Articles

Invasive lake trout have rewired Yellowstone's food web

Bears, wolves, elk, birds and more have left the park or altered their behavior thanks to lake trout-induced changes

by Chris Hunt - Thursday, Mar 28th, 2019

A cutthroat trout jumps a rapid on its way upstream to spawn (photo: Pat Clayton / Fish Eye Guy Photography).

The illegal introduction of lake trout into Yellowstone Lake has had a marked impact on the lake's drainage, but also on neighboring basins across the entirety of Yellowstone National Park and surrounding public lands, according to a new scientific report produced by Yellowstone's lead fisheries biologist and a host of researchers who gathered data dating back to the mid-1990s.

Bad cast? Fish it anyway.

Sometimes fishing can be just like horseshoes and hand grenades

by Chris Hunt - Wednesday, Mar 20th, 2019

Photo: Thomas Brimer

My 19-year-old daughter had driven over from her summer gig in the Tetons to chase some native cutthroats with me at our favorite little haunt high in the Caribou Range of eastern Idaho, and the fish were cooperating.

Delaney was using her tenkara rod—she can cast a traditional fly rod, but the tenkara rod is her favorite. It’s simple, packable and generally fool-proof, especially on small water where fly line has a knack for finding overhanging willows and getting caught on rocks and snags at your feet.

Requiem for a peregrine

One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds

by Tom Davis - Tuesday, Mar 19th, 2019

A peregrine falcon soars over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. Peregrines can often thrive in urban environments (photo: MTA).

One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.

—Aldo Leopold

Chemophobia in America: Part II — Brodifacoum

Why would wildlife advocates defend one of the most dangerous pesticides on earth?

by Ted Williams - Thursday, Mar 14th, 2019

Norway rat eradication using brodifacoum on South Georgia Island (photo: Oli Prince).

Few pesticides are more dangerous than brodifacoum, an anticoagulant used on rodents. And few pesticides have been more grossly abused by homeowners and farmers.

Because brodifacoum accumulates in the liver it can kill any bird or mammal that eats the dead or dying rodents. When applied carelessly on the mainland, nontarget victims have included everything from raptors to fishers, cougars, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, wolves, pet cats and pet dogs.

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