YELLOWSTONE CENTER FOR RESOURCES ANNUAL1 9 9REPORT 9 YELLOWSTONE CENTER FOR RESOURCES 1999 ANNUAL REPORT Yellowstone Sand Verbena Photo by Jennifer Whipple. Yellowstone Center for Resources National Park Service Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming YCR–AR–99 2000 Suggested Citation: Yellowstone Center for Resources. 2000. Yellowstone Center for Resources Annual Report, 1999. National Park Service, Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, YCR–AR–99. ii Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................ iv Part I. Resource Highlights................................................................................ 1 Part II. Cultural Resource Programs ............................................................... 7 Archeology ...................................................................................................... 8 Ethnography .................................................................................................. 11 Historic Roads and Bridges .......................................................................... 14 Historic Buildings and Structures ................................................................. 16 History........................................................................................................... 18 Museum......................................................................................................... 18 National Historic Preservation Act ............................................................... 23 Paleontology ................................................................................................. 24 Partnerships ................................................................................................... 25 Research Library and Archives ..................................................................... 25 Part III. Natural Resource Programs ............................................................. 27 Air, Land, and Water ..................................................................................... 27 Aquatic Resources ........................................................................................ 29 Bears ............................................................................................................. 38 Birds .............................................................................................................. 46 Bison ............................................................................................................. 53 Geology and Geothermal Resources ............................................................. 56 Vegetation ..................................................................................................... 60 Wildlife Management and Monitoring.......................................................... 61 Wolves........................................................................................................... 66 Part IV. Yellowstone Center for Resources and Parkwide Support ............. 71 Spatial Analysis Center ................................................................................. 71 Resource Information.................................................................................... 74 Research Support .......................................................................................... 76 Funding and Personnel .................................................................................. 77 Appendix I. Personnel Roster for 1999 ........................................................... 81 Appendix II. Publications, Reports, and Papers ........................................... 83 iii Introduction The last year of the twentieth century marked the sixth year for the Yellowstone Center for Resources. It was a good year. After securing an improved budget foundation in 1998, continued progress was made toward the conservation of cultural and natural resources through sound science and management. Paleontologists and park staff identified Eocene mammal fossils on Mount Hornaday. Toward the end of the year, Yellowstone at last gained a full-time park archeologist to oversee a growing program devoted to these prehistoric and historic sites, and associated researchers discovered an intact buried hearth along the Madison River. Another new staff specialist with a background in architecture and preserving historic structures joined the cultural resources team. Of cross-disciplin- ary interest was the participation of 100 American Indians in the “Buffalo March” from Rapid City, South Dakota, to Yellowstone to honor and bring attention to the plight of the park’s bison herd, which is the subject of a decade-long effort to produce an interagency management plan. And special funds supported the collection and transcription of oral history interviews on ecological process management, an “experimental management” concept adopted by Yellowstone some 30 years previous and still undergoing an extensive evaluation process. It was another good year for some of the rare or endangered species in the region. Grizzly bear reproduction was fairly high and mortalities were low. Gray wolves continued their recovery throughout the park and beyond. The peregrine falcon was removed from the list of endangered species due to the nation- wide success of recovery efforts; a record 14 eyries were found in the park. But all news was not good, as trumpeter swan populations continued to decline across the tri-state region, the Rocky Mountain population of whooping cranes diminished, several species of native fishes were petitioned for listing as “threatened,” and several other species of concern do not show any promise of population increases. While the park endured seismic shakeups without sufficient geologic staff expertise, we were grateful for the continued cooperation of hundreds of researchers from other government agencies, universities, and private institutes. We sponsored our fifth in a series of science conferences about greater Yellowstone, in which experts from many disciplines shared concerns about the pervasive invasion of exotic organisms and how they threaten native biodiversity. We also produced, with the help of many park employees in other divisions, the State of the Park report—a detailed summary of the status of park resources, programs, and challenges to tackle in the coming century. There is no shortage of work yet to be done. Yet, as we close the twentieth century—the first full century of park management—we take some pride in our small steps toward an improved baseline of information on cultural and natural resources, as well as in their ongoing protection. For more information about specific topics of interest, readers may contact us or investigate the park’s web site at www.nps.gov/yell. John D. Varley Director, Yellowstone Center for Resources iv A seven-meter-tall spire in Bridge Bay. The spire field in Bridge Bay has approximately 12–18 individual spires and was originally discovered in 1997 by scientists at Eastern Oceanics (Dave Lovalvo) and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (Val Klump, principal investigator). Photo courtesy Tony Remsen. Part I. Resource Highlights UNDERWATER SPIRES DISCOVERED IN YELLOWSTONE LAKE Geologists in Yellowstone recently discovered an extraordinary new world of hydrothermal features below Yellowstone Lake. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Eastern Oceanics continued a long-term study of the bottom of Yel- lowstone Lake with new equipment capable of conducting high-resolution bathymetric, seismic reflection, and magnetic mapping surveys. Although only able to intensively map the northern quarter of Yellowstone Lake, they discovered an array of interesting features, including dozens of circular steep-walled depressions from 5 to 800 meters across, and hundreds of pinnacles and spires. The spires occur singularly or in clusters and may be up to 35 meters tall and 50 meters in diameter. The few spire samples studied so far had a light-colored, porous interior mantled with a coating of iron oxide. Laboratory analysis indicates that the spires are chemically composed of amorphous silica; images from a scanning electron microscope reveal that samples contain remains from a broad variety of diatoms and botryoidal and filamentous bacteria. The spires also have trace amounts of heavy metals commonly associated with hydrothermal vents. The formation of both spires and circular depressions is related to deep-seated fluid circulation that occurred over the past 12,000 years and left visible vents on the lake bottom. Other features seen during the survey include recent faults and submerged former shorelines. Though researchers hypothesized that the vent field in Bridge Bay is now inactive, the sheer number of features now known on the Yellowstone Lake bottom suggests very active vent sites, some of which may yet be creating spires and other formations. 2 Resource Highlights YELLOWSTONE HERITAGE AND Rolston from Colorado State University, who ESEARCH ENTER ROGRESSES R C P presented the Aubrey L. The planning process continues for the Haines Lecture; and Dr. Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, a Barry Noon, also from museum and archival collection storage facility. Colorado State, who In 1999, Yellowstone’s request to the National presented the A. Starker Park Service (NPS) Line Item Construction Leopold Lecture. funding program was accepted, and the park is About 150 persons listed to