SAVE OUR COUNTRYSIDE

On Yellowstone Ecosystem Studies ecological adventures, participants enjoy wilderness vacations while helping to protect

an important American wilderness area. By Monica Michael Willis

Clockwise from top, left: YES Director Bob Crabtree records animal data on a Hewlett-Packard palmtop computer. A citizen-scientist returns a coyote pup to its den after it was captured and radio-tagged. YES participants

set up a remote-triggered jump net, which is used to trap coyotes and foxes for data collection. Using an antenna and a receiver, staff researchers track the movements of radio-collared coyotes.

E cotourism, a snappy term for a fledgling genre of travel, essen­tially refers to

vacations-whether exploring Lake Baikal in Russian Asia, hik­ing in a rain forest, or sightseeing by boat in the Florida Ever­glades-that celebrate as well as revolve around nature. Legiti­mate ecotourism ven­tures dictate that both the trips' purveyors and participants be­have responsibly and respectfully toward the ecosystems they

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF AND ALEXA HENRY

are exploring, conserving the natural re­sources of the locales for the next visitors.

Last August, I had the opportunity to visit Montana and Wyoming and learn

------------ -----------, about Yellowstone

A MOTHER'S DAY BOUQUET In tribute to "mums" everywhere, Gardener's Supply Co. is offering Cottage Garden Bouquets via post for

, Mother's Day, which falls on May 8, this year. The fragrant, fresh-cut flowers-which include peonies, snapdragons, delphiniums, dianthus, purple asters, and other garden varieties not typically found in commercial floral arrange-

ments-are in most cases cultivated by growers dedicated to sustainable agricultural practices. Bouquets are available in large (10 to 14 stems; $39.95) and extra-large (20 to 24 stems; $49.95) sizes; overnight

delivery is included. All orders must be received by 10 P.M. on May 2 to ensure delivery before Mother's Day.

To order, call (800) 727-7755. Supplies are limited.

Ecosystem Studies, a unique ecotourism organization that combines wilderness adventures with hands-on biological field research and state-of-the-art scien­tific technology. A nonprofit program based in Bozeman, Mont., YES was founded in 1992 by Bob Crabtree, an ad­

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SAVE OUR COUNTRYSIDE Continued from page 27

junct assistant professor of biology at Montana State University. Dr. Crabtree, a wildlife ecologist, was searching for a way to do long-term scientific research that would answer specific questions posed by land-management agencies in and around the Yellowstone area. "I knew that if we were going to take care of the environ­ment, we had to study it on a large scale and over a long period of time," he says.

Concerned that he could not accom­plish these goals quickly or efficiently enough within the federal setting or the academic arena, which typically fund field research for two to four years, Dr. Crab­tree decided to start YES. YES brings to­gether U.S. land-management agencies (such as the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service) and academics, stu­dents, biologists, and concerned laypeople in an effort to facilitate long-term scientif­ic research projects.

Yellowstone, established in 1872 as America's first national park, seemed to Dr. Crabtree to be the ideal place to set up the YES program. Yellowstone covers nearly 2 1;4 million acres of land in north­western Wyoming and southern Montana and eastern Idaho and is perhaps one of the most scenic and wildlife-rich areas in North America, perhaps the world.

This summer, YES will be operating five eco-excursions into Yellowstone Na­tional Park and several of the surrounding national forests. Although the trips gener­ally range in length from eight to 13 days, longer excursions can be arranged. The Alpine Lake Survey, one of the program 's most popular excursions, is a backcountry trip that takes place in Montana's Bear­tooth Plateau and is designed to help de­termine whether the conditions of the area's many alpine lakes are good indica­tors of total ecosystem health. On the trip Streams: Lifeline of the Landscape, partic­ipants will examine ecological and man­made disturbances that affect riparian ecosystems. Birds and Boundaries, a backcountry trek, endeavors to determine whether the decline in bird numbers na­tionwide is also evident in Yellowstone. Other trips include Coyote: The Little Wolf, a survey of the park's coyote popu­lation, and Tracking the Grizzly, which will involve viewing bears with spotting scopes and gathering data that will help explain why grizzlies select certain habi­tats and whether humans affect this ursine decision.

On the coyote research trip, for in­stance, a typical day might begin with an early-morning breakfast followed by a three- to seven-mile hike to the coyote den site. You'd tote a day pack with a camera,

Backcountry cabins are frequently used for housing on YES trips.

spotting scopes, a jacket, your lunch, and anything else you might want to bring to the observation site. Once there, you could expect to spend two-hour intervals observ­ing coyotes from nearby hillsides and recording such data as pack size, litter size, and behavioral interaction.

Part of an ongoing five-year study with the National Park Service, the Coyote: the Little Wolf program attempts to quantify the ecological role of the coyote (Canis /a­trans) in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Do coyotes, for instance, form large packs like wolves and prey on large ungulates, and, if left unexploited, will coyotes fill the ecological niche the gray wolf once occupied in the park?

Besides getting extensive training in outdoor and backcountry wilderness skills, YES group members also learn how to use state-of-the-art equipment, includ­ing palmtop computers and global posi­tioning devices, which are used for such things as mapping habitats and matching information from satellite and aerial pho­tography with the actual lay of the land. Radio tracking equipment is also em­ployed to monitor radio-collared coyotes.

Volunteers on the Birds and Boundaries trip will use satellite global positioning devices to map study plots and will also operate portable compact disc players that contain the birdcalls of more than 500 species and will help the volunteers identi­fy birds they can hear but cannot see.

Indeed, the program's high-tech equip­ment makes it possible for participants with little or no scientific background to be of so much value in the field, according to Dr. Crabtree. Much of the program 's technology, including the palmtop com­puters and satellite equipment, is donated by GeoResearch, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based research company. According to Douglas Richardson, president of the company, GeoResearch's newly patented satellite mapping system-called Geo-

Link-can create maps of wherever a re­searcher is walking or driving. "GeoLink allows the layperson or citizen-scientist with YES to create very accurate mAps and inventories of environmental features automatically. With relatively little train­ing, an individual can be doing really meaningful research-research that in the past would have been prohibitively expen­sive," says Mr. Richardson.

With the aid of such new technologies as GeoLink, YES scientists and volunteers hope eventually to create inventory maps that will record all of the species and habi­tats in the Yellowstone ecosystem. As this long-term inventory project progresses, YES groups will record the information, noting where certain species live and the conditions of the various ecosystems, among other things. The eventual result will be a highly detailed, quantitative data bank that will represent the Yellowstone ecosystem at large. If all goes as planned, this information will facilitate meaningful analysis of proposed activities in the park and will allow researchers to track envi­ronmental trends in the park over time.

YES ecological trips generally involve backpacking and hiking. Some trips, such as the Alpine Lakes Survey, use a back­country campsite as their base; in such cases, food is prepared by a cook and heavier gear is transported by porters. In­tensive training and acclimatization take place the first day or two, and practical outdoor and backcountry skills are taught throughout the course of the expeditions. The minimum age for participation is 17, with no upper-age restriction.

"We think YES excursions can be meaningful and fun vacations, where par­ticipants learn a lot about nature," says Dr. Crabtree. "Anyone can do this if they have the right attitude and enthusiasm."

For more info, write Yellowstone Eco­system Studies, P.O. Box 6640, Bozeman, Mont. 59771 , or call (406) 587-7758. WI

To date, 473,676 trees have been planted in the Country Living National Arbor Day Forest!

30 COUNTRY LIVING MAY 1994