Yellowstone Wolves

By Vansh Amin

Wolves are a very crucial part of Yellowstone. Did you know that at one point in Yellowstone’s history all the wolves were extinct!?!?  Most people would think that wouldn’t affect anything, but it had a huge impact on the Yellowstone ecosystem. Since the wolves weren’t there, many of the hoofed mammals, like deer and elk, overpopulated. This was the reason people killed the wolves, because they wanted more deer and elk. But it was very bad because the deer and elk eat trees, especially deciduous trees. This destroys riparian habitat for animals like birds, beavers and otters who can’t hide behind trees while resting, drinking or raising their young. Also, the deer and elk would eat all of the food.

The Yellowstone biologists decided to reintroduce wolves in 1995. They couldn’t just bring in some new wolves from anywhere. After 80 years of wolves being gone, they had to find wolves that were used to the habitat and prey found in Yellowstone. That is when they got the idea to bring in wolves from Canada just north of the Montana border where they also hunt elk and bison. The wolves have repopulated Yellowstone and have changed the environment in a good way. Riparian plants and trees like aspen grew back, which brought back the beaver. This benefitted the whole wetland ecosystem and all the species that need that habitat. This is why wolves are a keystone species.

The average wolf pack size is about 10 wolves. They inhabit most of the park. When they are active the most is at dawn and dusk. Many other animals benefit from wolf kills. For example, when wolves kill an elk, ravens and magpies arrive pretty much instantaneously. Coyotes arrive soon after, waiting nearby until the wolves leave. Bears often attempt to chase the wolves away, and are often successful. Another benefit is that the wolves are also keeping the elk population in balance, otherwise the elk would overpopulate and it would mess up the food chain. Also the ravens, magpies, vultures and other scavengers wouldn’t have as many sources of food, and then they would starve and food chain would be even more out of order. Wolves help keep wildlife populations healthy just by hunting and surviving.

Editor’s Note: These student essays were printed as they were provided by Pioneer School and were unedited by Out There. To learn more about the school, visit Pioneerschool.com.

Learning about thermal features, wolves, and more during an Expedition Yellowstone trip. // Photo courtesy Pioneer School.

Every other year, 4^th and 5^th grade students from Pioneer School participate in Expedition Yellowstone, a National Park Service program where school groups get to choose a theme, such as history, ecology, and wildlife for a hands-on learning expedition. Pioneer School is a K-5 accredited, non-profit school for gifted and highly-capable learners in Spokane Valley.

The post Learn About Yellowstone National Park’s Wolves appeared first on Out There Venture.

Artists in Yellowstone—Thomas Moran

By Nyomi Meinhart 

Thomas Moran was born February 12, 1837, in Bolton, England, but he lived to play an important role in American conservation of wild places. At age seven, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and later to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

When Thomas was 16 he began his artistic training in a wood engravers shop. At 18, he left woodworking and began painting. Thomas made illustrations for Scribner’s Magazine, and in fact he found out about the Hayden Expedition through Scribner’s. The Hayden Expedition went to Yellowstone as the first scientific exploration of the area in 1871. Thomas went with another artist, Willaim Henry Jackson, a photographer.

Once in Yellowstone he made sketches of the Gardiner River, Mammoth Hot Springs, Liberty Cap, Tower Fall and The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Once he had a portfolio of sketches and watercolors he went home to fix up his finished paintings. Jackson later wrote, “The wonderful coloring of Moran’s paintings made all the difference.” His art convinced Congress to preserve Yellowstone as our first national park in 1872!

Moran’s 7×12 foot painting of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was purchased by Congress for $10,000. It hung in the White House for many years. Together they helped give America its first national park, and as they did so they became known across the country for their journey and their artwork. We will always remember Thomas Moran as the first person to paint Yellowstone. 

Editor’s Note: These student essays were printed as they were provided by Pioneer School and were unedited by Out There. To learn more about the school, visit Pioneerschool.com.

Every other year, 4^th and 5^th grade students from Pioneer School participate in Expedition Yellowstone, a National Park Service program where school groups get to choose a theme, such as history, ecology, and wildlife for a hands-on learning expedition. Pioneer School is a K-5 accredited, non-profit school for gifted and highly-capable learners in Spokane Valley.

