conservation organizations tinue to exceed recovery goals set for the joined in discussion of issues with a Uni­ ecosystem's threatened bear population. versity ofUtah law professor and a repre­ But in other ways, it was a good year for sentative of the American Type Culture bears in the park due to continued sanita­ Collection, repository for microbiologi­ tion measures and abundant natural bear cal samples taken from Yellowstone and foods. There were two bear-caused hu­ elsewhere. man injuries reported in the park in 1997, Yellowstone is home to approximately but both were relatively minor. There 10,000 hot springs and other geothermal was only one incident of bear-caused features, more than the rest of the. world · property damage, and two incidents of . combined. To date, less than one percent bears obtaining human food or unsecured of these thermophiles have been scien­ garbage. One black bear was trapped and tifically described. Funds and/or data moved away from a park road or develop­ generated from research activities that ment; another grizzly sow and her,cubs result from this new agreement will ben­ frequented park roadways during early efit the park's program to inventory and summer, requiring rangers to spend a conserve Yellowstone• s di verse re­ significant amount of time monitoring sources. the bears and associated traffic. How­ ever, no bears were removed' from Yellowstone National Park signed an Grizzly Bear Production, Mortalities Yellowstone National Park in 1997. agreement on the nation's first Up Again in 1997 Ironically, biologists believe that more "bioprospecting" arrangement with the bear mortalities and human-bear conflicts Diversa Corporation (a company special­ The greater Yellowstone grizzly bear are partly a result of an increase in the izing in the industrial application of population once again experienced a high grizzly bear population. In 1996, a record biocatalysts, which is headquartered in year for both cub production and mortali­ 33 ·sows produced 70 cubs. In 1997, bi­ San Diego, California) on August 17, ties in 1997. As ofOctober 10, biologists ologists confirmed that at least 31 1997, aftera !25th-anniversary ceremony had documented 13 known grizzly bear unduplicated female bears produced 62 at Mammoth Hot Springs. deaths, 3 of which were natural and 10 of cubs. Family groups include five sows Scientific interest in the park's hot which were human-caused. The latter with one cub each, 21 sows with the spring microbes has increased steadily includeonehuman-food-conditionedbear average two-cub litter, and five sows since the development of DNA finger- · removed by managers and one bear killed with three-cub litters. This year, 42 per­ printing technology in the late 1980s in­ illegally. The rest of the bear mortalities cent of the moi:her grizzlies were seen volving a microorganism called Thermus came, as is often the case, during the inside Yellowstone National Park. aquaticus. Revenues in excess of several autumn hunting season. This year hunt­ The high production and good surviv­ hundred million dollars have been gener­ ers killed eight grizzly bears, and may ability among Yellowstone grizzly bears ated from the use of that technology, have killed two others, during surprise have been sufficient to offset mortality none ofwhich has benefittedY ellowstone encounters during both archery and regu­ levels and result in a gradual increase in National Park. lar big game seasons in Montana and the bear population since 1986, accord­ The new agreement changes that, and Wyoming. While some of these encoun­ ing to published research. allows the Diversa Corporation to con­ ters are inevitable, education can help ductresearch on microorganisms sampled people avoid encounters that may be in­ Limnologist Brian Shero Dies at Yellowstone while pledging a portion jurious to both humans and bears. Infor­ of the company's future profits from such mation presented at workshops on Living Dr. Brian R. Shera, limnologist and research for conservation and the park's in Bear Countly and available in print professor of biology at Medaille College related scientific and public education from national forest, park, _and game and in Buffalo, New York, died on December activities. The agreement was reached fish offices alerts people to recognize 10, 1996, after a year-long illness. Brian with the assistance of World Foundation bear sign and behavior. In close encoun­ had been studying the effects of the 1988 for Environment and Development ters, non-lethal bear repellent has been wildfires on the diatoms of Yellowstone (WFED), an independent non-govern­ very effective in deterring the animals Lake for several years prior to his death, mental organization established to facili­ away from hunters and otherrecreationists and was due to have spent 1996-1997 on tate negotiations in the field of environ­ during surprise encounters. In October, sabbatical completing