Chasing bison: On the wing

Photo by Jerod A. Merkle

Along with all the hooved creatures we see and record, Prince Albert National Park's west side boasts winged abundance unlike anything I've experienced.  Here's a glimpse of some of what we see flitting through the trees, squawking in the meadows, and fluttering underfoot.

The ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) pictured above inhabits a particular patch of woods along one of the trails we walk nearly every day.  Without fail, that bird (or one of its brood) gives us a heart attack as it drums and flushes loudly, seemingly out from underneath an elbow.  In this particular situation, Jerod managed to sneak up on it without spooking it.

Aurora borealis: When the sun goes down, the lights go up!

Photos by Jerod & Bethann Merkle

I remember, once when I was young, riding back in to town from my grandparents' place on a dark night.  The three miles of highway between our homes ran through the flood plane of the Teton River, and on either side, velvet-black ridges rose up from cottonwood bottoms.  As my mother prudently passed through a gauntlet of willows known to harbor kamikaze deer, we glanced up at the inky ridge to the east.

Above the colorless outline of shrubs and the occasional fence post, we saw glimmers of light.  No one lived up on that hill, so we looked more closely. . . and then the lights danced.

Chasing bison...with visitors in tow

Life here in PANP isn't all work and no play, though it might sound like that if you assessed the experience solely on how much time we spend on the field, reading papers related to the research, entering data, writing up field notes, taking and processing photographs, and planning the next week's work.

Local beef

When we actually take a break from watching bison, we often cross the Sturgeon River which marks the national park boundary and head for a nearby ranch.  The couple who operate the ranch have been welcoming Université Laval students into their home for years now.  Their hospitality and good food have become part of the bison study lore.  

Celebrating International Biodiversity Day in the field

Happy International Biodiversity Day, everyone!

Here's a sampling of some of the biodiversity we've been enjoying in PANP over the past few weeks.  

Photo by Jerod A. Merkle

04 May (JAM/BGM)

• Lakes still frozen (LSF)
• Lots of sandhill cranes!

05 May (JAM/BGM)
*Throughout field notes, meadows will be indicated in parentheses, at the end of each observation.  For example, two red tail hawks (Long mdw).

Chasing bison: Smokin' grass

In the grand scheme of things, most prairies and forests in western North America historically burned far more often than they do today.  The nutrient cycling, clearing of young trees, and other disturbances caused by these fires are essential elements of many ecosystems.  In Prince Albert National Park, two species - a plant and a large mammal - are key drivers for conservation planning.  They are the reason the park sets fires each year.  

On May 9th, several meadows within our study area were burned, as part of the park's prescribed fire regime.  I was invited along to document the burns, which were carefully controlled, deliberate, methodical, and yet still managed to offer a few surprises.

Snapshot: Sturgeon Crossing Station

It's been a little while since we posted, with good reason. We've been criss-crossing the country (photos coming eventually), and getting ready for a cross-country road trip. I'm working for Jerod on his bison study this summer, which is based in Saskatchewan.

We spent the past three days on the road, en route from Quebec City to SK.  Yesterday evening, we arrived at the cabin in Prince Albert National Park where we'll spend the next three months. The wildlife of the park gave us a fine welcome.

Hotcakes, griddle cakes & flapjacks, oh my!

Around this time last year, my dear husband decided to try something new.  He didn't pick up a new instrument, and he didn't sign up for the gym or start a new career.  He decided to do away with pancakes.  This was epic news, coming from someone for whom pancakes are a breakfast and brunch staple.  

The pancakes were replaced by crêpes, which offered a new level of fun and creativity.  You'd have a hard time talking me into drizzling balsamic vinegar on a pancake.  Yet, somehow it seems perfectly reasonable coupled with micro greens, cheddar cheese, and bacon, all rolled up in a warm crêpe.  A year later, we oscillate between the two, but judging by this Wikipedia entry, we could take an international pancake-based culinary tour and not run out of ideas for quite some time.

Chasing Bison: The Great White North

This is part of a series by Jerod, about his bison research.  All photos are by Jerod, unless noted otherwise.

Read more:  The Approach . Getting to the Edge . The Count . Cohabitants of the forest . What's it all about?  Candid Camera 

One element of my (Jerod's) study is to evaluate if your location on the landscape has an influence on your level of stress.  In other words, are there places on the landscape that stress you out more than others?  This question is important because it provides us a link between behavior (i.e., where animals go) and survival and successful producing young.  For example, if you are stressed out all the time, your digestion efficiency decreases, and if you are a lactating female, you can't produce milk as well either.

