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When the wolf is at the door (continued)
One study, many contributors
Garrott's on-the-ground research emphasis has paid off. The study that was started on a shoestring has had continuous National Science Foundation funding since 1998 at about $100,000 a year. The National Park Service contributed an average of $30,000 per year for the past decade. The study currently is funded for two more winters, through its 19th year.
Garrott adds that for seven years he has collaborated with a team of earth systems scientists at California State University-Monterey Bay that has about $2 million in grants from NASA. This funding enabled the team to examine the abiotic, or non-biological, attributes of the system -- the snow, geothermals and landscape that strongly influence the big mammals.
Working in the park from mid-November to May, because that is when animals are stressed by winter and predation is the heaviest, Garrott and his crews have had a prominent field presence in the vast wilderness surrounding the three river drainages that make up the headwaters of the Madison River.
Through the years, a large collection of MSU professors, Yellowstone National Park research scientists, Fish, Wildlife and Parks researchers, U.S. Geological Survey research biologists, and graduate and undergraduate students have cycled through the project, working in the field or providing the analytical framework. Many of them have contributed to the book.
The ecological processes that we study in a place like Yellowstone are operating everywhere. All of this Yellowstone science, this large case study, contributes to understanding basic ecological processes across the globe.
-- Bob Garrott |
Writings by Becker and Gower, for instance, join work by Garrott and former MSU students Andy Pils, Dan Bjornlie, Ben Kocar, Rose Jaffe, Adam Messer, Eric Meredith, Eric Bergman, Julie Cunningham and Jason Bruggeman. MSU professors Jay Rotella, Steve Cherry, John Borkowski, Jim Berardinelli, Bill Inskeep and many former technicians also contributed, as well as MSU undergraduates through their fieldwork. The list of additional authors reads like a Yellowstone Who's Who: Doug Smith, P.J. White and Rick Wallen, Yellowstone's wolf and ungulate experts oft quoted in the international media.
"One of the things I'm most proud of is that these aren't all bigwig scientists that have written this book," Garrott said. "Many of the chapters are written by MSU students. We have done something really unique. Students at the beginning of their career have been given an opportunity to contribute in a big way. They went down there and got the job done and contributed substantially to this body of ecological knowledge."
Garrott said park officials and state wildlife groups already use the MSU data to help make decisions for management plans, which was the scientists' intention.
"Natural resource professionals responsible for managing the park are charged with the dual mandate of providing for public enjoyment while ensuring that resources remain unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations" he said. "The success of managers in meeting this challenge is unequivocal, as the park accommodates approximately 3 million visitors annually while still managing nearly 90 percent of the landscape as de facto wilderness."
> Spring 2008 Contents
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