this important re­ ment and development. Yellowstone ecosystem grizzly bear man­ search. He had also been involved in Ata special workshop on "Biodiversity agers endorsed a campaign to encourage research on the physical, chemical, and and Bioprospecting in the National Parks: people to carry bear spray while working biological properties and features of the Fall 1997 19 Great Lakes and the Buffalo River. Brian disrupted a migration route between Bison "Mugged" for Research was a strong advocate of environmental breeding and winter habitat that was education, and organized aquatic ecol-, heavily used by frogs in the 1950s. More Wildlife handlers from Helicopter ogy workshops for schoolchildren in his recently, the Lodge Creek frog popula­ Wildlife Management in Salt Lake City, home state of New York. Dr. Shera tion, which breeds in a pool in a park Utah, recently used helicopters to ap­ received his Ph.D. in limnology from the horse corral, has had a series ofreproduc­ proach and net-gun bison from the air for University of Wyoming in 1977, and tive failures due to unfavorable weather a new study begun in the park. Specially spent considerable time in Yellowstone conditions and two years of high water trained "muggers" subdued the bison pursuing his interest in the biology and levels at the mouth of the tributary to without the use of chemical immobiliza­ geology of the park's aquatic resources. Yellowstone Lake. The frogs and their tion agents and placed radio collars on the Brian Shera is survived by his wife, breeding pond also appear to be affected captured bovines. The marking of45 bull Marlene, two children, his parents, and when horses trampled and disturbing the and cow bison is aimed at increasing the two brothers. Donations in his memory natural pool-terrestrial interface that is know ledge about seasonal movements of can be made to the Dr. Brian R. Shera crucial to the metamorphosing frogs as bison throughout the park. The five-year Memorial Fund, Medaille College, 18 they emerge from the pool. The research­ research project is being funded by the Agassiz Circle, Buffalo, NY 14214. Con­ ers fear that this population faces local Biological Resources Division ofthe U.S. dolences and kind words of support may extinction and cannot continue to exist Geologic Survey and supervised by Dr. be sent to Mrs. Shera and family at 163 without successful repro_duction and/or Peter Gogan. CrescentAve.,Buffalo,NY 14214-2330. immigration. In July, park rangers worked with Patla to construct a protective fence Livestock-Killing Wolves Removed Researchers Document Decline in around the frogs' breeding pool. Spotted Frogs In the first two years of their return to New Bison Exhibit Attracts Visitors the Yellowstoneecosystem, wolves killed fewer domestic livestock-IO to A new interpretive exhibit, Where the 12 sheep-- than Buffalo Roam, opened to the public on biologists August 1, 1997, at the Canyon Visitor had predicted Center. The exhibit, which contains two in the plan and large dioramas of bison, explores the environmental history and natural history of bison in impact statement Yellowstone as well as controversial bi­ prepared for wolf son management issues. The exhibit is a reintroduction. result of a unique new partnership be­ However, in late tween the Buffalo Bill Historical Center summer and fall of in Cody, Wyoming, and the park's Divi­ 1997, several wolves sion oflnterpretation. Although the long­ were responsible for killing higher num­ term plan for the Canyon Visitor Center bers of sheep, as well as the first cattle is to host a geology exhibit, the bison depredations. Although managers attempt exhibit should be on display for at least 3 to give wolves one ·chance at relocation to 5 years. The area supervisor reported a away from livestock grazing areas after a Since 1991, Deb Palla and Dr. Chuck significant increase in visitors following reported depredation, additional depre­ Peterson of Idaho State University have the opening of the exhibit, which was dations are cause for the offending been studying a population of spotted .designed with assistance from park re­ animal's removal from the population. frogs in the forest and meadows near the source staff And, under the special rules for manag­ Lake developed area. Based on data about ing restored wolves, livestock owners or population size and habitat conditions managers may take immediate action from an intensive study conducted in the . against a wolf caught in the act of stock 1950s, it appears that the population has depredation. declined sharply, from about 1,600-2,000 Two yearling wolves, who had be­ frogs to fewer than 300 frogs in 1995. longed to the Sawtooth pack transferred This long-term decline may be attributed to Yellowstone from northwestern Mon­ largely to human-caused factors, espe­ tana in 1996, were legally shot in separate cially water development at the headwa­ incidents of stock depredation in Idaho ter springs that has caused wetland loss and Montana during June and July. In and possible hydrological changes in ar­ early September, another female eas important to the frog population. In Sawtooth yearling was removed after kill- addition, the highway relocation project