Chasing bison: What's it all about?

This is part of a series by Jerod, about his bison research.   This post and most of the photos are by Bethann.

Read more:  The Approach . Getting to the Edge . The Count . Cohabitants of the forest . Candid Camera . The Great White North.

Bison bull (photo by Jerod A. Merkle, 2012)

I had an opportunity to visit Jerod out in Saskatchewan this summer.  In early August, I took a ~4,600-mile road trip, from Quebec City to Prince Albert National Park.  When I arrived, Jerod was just wrapping up his field season, and another team, led by Jerod's labmate Marie Sigaud, was just getting started.  I had a chance to tag along with both teams, and had a great time sketching "bazillions" of dragonflies, frogs, bison, aspen trees, and more.  There were wild berries galore, great food, and fantastic weather.  We even had a respectable thunderstorm one evening!  

Keep reading for photos and sketches from the trip, accompanied by an article I recently published in the QCT about Jerod's study.  The article explains the study in a little more detail, making it a great companion to Jerod's series about his field work.

Trans-Canadian Summer, part I: Saskatchewan

View the full Trans-Canadian Summer series

Tagging along behind a biologist can be great fun.  Despite the looonnnggg drive required to get to Prince Albert National Park, the trip was worth it.  There were lots of highlights of my visit which did not fit into the Chasing Bison series.  So, I've lumped them here, and assure you patient readers that this is the last you'll hear of PANP...for a while.  After all, it's harvest time back here in Quebec, and food, friends, and other adventures will surely require our attention.

Chasing bison: Cohabitants of the Forest

This is part of a series by Jerod, about his bison research.  All photos are by Jerod, unless noted otherwise.

Read more:  The Approach . Getting to the Edge . The Count . What's it all about?  Candid Camera . The Great White North.

Photo by Georges Kedl, a 2011 field assistant

Although bison are the focus of my project, working in Prince Albert National Park can be a spectacular experience for those interested in a variety of animals. Many of the species residing in the park are associated with insects and water. If you eat insects – think animals such as dragonflies, bats, and frogs – you are at home in the park. Specifically, if you enjoy dining on mosquitoes, you can gorge yourself from the beginning of June until the end of August, without a break. Those miserable mosquitos are not the only species to benefit from the thousands of acres of standing water in the park - other species, such as ducks, moose, and other insects find food and shelter in the vegetation growing in this warm stagnant water. As I pass through meadows or sit quietly in them, I come across a variety of wildlife, not limited to just bison. 

Chasing bison in PANP: The Count

This is part of a series by Jerod, about his bison research.  All photos are by Jerod, unless noted otherwise.

Read more:  The Approach . Getting to the Edge . Cohabitants of the forest . What's it all about?  Candid Camera . The Great White North.

The grass in Prince Albert National Park can be quite tall, often obscuring the animals in the meadows. Wolves can rarely see their surroundings when plowing through tall grass. Although bison are the largest North American mammal, when they are in meadows sometimes you can only see the tops of their backs and in some cases you cannot see them at all. In these cases, calves and young animals just disappear. 

Small Town 4th of July

Adapted from article published in the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph (07.11.2012); page 3

I am a small town girl, from a sparsely populated rural area in the West. When my cousins or classmates talk about catching up on life, going back for a visit, or the highlights of growing up in Choteau, Montana, we invariably mention “the Fourth.” It is an iconic holiday for us, though not necessarily how you might expect.

Chasing bison in PANP: Getting to the edge

This is part of a series by Jerod, about his bison research.  All photos are by Jerod, unless noted otherwise.

Read more:  The Approach . The Count . Cohabitants of the forest . What's it all about?  Candid Camera . The Great White North.

There are two unavoidable aspects of the forests in Prince Albert National Park that will slow a person who wishes to hike cross country. The first is water. PANP's underlying geology means that water has no place to go. Although central Saskatchewan receives less than 18 inches of precipitation a year, much of that sits above ground creating the lakes, bogs, swamps and sloughs typical of the area. Most people working in the field wear mud boots, but many times the water and mud are just too deep to navigate. A person can wander for hours in a maze of bogs, trying to find a dry place to continue on a path. 