The post Learn About Artists In Yellowstone appeared first on Out There Venture.

Yellowstone’s Thermal Features

By Benson Side, elementary student at Pioneer School

Yellowstone National Park is home to four kinds of weird thermal features. The Earth is hot in Yellowstone because it is an active supervolcano caldera. Yellowstone is where half of the geysers in the world are found! There are approximately 500 geysers in Yellowstone National Park, and that’s a lot.

Geysers are cool (the water is not cool, though). They are activated by pressure and heat in a chamber below the ground. Water that collects there is heated up beyond boiling, which is extremely hot. It’s a big chamber with a little opening, kind of like a teapot. It builds up pressure until it can’t hold the pressure any more, and it goes ka-bluey!!!! There are two types of geysers: cone and fountain geysers. Fountain geysers are practically the same thing as a cone geyser underground. Cone geysers erupt in an upward spout from a mound or cone of sinter rock, but fountain geysers erupt from a hot spring. Fountain geysers look like a pool that has a bomb exploding under the water, if you can picture that.

Yellowstone’s hot springs are an amazing sight. They are beautiful puddles or pools of steaming water that often have colors. Those colors aren’t just for decoration, they are little baby bacteria that can only survive in different temperatures. The bacteria that needs the hottest water is dark blue, the second ring of color is turquoise and the second hottest, the third ring is yellow and is the third hottest, and the fourth ring is the fourth hottest and it is orange. These bacterias are called thermophiles, which means heat-loving. You are not allowed to swim in the hot springs because the oils on your skin will kill the bacteria, which is bad! 

Mud pots are weird and satisfying. They are satisfying because they bubble slowly and make interesting sounds. Mud pots can be stinky because of the hydrosulfide that is dissolved in the water. Mud pots sometimes don’t have much color, but when they do have color they are called paint pots. They get their color from minerals that mix in the mud pots. Fumaroles are vents that steam because of geo-heated water below the surface of Earth’s crust. There is some water deep in the fumarole, which evaporates before it gets to the surface. Fumaroles are found in many sizes. I hope that someday you will go and see the awesome geology at Yellowstone. It is so worth the trip!

Editor’s Note: These student essays were printed as they were provided by Pioneer School and were unedited by Out There. To learn more about the school, visit Pioneerschool.com.

Every other year, 4^th and 5^th grade students from Pioneer School participate in Expedition Yellowstone, a National Park Service program where school groups get to choose a theme, such as history, ecology, and wildlife for a hands-on learning expedition. Pioneer School is a K-5 accredited, non-profit school for gifted and highly-capable learners in Spokane Valley.

The post Learn About Yellowstone’s Thermal Features appeared first on Out There Venture.

Expedition Yellowstone is a National Park Service program where school groups get to choose a theme, such as history, ecology, and wildlife, says Pioneer 4^th and 5^th grade teacher Nicole Bronson. “The kids are outside all day everyday despite the weather,” she says. “I usually start getting them ready for the trip two-to-three months before we go, so by the time of the trip they have a huge wealth of knowledge, and then they get to do field work and there are the hikes and the games that they play. It’s like a capstone trip for my class.”

The Expedition Yellowstone trips and in-class learning at Pioneer cover a wide range of topics that can change from year to year, but one of the main themes Bronson says they always try to touch on is the idea of Yellowstone as a supervolcano. “It’s pretty crazy. It’s this massive bubble of magma down in the ground, the biggest one in the world, actually, and it’s still active. That’s why there are so many hydro-geologic features there.”

Bronson says they also cover the concept of conservation and how it’s been evolving throughout the history of the park. One example she cites is how the bears in the park were once fed and treated like circus animals.

Today, she explains, feeding wildlife is strictly prohibited and bears have returned to their natural food sources, which is much better for the bears, and conflicts with people have decreased too. According to Bronson, getting to view the park’s incredible wildlife is a major highlight of the trips. “Every year we go we see either bears or wolves and other species you don’t often see, like pronghorn, bison, and elk.”

Writing about their Expedition Yellowstone experiences is also a part of the trip. Here are three Pioneer School 4^th and 5^th grade essays from this year’s trip that provide a window into the park’s wildness and unique history and geology through the eyes of students.