20 Yellowstone Science Ii,._ head of Wyoming's Green River. The store additional abandoned rock and During the summer of 1997, approxi­ rancher who owned the sheep received gravel quarries inside Yellowstone's mately l ,050 non-native lake trout were $4,580 from the Defenders ofWildlife to boundaries. caught in Yellowstone Lake, compared compensate him for his lost livestock. to 786 in !996. Anglers caught 240 ofthe In October, the original alpha female MSU to Host Research Symposium for recorded lake trout, and NPS fisheries from the Nez Perce pack, #27, was elimi­ Yellowstone Anniversary personnel caught another 806 in gill nets. nated after killing two cows west of the More than 450 of the netted fish were park. Six younger wolves-who had been Yellowstone, long an outdoor labora­ spawners; 235 lakers were found at roaming with her were trapped and placed tory for researchers, celebrates its !25th Carrington Island, I 68 came from Breeze temporarily back in a holding pen within anniversary in 1997-1998 with a series of Channel between West Thumb and the Yellowstone National Park. In separate special events. These include a two-week main body ofthe lake, and 80 were caught incidents, the alpha male of the seven­ symposium, to be held May 11-24, 1998, along the southeast shore ofWestThumb. member Washakie pack near Dubois, at Montana State University-Bozeman to Of the six "Judas fish" radio-tagged and Wyoming, was removed for killing cattle commemorate the park's influence on released during 1996, three have been in late October, and another former scholarly research and creative activities. recovered or monitored in West Thumb, Sawtooth wolf was killed for preying on Offering a wide range of activities, the and two of these were in previously dis­ sheep near Nye, Montana. symposium will consist offour scientific covered lake trout spawning areas. None Despite these and other mortalities, the conferences and three workshops, as well of the lake trout radio-tagged and re­ wolf population numbered around 85 as a Greater Yellowstone Film Series, art leased in 1997 have reappeared yet. wolves by late October, including 42 to show, and photographic exhibit. Scien­ The discovery of spawning lake trout 45 adults and 43 pups born into nine tific conferences will run two or three in Breeze Channel and along the south­ packs this past spring. days each and deal with such topics as fire east shore has biologists concerned, but ecology, life in extreme environments, the number of lake trout, especially Abandoned Gravel Quarries Re­ the human role in the park's ecosystem, spawners, being caught continues to re­ claimed and the interplay ofgeology and ecology. duce the overali population by a sizeable Workshops will discuss the greening of though undetermined amount. Unfortu­ NPS resource management guidelines Yellowstone, future biological research, nately, biologists still lack a reliable esti­ call for eliminating adverse impacts as­ and information resources such as com­ mate ofthe number oflake trout that have sociated with abandoned mineral lands puterized data clearinghouses and link­ becomeestablishedin Yellowstone Lake. wheneverpossible. YellowstoneNational ages between federal and local govern­ Biologists from the Idaho Department of Park, with funding and support from the ments. For more information, contact Fish and Game are working on a popula­ Wyoming Department ofEnvironmental Carolyn Manley at (406) 994-5145. tion estimate through the use of Quality's Abandoned Mineral Lands Di­ hydroacoustics; their report is expected vision, recently completed reclamation New Lake Trout Spawning Areas by early 1998. .. of two abandoned gravel quarries for­ Discovered merly used to provide construction mate­ Lake Trout Angler Catches rials in the park. After several years of Yellowstone River planning and discussion involving park Outlet and state personnel, contractors recontoured the Dry Creek and Little Thumb Creek gravel pits to correct drain­ age problems and minimize erosion from the former quarries. Workers also tore up, decompacted, and removed asphalt roads to the quarries, enabling the resto­ ration of wetlands at the Dry Creek site, located north of Craig Pass, and hasten­ ing the restoration of native cutthroat trout spawning habitat in Little Thumb Creek, north of Grant Village. Native trees and grasses were planted in the disturbed earth to discourage exotic veg­ etation infestations. With time, park re­ source managers expect these sites to return to their natural appearance. The 0 2 4miles state of Wyoming is interested in con­ o 2 4 kilometers tinuing the cooperative work to help re- Fall 1997 21