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News at Taylor 
Updated Mid June
2006 Photo Gallery
Student Intern 2006 Photo Gallery
| Student News for Summer 2006 |
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2006 Bleak Undergraduate Wilderness Interns
Holly Tuers, Brad Tucker and Ashley Lange. Intern Photo Gallery
June 10th - Wolf reproduction – Holly Akenson and the 2006 interns (Brad Tucker, Holly Tuers, and Ashley Lange) visited a potential wolf den site of the Golden Pack. The goal of this trip was to determine wolf reproduction for the Golden Wolf Pack and establish a pup count for 2006. Although the natal den was not identified, 3 rendezvous sites were found and 4 wolf pups were observed.
Intern Activities have been very varied, including:
Wilderness Skills: making a bridge with a crosscut saw, using woodworking hand tools for log fence construction, and practicing backcountry horse and mule riding, packing, and low-impact camping techniques.
Research: Participating in ongoing research projects: wolf radio telemetry and reproduction surveys; black bear population monitoring; American dipper capture & handling; installation of fish monitoring equipment; geomorphology land surveys; grassland vegetation sampling; archaeology expedition; stream ecology measurements; tailed frog survey; snorkel surveys and electrofishing; noxious weed survey & eradication; assisting on undergrad research projects on rattlesnakes - including snake handling and habitat plots, and on whitefish - conducting hook & line surveys.
Education: making natural resources presentations and leading group discussions, plant identification and classifying plant communities, GPS and mapping, radio telemetry, mule packing, natural history of Big Creek and the dynamic nature of wilderness.
Three 2006 DeVlieg Undergraduate Research Scholars
Undergraduate Chinook Salmon Research
Dean Holecek (UI) will conduct a research project: "Microhabitat Use and Selection by Age-0 Chinook Salmon in Big Creek". Dean is pursuing a B.S. in Fishery and Wildlife Resources at UI. His advisor is Dr. Brian Kennedy, Asst. Professor, UI Dept. Fish and Wildlife.
Undergraduate Rattlesnake Research
Javan Bauder (UI) will continue his research: "Movement and Habitat Selection of Prairie Rattlesnakes in the Big Creek Drainage". Javan is pursuing a B.S. in Wildlife Resources. He began his field work in August 2005. This summer he will return as a DeVlieg Scholar to monitor 12 telemetry marked rattlesnakes and collect vegetation data. His advisors are Dr. Charles Peterson, Idaho State University, Professor of Herpetology, and Janet Rachlow, UI Asst. Professor, Dept. Fish and Wildlife.
Week of June 19th - Javan is conducting a radio telemetry study on prairie rattlesnake movement and habitat selection. He is looking at movement patterns, distances, and home range size and doing vegetation measurements to look at habitat selection, as well as using track tubes to estimate small mammal abundance. Javan has been at Taylor Ranch several weeks now and has been monitoring daily movements of 12 telemetered snakes, sampling vegetation at snake location sites and has done one set of small mammal sampling. He has also PIT tagged additional rattlesnakes found near Taylor Ranch.
Undergraduate Whitefish Research
Michael Lance (ISU) will conduct a research project: "Ecological Significance of Mountain Whitefish in a Central Idaho Wilderness Stream". Michael is pursuing a B.S. in Fish Ecology and Management at Idaho State University. His advisor is Dr. Colden Baxter, Dept. of Biological Sciences, ISU.
News Week of June 19th - Michael Lance is estimating the biomass, nutrient composition and annual production of mountain whitefish in the Big Creek watershed. He will be utilizing visual snorkeling counts and hook and line surveys. Mike has caught several whitefish and collected otoliths, but is waiting for the Big Creek water level to recede and clear so he can sample more intensively. This week he will sample upper tributaries.
| Research News 2006 |
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Stream Ecology Research
Breeana Jackson (UI) will be continuing her field work at Taylor this summer. Her UI Master's research project is entitled: "Riparia: Influence of Fire on Streamside Vegetation and Riparian-Stream Food Webs in a Wilderness Setting".
Rachel Wilkinson (ISU) will be continuing her field work for her ISU Master's research project: "Aquatic-Terrestrial Connectivity in a Wilderness Watershed: Do emerging Stream Insects Fuel Riparian Feed Webs Following Wildfires?".
Whitebark Pine Research
Dr. Lauren Fins (UI) Professor of Forest Genetics, will continue assessing age structure and health of wilderness whitebark pine stands and occurrence of white pine blister rust. Dr. Fins' research page.
Juvenile Chinook Salmon Survival Modeling
Dr. Brian Kennedy (UI), Asst. Professor Fisheries along with Master's student, Kara Cromwell, will begin a project entitled: "The development and test of a spatially explicit bioenergetics model to identify determinants of survival for juvenile chinook salmon in the Big Creek watershed."
Week of June 19th - Fish research crew – This research group will develop a bioenergetics model of the based on an estimate of energy and food uptake of juvenile salmon in the Big Creek watershed. Graduate student Kara Cromwell, undergrad researcher Dean Holecek, and field assistants Brad Rogers and Trevor Johnson have been snorkel surveying Rush Creek this week. They will shift to sampling upper tributaries of Big Creek. Dr. Brian Kennedy spent several days training the crew.
Geology Mapping
Paul Link (ISU) along with Master's student, Eli Eversole, will be mapping various terrace surfaces along Soldier's Bar and Cabin Creek near Big Creek. Project entitled: "Mapping and Geochronology of Terrace Surfaces Cut in the Goat Creek-Soldier Bar Landslide Complex, Big Creek, Valley County, Central Idaho.
Week of June 19th - Eli will be mapping the geomorphology of the Big Creek drainage. His main research objective is to study the high terraces and create an ancient profile of the river through weathering rinds and surveys. This week Eli visited sites and did land surveys to document terrace elevations and variability.
University of Idaho Fish Monitoring
NOAA Fisheries – Two solar power arrays were erected at Taylor Ranch Field Station to power fish monitoring equipment, which will detect PTT tagged fish to monitor fish movements and migration timing. Six antennas will be placed at each site, and the information from these monitors will go to a national database called PTAGIS. (Steve Achord NOAA Fisheries, Brian Kennedy UI, Jim & Holly Akenson UI)
| Visiting Professionals News 2006 |
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Visiting Professional Program
UI Stream Ecology Class - May
University of Idaho Stream Ecology Class - Jeff Braatne, Asst. Professor Fish and Wildlife Resources, and students flew into TRFS for a weekend field trip to study wilderness stream ecology. Kara Cromwell's report explains the group projects and her reflections of Taylor: Reading Nature at Taylor Ranch Wilderness Research Station, May 2006 by Kara Cromwell.
  
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