“Yellowstone’s Thermal Features” by Benson Side

“Artists in Yellowstone—Thomas Moran” by Nyomi Meinhart

“Yellowstone Wolves” by Vansh Amin

The post Spokane Students Write from the Wilds of Yellowstone appeared first on Out There Venture.

Northeastern Yellowstone National Park is unbelievably wild. A dear friend of mine has taken a group of university students there for a week every summer since 2005. They watch wolves and write. Teeming herds of large mammals, expansive vistas, and the surging power of nature aid these practicing authors. Most writers don’t get a week like this—especially writers like me. 

I am quadriplegic. I am an electric wheelchair user. I can’t get myself a drink, eat, or swipe away marauding insects without assistance. That represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to helping me. Still, I maintain a unique individuality.  

My parents are my caretakers. Helping me join in the Yellowstone experience was something they were more than happy to assist with. They are incredibly supportive of my independent pursuits, even when it means getting up before the sun to wander around the wild. 

On the first day of our Yellowstone experience in June 2017, the early morning gray skies began to lighten as we neared the Lamar Valley. A cow moose running near the river was our first wildlife sighting of the day. She was nervous about something, but we did not see what it might be. The sun was fully up by 6 a.m. as we backed into our parking spot with a view of the hills bordering the northern edge of the valley. 

Other drivers using the turnout heeded our request for extra room on our passenger side so when wolves were sighted I could exit using the wheelchair lift. My experience is that people are generally gracious when they have time to process the needs of others. Setting up viewing scopes for the students was the next order of business. Then we got down to serious scanning. 

I’ve been a successful deer hunter several times over. It seems I have a knack for spotting animals from afar in their natural habitat. This trip taught me there is no way the naked eye can compete with high-powered optics at distances over 2,000 yards. Still, at our first stop I was the first to see three elk along the ridgeline. That was worth something to my ego. 

We sat for an hour and a half before deciding to change locations. Students gathered the gear and we were off. It was not a failure to have to look in more than one place for these cautious canines. Being in the wilderness, begging fate to consider us lucky enough to see wolves outside of cages in a zoo, working to better our odds—it was a thrilling chase.  

Our next stop was a known den site. Turf wars had been recently witnessed there. Onlookers had spied an individual from a neighboring pack sniffing around. Mob style behavior in nature. Very cool.  

A very large, very brown lone animal was spied walking across the hillside half a mile from us. It appeared wallowing in its gait. I was certain it was a grizzly bear. Wolves were the prime objective, but I also wanted to see the single most powerful predator in North America. And there he was, unhurried in his girth. 

Turned out to be a damned buffalo. There was some joshing at my expense. My desires had led me to into an incorrect assumption. This happens to everyone who spends time outdoors, and I consider being teased a rite of passage. My ability to take it in good spirits solidified me as part of the group.  

We found wolves at our third stop. Four vehicles parked at a bathroom pullout quickly turned into 50 or 60. Extra rangers were called in to assist with parking and show folks where to look. Rick, a ranger in the park with over 20 years’ experience, turned into our private guide. He explained the history of each individual wolf we saw. He answered questions and told dry jokes for the better part of 45 minutes. Ranger Rick left quite the impression on our group that day. 

I didn’t even exit the van to use the spotting scope. My friend placed it on the wheelchair lift and dialed it in so all I had to do was place my eye to the lens and enjoy. I did. For 15 minutes, sharing time with others, we watched five wolves lie down and wander around from 2,200 yards away. We were a family. They were a family. It was not life and death thrilling. It was Woody Allen drama. It was incredible for its normalcy. 

Class was scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. Our breakfast had worn off and lunch was calling from the hotel. On the way, we saw a spectacular herd of American Bison. 2,000 members were spread across the valley. Each of them milled around with its own agenda, not bothered by sightseers or their history of being massacred in such collectives. None of them did anything spectacular, but the vision of this traditional Western motif was moving. 

Travis Laurence Naught is an author from Cheney, Washington. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and went on to complete coursework in the sports psychology graduate program at Eastern Washington University. His books include “The Virgin Journals”  (2012) and “Joyride” (2016). 

The post Scanning for Wolves appeared first on Out There Venture.