SBSC Weekly Highlights, August 29, 2005
Submitted by Kristin Brown
USGS and Grand Canyon Youth Organization Partnership for Science - Update: Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center's youth-in-science
program was recently highlighted in a front page article in the Flagstaff, Arizona Daily Sun. This is the conclusion of the second year of the partnership with Grand Canyon Youth Inc. (gcyouth.org), a Flagstaff based non-profit organization. This partnership has enabled us to engage 80 high school students on 4 educational science based river trips in the Grand Canyon in the past two years. The students have made a significant contribution to the mission of the USGS and to our organization by collecting valuable scientific data. In the four trips, the youth have collected information on 450 database control points (52% of the total number), searched for archeology control points using historical photographs, conducted maintenance at remote camera locations, documented big horn sheep, bald eagle, golden eagle and red-tail hawk sightings, and emptied sand traps from weather stations monitoring aeolian sand movement at archeology sites. Two trips are planned for next summer. Contact: Carol Fritzinger or Kristin Brown, Flagstaff, Az. (928) 556-7207 or (928) 556-7084.
Media contacts:
USGS researcher David Mattson was interviewed by Michael Milstein of the Oregonian on August 25th regarding cougar population trends and management issues in the West. The State of Oregon is developing a new plan for managing cougars that calls for aggressive measures to reduce cougar numbers near humans and in areas where there are concerns about elk populations. Mattson discussed broad-scale trends in human-cougar conflict, likely causes of these trends, and the intrinsic uncertainties of managing cougar threats to human safety, primarily to provide Milstein with a broader perspective on currently contentious issues in Oregon. Contact: David Mattson, USGS Southwest Biological Science Center; telephone: 928-556-7466 x 245; email: David_Mattson@usgs.gov
USGS researcher David Mattson was interviewed by Theo Stein of the Denver Post on August 23rd regarding a recent proposal to remove Endangered Species Act protections from Yellowstone's grizzly bear population. The interview covered relations between bear foods and demography, emphasizing the role of whitebark pine, as well as foreseeable trends and unpredictable dynamics of the ecosystem. Mattson emphasized the many changes that occurred in Yellowstone's grizzly bear habitat during the last 20 years, all of which were largely unforeseen. Mattson studied habitat relations of Yellowstone's grizzly bears between 1979 and 1993, and has remained involved in data analysis and modeling relevant to management of this population. Contact: David Mattson, USGS Southwest Biological Science Center; telephone: 928-556-7466 x 245; email: David_Mattson@usgs.gov
USGS researcher David Mattson was interviewed on August 22nd by Todd Wilkinson, an independent journalist, about cougar ecology and management issues in the Flagstaff Uplands of Arizona. Mattson is conducting a long-term research project, begun in 2003 and planned to last through 2009, that focuses on behavior of lions in the wildland-urban interface of Flagstaff. The interview covered basic cougar behavior, preliminary results of the research project pertaining to movements and predation, as well as features of the Flagstaff Uplands environment that pose special challenges for mountain lion management. Contact: David Mattson, USGS Southwest Biological Science Center; telephone: 928-556-7466 x 245; email: David_Mattson@usgs.gov
