Sometimes studying wildlife feels a bit like you’re a detective solving a mystery. You’ve got a question that no one really knows the answer to, a whole lot of information that may or may not be relevant, and probably some bureaucracy to navigate. But when solving it means that you might help a critter’s chance Read more about Forensic Ecology — Sam Maher[…]
We were so excited to see several Western Research Fellows present their master’s thesis at the 34th Annual F&ES Research Day on April 20th, 2018. Research Day is an annual research conference for F&ES research Masters and Doctoral students to present original research to their peers and the public. To download the Research Day Program, Read more about Western Research Fellows present at F&ES Research Day 2018[…]
Pretend for a moment that you’re a seal. You’re swimming along, minding your own business, when you hear a killer whale vocalizing nearby. Killer whales eat seals like you! So what do you do? You swim away as fast as you can, right? You’d be right, normally. But there’s something more: killer whales don’t always Read more about Predators and Prey — Adam Eichenwald[…]
Emma Crow-Willard is working on a film set in Montana. Follow along with her and learn about life in a small town. 1/6/18 I landed in Kalispell tonight. Despite spending my entire summer here, I’d never flown into the airport. Looking down from the plane, I could see patches of snow lit up by sparse Read more about Musings on Montana — Emma Crow-Willard[…]
INTERACTIVE MAP GOES LIVE I’m happy to share that my summer fellowship researching human-wildlife conflict has been featured on the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) website. My research this summer examined strategies for reducing conflict betweeen humans and wildlife in the intermountain west. This work cuminated in an interactive map showcasing 20 innovative strategies to reduce Read more about Interactive Map — Ross Donihue[…]
The coolest part of science is when we make mistakes. Seems counterintuitive, right? Why would a mistake be the cool part of science? The thing is, science is designed to catch mistakes. First, “cool” data is automatically suspect. We go over it a million times before ever attempting to publish it, ironing out everything and Read more about Finding Errors in Data — Adam Eichenwald[…]
So I ran into a problem. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’m looking into gyrfalcon predation of ptarmigan in Alaska. So far, my data successfully shows that ptarmigan are avoiding locations where gyrfalcons are densely packed – which makes sense; you wouldn’t beeline to set up camp in a lion’s den. Read more about Wind and the Landscape of Fear — Adam Eichenwald[…]
Following up on his trophic cascades video, Adam Eichenwald explains how he can follow his birds across entire landscapes…with MATH! Fitting that we discuss something as scary as math on the scariest day of the year. Happy Halloween!
So after a long summer and an endless series of blog posts, I’ve realized that I never actually said flat-out what I’ve been up to. Shame on me, really. Talk talk talk without ever actually saying anything…Hey, maybe I should drop science and go into politics. But I think it’s time I finally showed my Read more about 600,000 Cucumber Beetles – Adam Eichenwald[…]
It’s not until you live somewhere like Wyoming that you truly understand what Mark Twain meant when he said “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over”. As the Wyoming summer comes to an end, the grassy, green landscape changes to a crisp gold. The color change of vegetation is not due to low Read more about Where’s the Water in Wyoming – Jessica Swindon[…]
So I’m finally back from Alaska. It’s great to be back home, and I’m enjoying having the use of indoor plumbing. It’s very strange what you miss – I loathe doing dishes, but it’s nice to finally have running water available for cleaning plates. I’m pretty pleased with the way my summer research turned out. Read more about Return to Civilization – Adam Eichenwald[…]
Hello again, it is now my last week in the The Nature Conservancy’s Lander, WY office. Though I am sad to leave such a great office and town, I am proud of what I have accomplished this summer. It has been 11 weeks characterized by climbing steep learning curves and climbing Wyoming mountains. All in Read more about Wrap-Up in Lander, WY – Carli Kierstead[…]
Instream Flows on the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie Over the last two months I’ve been helping piece together a picture of water use on the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River. Water from the Middle Fork irrigates some 11,500 acres of agricultural land in the region around Lander, Wyoming. These diversions support Read more about Instream Flows and Photography for Landscape Monitoring – Austin Rempel[…]
Summer has arrived on the sagebrush steppe of southwest Wyoming! Frosty mornings and spring snows feel far away in the baking, dry heat of long summer days. Soils are drying out and the spring annuals I so enjoyed only a month ago have dried up and blown away. The yellow highlights of mock goldenweed (Stenotus Read more about Infiltration: Summer in Sage Country – Rachel Renne[…]
Nome’s only radio station has ruined other variety stations for me. I mean, in the span of 15 minutes this one small station pumps out a current pop hit, follows up with some Rolling Stones, moves to the top 5 songs from 1957, and finishes up the time slot with an elderly man telling an Read more about Nome FM – Adam Eichenwald[…]