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Show I A-14 THE Wed/Thurs/Fri, March 28-30, 2007 The Park Record BIGGEST LITTLE SKI SHOP IN THE WEST CORE SAMPLES By Jay Meehan Nocturnal binoculars Satuday March 3 1 " Through APRIL 8 SKIS, PANTS, PARKAS, SWEATERS TECNICLX O Marmot SALOMON 3698 E. 7000 S., SALT LAKE CITY • 801-943-1104 10th ANNIVERSARY SALE Off Islands Brunswick ho?" it asked. Whoooo? Instantly familiar. your thoughts. And those eyes, with their yellow irisActually the question hadn't been posed in es, stare straight into your heart. As with other owls, they have a remarkable such a manner for 20 years or so but right away, you knew. From the first low-pitched call, the first brief binocular vision that allows them to distinguish even hoot, the lay of the land became evident. You were in the most chameleon-like prey from its nook in the the presence, once again, of a Great Horned Owl. habitat. Their visual perception is stereoscopic. Great Horned Owjs were Hi-Def before High-Def was You were blessed. Actually, the hoot came solo. There was only one. cool! Theirs is a wide-screen world. Not much Certainly not the norm, but sufficient for even a sen- escapes their notice. Wonder what they thought when the " Provo sory-challenged rambler, trespassing upon the Chalet grounds near the northeast corner of the now full- River Project," with its dams and diversions and genpooled Deer Creek Lake, to pinpoint the nocturnal eral all-around desperation, disrupted their comfort zone back in the 1930s. Interrupting their nap was raptor's location. This time, the open space of an empty barn with nothing compared to that. When the Bureau of belfry didn't avail itself. This time, the target perch Reclamation came a-calling, it wasn't like the local was somewhere inside one of the thickly thatched waterfowl could sign a referendum and get it on the conifers standing regal, yet somehow out of place, ballot, or anything. The more things change, the below the lodge. The trees, more than likely trans- more they stay the same. The BOR built planted for effect, proDeer Creek Dam right vided the perfect outon the Provo River, of of-the-way, napping • • There is a sense that he has course, but that really spot for one who wprked the graveyard seen and heard it all. You wouldn't want wasn't enough water to irrigate the Utah and shift. Quietly circling the to cross him. His ear tufts cause you to Salt Lake valleys so tree in question, while think he can hear your thoughts. And they went about grabbing more. The relavisually searching for a silhouette that didn't those eyes, with their yellow irises, stare tively close-by watersheds of the Duchesne belong, brought about straight into your heart." and Weber rivers. tip-toeing and the l - holding of one's breath, • ^ ^ ^ ^ • ^ ^ " ^ ^ • i ^ ^ ™ ^ ^ ™ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ " ^ ^ ^ ^ " appeared to be the most promising. The Tension has a way of owls could fill you in on all of that. mounting when the avoidance of a ready-to-snap, dry What they did was build diversion dams and contwig becomes paramount. Most especially, if one is veyances whereby water could be transported from not breathing. If there was bad karma playing out in that busi- one drainage to another. The Duchesne Diversion ness, it was very much a "ticky-tack" foul. We all Dam, they put up on the North Fork, and then dug a have our peace disrupted at one time or another by six-mile tunnel through the Uintah foothills until the unsuspecting footfall. How could we possibly they hooked up with the Provo along the Mirror deserve penance when it is the "keenness" of the owl Lake Highway near Soapstone Basin. To abscond with the Weber water, they constructitself that drives our curiosity? ed a diversion dam just east of Oakley and, from Certainly, even if one is trespassing, there is an absence of malice involved in the nature of the there, ran a canal nine miles across the Kamas valley vagabond. All that is desired is to marvel in wonder. to a spillway near Francis. Obviously, the Provo There is something about the highly evolved among River rules! The transfer of water rights in the West us that elicits both trepidation and joy -- and it's a is a wonderful sight to behold. Owls know all about it, but then, they can see in the dark. siren's call that is difficult to resist. Time is on their side. They can perch above the So you attempted to bring covertness into play. You crept silently, looking for an interloping form trail that's above the tracks that run alongside Deer among the branches. As if, from that very first hoot, Creek and ponder the evolving landscape and changyou hadn't been in the crosshairs of fierce-looking ing habitat. No doubt they can pinpoint the exact yellow eyes bulging from a hidden head slowly fol- location where the Heber City Council sold out to the lowing you through its neck-twisting, 270-degree big-box baboons and their transparent promise of a better tomorrow. The owls saw it coming. Those deciarc. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. But it had sions were also made in the dark. The owls have been on watch since Etienne to be that tree. Owls of all stripes are known to play hard to get, so you knew it wouldn't give away its Provost and other trappers from General William H. location any time soon. Just relax and search method- Ashley's bunch first dipped their toes in these waters ically - by quadrant, maybe. It was a commitment. back in the 1820s. Then John C. Fremont and his outNo way were you leaving without a yarn of discovery. fit rolled through in 1843 and that led to Brigham and Ahhh! Yes! There he sits - the gender an easy the boys puttin' down stakes and outlining a Provo deduction. In size, the male is the lesser in this world. River plan a few years later. You just know the owls Not a small owl, by any means, but a good few inch- were working overtime in those days. Great Horned Owls are extremely solitary by es shorter than the "grande dame" of the first encounter. As a "favor" to his tightly wound-up neck, nature - courting and mating has just got to