Chasing bison in PANP: The Approach

This is part of a series by Jerod, about his bison research.  All photos are by Jerod, unless noted otherwise.

Read more: Getting to the Edge . The Count . Cohabitants of the forest . What's it all about?  Candid Camera . The Great White North. 

West Side Road, Prince Albert National Park (PANP)
Photo courtesy of Georges Kedl

As I approach, I can barely find an opening through the trees.  I just dismounted my bike, and I am slowly pushing it towards the meadow, making as little sound as possible.  Before I can make out the shapes of any animals through the thickness of the quaking aspen, I hear the strong soothing grunt of a cow bison.  I carefully turn my head in the direction of the sound, hoping to catch a glimpse – kind of silly because I still cannot see into the meadow. 

Eclipsed

Written by Jerod A. Merkle

My father always said that he was never really that impressed with celestial events.  I tend to agree, however, sometimes looking into the sky can be really impressive.  This evening was quite special, as a partial solar eclipse was happening over "the land of the living skies," Saskatchewan!  Like normal evening weather, we had mostly sunny skies with light clouds moving through.  I managed to get this photo as the sun was just emerging from a cloud, with the poster child tree of southern Prince Albert National Park, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), in the foreground.

Bethann asked how I took the picture without burning my eyes sightless.  I put my thumb over the viewfinder hole, and aimed the camera at the eclipse.  Thanks to the digital display, after the first "blind" shot, I could adjust the focus and orientation of the camera until I got this image.  I'm glad we were far enough west to see it - you couldn't see anything in Quebec, apparently.  In our part of Canada, this solar eclipse was one to not forget.

Jerod

Field Notes from PANP

Dear Mr. Baucus, Mr. Tester & Mr. Rehberg

Hello Mr. Baucus, Mr. Tester & Mr. Rehberg,
I've written you before.  I was born and raised in Choteau, MT, and am still VERY PROUD to be a Montanan.  I tell everyone who asks about where I'm from about what an amazing thing it is to KNOW who our political representatives are - the size of our state means that you probably know who my relatives are, even if you don't know me as an individual.

So, I'm writing you as an identifiable person, based in a network of real people who REALLY CARE about access to REAL information on the internet.  While I realize that SOPA and PIPA sound like a good idea, many hypotheses are proven wrong when tested, and it is very likely that these two would fall into that category.  The potential within these two bills for utterly and irrevocably altering the OPEN AND UNIVERSAL nature of the internet is unacceptable.  Sweeping, grandstanding bills that seek problems, rather than solutions, are NOT the sort that I, nor many Montanans, support.  Censorship is the antithesis of what the internet is for, about, and was meant to be when it was first conceived of.

I do hope you'll keep us all in mind, as we sit here at our computers, using the internet and all its expansive global capacity to reach you, to run our businesses, share our lives with our loved ones around the world., from way out here in MT.  We live our lives with the assumption that the internet is a universal and widely available communication and information network to which we can turn for the truth about nearly anything.  Anything, including your voting records the next time we are doing our research prior to heading to the ballot box.

Yes, I also realize that having control over information and speech in this country has its appeal to some.  However, knowing you are Montanans provides me a bit of comfort, as I write to you encouraging you to OPPOSE SOPA, PIPA and ANY future proposed legislation which could subtly or even inadvertently infringe upon our rights to live and communicate as informed free U.S. and global citizens.  After all, we know you, and we know we can find you and discuss our concerns with you personally, whether in MT or back in Washington, D.C.

I will close by re-iterating that I am one of your constituents, born and raised an engaged member of my community (ies), and I urge you to reject the Internet Blacklist Bills (PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House).  I am deeply concerned by the danger these bills pose to Internet security, free speech online, and innovation.  The Internet Blacklist Legislation is dangerous and short-sighted, and I urge you to join Senator Wyden and other members of Congress, such as Representatives Lofgren, Eshoo and Issa, in opposing it.

Respectfully and candidly,
Bethann G. Merkle
Choteau, MT

"Postcards" from the West

Getting back into the swing of things here in Quebec is keeping us on our toes.  Posts with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (1) photos from Arizona and Montana are in the works, but on hold until a few more work projects are crossed off the list.  Until then, here are a handful of visual treats from the West.  No descriptions, no reminiscences, not a word - just a lot of sky.


Click on any image to see a larger version - click outside the image to return to this post.