involve you continued on around the tree until you were a dating service and, once they decide to proceed, humongous amounts of quite subtle foreplay. If there face-to-face. The dude stared down as if to say, MMy father were any way of doing it by e-mail, they would no looked just like Jack Palance." There is a sense that doubt make that adaptation. But who gives a hoot? he has seen and heard it all. You wouldn't want to Why, the Great Horned Owl, that's whoooooo! They cross him. His ear tufts cause you to think he can hear are nocturnal, and at their very best in the dark. W WRITERS ON THE RANGE By Dan Whipple Wolves have a reputation that's larger than life Fabulous custom 3 bedroom with dramatic views of course & stream from oversized deck and two family rooms. Large kitchen & alder cabinets. Three car garage with extra storage space. Get ready for golf season here. 3418 W. Homestead - $949,900 Mountain & scream views from large deck with hot tub overlooking open space. Eatin kitchen, family room with fireplace. Vaulted ceilings, central air-conditioning, extra storage space, iwo car garage and over 2860 sq. ft. of living space. 2710 Cottage Loop Road in Pinebrook - $599,900 Michael Jacobson cell: 435-655-5252 email: mljl319@aol.com f wrwiw * r m , « „ . . . « » . „ Ken Drummet KELLER WILLIAMS, .'ARK CITY REAL ESTATE f ceil: 435-659-0763 £ m ^ kdnunnfet@msn.COm E ver since he ate Little Red Riding Hood's cally minor." grandma and blew down the houses of twoWhich is not to say wolves have no effect on game thirds of the little pigs, the wolf has been Big and Bad. populations. Each adult wolf kills an average of 22 elk Everyone knows what big teeth he has. a year. There are now about 96 adult wolves in But can those gleaming incisors explain the star- Yellowstone, so they take just over 2,000 elk a year. But the overall impact on population is less than the tling decline of elk herds in the Yellowstone area? Some people think so. Hunters and some wildlife total number would suggest, because research shows managers are howling that the wolf, reintroduced into that wolves often kill prey animalsthat are less likely the ecosystem in 1995, is responsible for the roughly -- for one reason or another -- to contribute to the elk 50 percent decline in the northern Yellowstone elk gene pool in the following year. If the elk population is declining, wolf predation may accelerate the herd. Here are the numbers, as compiled by the decline. If it's growing, they may slow the growth. Northern Yellowstone Cooperative Wildlife One thing is sure: Wolves cause their prey to act Working Group: In December 2006, there were more like wild animals. Elk spend a little more time 6,738 elk on Yellowstone's northern range. This was in cover in the presence of wolves, and are more wary lower than the on open ground. This January 2005 number chivvying around has of 9,545, and it's a other impacts as well: It • • ' Wolves cause their prey to act makes whole lot lower than it harder for more like wild animals. Elk spend a little hunters to find them. the 19,359 elk counted in January 1994, the Oregon State more time in cover in the presence of University year before wolves forestry prowere introduced. wolves, and are more wary on open fessors William Ripple and Robert Beschta Case closed, then. ground... It makes it harder for hunters found that wolves preBefore wolves, nearly to find them." vent elk from spending 20,000 elk; after wolves, less than 7,000. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ too much time in Wolves are obviously a Yellowstone's degraded threat to both elk and the hunters who want to kill stream banks and riparian areas munching on tender elk. saplings, with the result that these areas are recoverBut upon closer examination, that conclusion is ing nicely from years of overgrazing. Ripple and premature at best. "People give wolves these super- Beschta call this situation, unfortunately, "the ecolonatural powers," says Ed Bangs, Yellowstone wolf gy of fear," which may spur wolf advocates to come recovery coordinator. "It's not about reality, and it's up with a happier description. not about wolves. It's about what people think reality Before the federal government brought wolves is and how they perceive wolves." back to Yellowstone, there was one beaver dam in One reality is that the state of Montana deliberate- Yellowstone. Now there are 10, because willows are ly reduced the Yellowstone area elk population by growing better. Beavers have something to eat, issuing a larger number of hunting permits. The state streams are healthier, and we can thank wolves for made that decision because 19,000 elk - or even 9,000 the improvement. - can't be supported by the area. In fact, the Montana The wolf controversy "isn't about wolves or predaelk plan calls for a winter population that's only 3,000 tors," says Bangs. "This is about human values and to 5,000 elk north of the park. what people think they want. People want to reduce Another reality is the climate. In a 2005 paper in elk density by shooting elk, not by having wolves. It's the journal Oikos, Michigan Tech University biologist a social and philosophical question. How much John Vucetich and co-authors found that drought and hunter success is enough? How much do you share hunters killing elk accounted for almost all of the with mountain lions and grizzly bears and wolves? decline in elk in the northern Yellowstone area The questions aren't really biological." For now, at between 1995 and 2004. But they considered hunting least, we can't target wolves as the primary elk killers. much less an impact than drought, estimating that for Blame that old standby, the weather, and Montana every elk shot by hunters, the population declined by hunting policy for baring the bigger teeth. 1.55 elk. Dan Whipple is a contributor to Writers on the "To the extent that harvest and climate largely Range, a service of High Co'untry News in Paonia, account for the decline in elk abundance," they Colo, (hcn.org). He is a writer in the Denver area of wrote, "wolf predation would have been ... numeri- Colorado. i |