(1) The back story on this word actually warrants a quick read.  Check it out on Wikipedia, and you may, as I did, find yourself wishing for a night with the classic Mary Poppins.

Canning Basics

Jars filled with apricot, blackberry & peach jam

It's a lot of work, but the enjoyment and satisfaction felt when you dine on the fruits of that labor are well worth it.  
Although it requires effort, it is not as hard as you might think.  On the other hand, it is not a game to be played sloppily.  Among the potential hazards associated with home food preservation, botulism is the dominant concern.  And it's not something to be toyed with - according to one source, one milligram of the toxin produced by this bacteria can be fatal to humans!  Furthermore, there are evidently no home-tests for botulism, and it does not typically cause visible damage or changes in the canned food product.


Bottom line - home food preservation fans have a serious responsibility to themselves and their dinner guests.  If you are as enthusiastic about this project as we are, please spend some time on the website of the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  This center is part of the Extension Services System (a cooperation of universities across the United States of America), and all their recipes have been lab-tested and adjusted to maximize food safety.  They also discuss in detail projects and procedures that are not recommended.  Even better, their recipes are tasty, simple and can easily be multiplied to meet the scale of your project.

If you are new to canning, we recommend starting with tomatoes, peaches, jam or pickles (read pickles post here)- they are about as easy as it gets.  This is due in part to the fact that high-sugar fruits and high-acid foods (like tomatoes and pickles) do not typically require processing in a pressure canner.  Pressure canners require more up-front investment, more precision, and may be more intimidating if they are your first experience with canning.

Water-bath canner (left); pressure canner (right)

Water-bath canning, on the other hand, is typically a low-cost investment, and is fairly straightforward.  To get started, prowl thrift shops (esp. when it's not harvest season) in search of canning equipment.    For most water-bath projects, you will only need the items pictured*: 

Over the years I have managed to scavenge three canning kettles, each complete with their essential metal "basket" (your jars should not be in direct contact with the kettle or each other), from various 2nd hand stores.  I've also scored piles of good jars - in this case good is not a relative term.  When it comes to canning it is important to use jars made for this purpose.  The "canning lid fits it" test is not good enough, as many commercial jars can be fitted with canning-style lid-and-ring tops.  

There are two factors to consider when selecting jars, both of which point to using only canning jars.  First, if the lids do not fit securely, you risk a poor seal and potential food poisoning.  Second, jars not made for canning may be more likely to break in the canner, causing a disheartening loss of your precious foodstuffs and a parallel sinking sensation of wasted time.


Next, each jar requires a two-part lid consisting of a threaded metal band (or ring) and a NEW self-sealing lid.  Re-use of lids is only acceptable for leftovers or when freezing foods.  A new lid is essential for ensuring food safety when canning.  Just think back to the last time you pried the lid off a jar of something home preserved.  In order to get the lid off, you typically have to bend it, and it remains misshapen ever after.  Without a new lid, you won't get a proper seal.


And, just a hint - when you put a lid and ring on a jar with something hot in it (i.e. jam, etc.), it may make the "pop!" without even being processed in the canner.  Do not be fooled!  Processing is not something to skip - it's not just the seal you need.  You also need the entire contents of the jar exposed to a certain temperature for a certain amount of time, in order to kill potentially harmful bacteria.  So, if you hear it pop, don't stop.  Process it in the canner for the time specified in the recipe, remove the jars to cool, and then do your happy dance when you hear those lids pop.

Finally, decide what you want to make.  If this is actually your absolutely-first-time-ever, make jam.  Jam is HIGH on our list of worthwhile canning projects for a number of reasons:

• It is a high-return value-added project (usually a fraction of the cost of a store bought pint-1/2 pint of organic jam)
• You can control the amount of sugar (if you use universal pectin, such as Pomona's)
• You can make lots of small jars, in contrast to canning whole fruit or tomatoes, when it is more work-efficient to use larger jars.  Small jars make it easier to happily part with your homemade jam - give it away and people RAVE!
• If you are going to go to the trouble, getting more than just canned fruit or veggies for your trouble helps motivate you to do it again.

Good luck!  Bonne chance!  

Have fun!

Handy Links:

• Start here: National Center for Home Food Preservation (link also posted in our Resources page)
• Think canning is old-fashioned?  According to this NPR article, 43% of canners are between 18-34 years old.
• Interesting recipes from "across the pond" - See this BBC link for some highlights from this BBC article.