Day 1

The World's Largest Porch Swing in Hebron, NE

The teachers become the students now. Our Fund for Teachers Fellowship has begun. Day 1 required a 12 drive getting us closer to Wind Cave, the first National Park on our study tour. We couldn't pass up the World's Largest Porch Swing in Hebron, NE or Carhenge in Alliance, NE for a little bit of fun.

Carhenge in Alliance, NE

Today we will take two cave tours and learn about the geological reasons for the unique features in one of the longest caves in the world. We will also want to know if  White Nose Syndrome is affecting the bats at Wind Cave.

What Happens to the "Lucky" Problem Bears?

Mr. Hancock

One of the questions our team will explore in Yellowstone is how humans and bears can share the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem safely. Bears are wild animals and have the potential to be dangerous. We will learn how the Park Service has come to understand that in order to keep humans safe, humans must let bears search for their own food in the wild because if bears get used to human food they may become nuisance bears. Some bears who get used to human food even become aggressive and threatening in order to obtain more human food. Unfortunately, it is often the bear who suffers the consequence. "A fed bear is a dead bear." So educating park visitors is very important. 

The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center is another group who is trying to make sure humans understand how important their own behavior is to their safety and the bear's. It is an AZA accredited Not-for-Profit, wildlife park and educational facility whose primary mission is to provide visitors to the Yellowstone area an opportunity to observe, understand and appreciate grizzly bears and gray wolves. http://www.grizzlydiscoveryctr.com/

Some lucky "problem" bears get to live out their lives in the center. The bears at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center had to be removed from the wild because they were becoming dangerously comfortable around humans. Their stories help share a valuable lesson of how people can take the proper steps to ensure bears stay forever wild.

What Causes the Winds in Wind Cave?

Mr. Hawkins

Barometric pressure, also called air or atmospheric pressure, is the pressure exerted by the weight of air over a given area of Earth's surface. At sea level the air pressure is about 14.72 lbs per square inch. This pressure is measured by an instrument called a barometer.

At sea level (the level of the ocean's surface) gravity is strongest and air pressure is greatest. Because gravity weakens as you go up, air pressure is lower at higher altitudes. However, the barometric pressure at any given location on the earth is constantly changing. Temperature differences lead to pressure differences.Those changes produce winds. Winds will not blow unless there is a pressure difference from one place to another. The greater this difference in pressure the faster the wind.

Because Wind Cave is so large and has a lot of space, it also has an air pressure system. That air pressure system is always working to be equal to the air pressure system on the surface. Air travels from high pressure areas into low pressure areas. This is referred to as cave breathing. High pressure on the surface occurs on cool clear days. Low pressure is associated with storms. This causes the wind to go into the cave on high pressure days and out of the cave on low pressure days or bad weather days.

Barometric airflow through the natural entrance of Wind Cave not only gave the cave its name, but also provides an opportunity for determining the approximate volume or size of the cave passages. Monitoring and recording the barometric airflow through the cave natural entrances help us understand the volume of air in the cave and that can be used to calculate the total volume of cave passage. By using the amount of air that comes from the cave we can determine the volume of space in the cave. At this time we have determined that we have found less than 10% of the cave.

midlandsmoggy, Feb 2012 via Trip Advisor

Fund for Teachers 2013 Study Tour Stats

Mrs. Nordquist

Team name: Our National Parks

Trip length - 15 days

Parks we will visit - Wind Cave National Park, Mt. Rushmore National Monument, Devils Tower National Monument, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park

Google map of the whole trip - link for map of our study tour

Are We Bear Aware?

Mr. Hancock

Sharing the parks we will visit with bears seems scary. However, the Park Service uses education to reduce risk to visitors. So we will become familiar with their advice and heed their warnings, but not let our fear keep us at home. Our team motto is "Know before you go."

Source: National Park Service
Safety Message
Park visitors should be aware that all bears are potentially dangerous. Park regulations require that people stay at least 100 yards from bears (unless safely in your car as a bear moves by). Bears need your concern not your food. It is against the law to feed any park wildlife, especially bears. In areas like Yellowstone National Park where there are very few human-caused bear mortalities, bears will learn that people are not a threat and will tolerate people at close distances. This behavioral response is referred to as habituation. To ensure that you do not put yourself or habituated bears at risk, please follow these guidelines when viewing or photographing roadside bears:
• Do not stop your car in the roadway to view or photograph roadside bears. Park in established turnouts and make sure your car is completely off of the paved roadway.
• Make sure you put your vehicle into park, and engage your parking brake.
• For your safety, view or photograph bears from your vehicle. If you exit your vehicle, stay near your vehicle so that you can get inside if the bear approaches. There is no guarantee of your safety if you stop your vehicle to view bears, especially if you exit your vehicle.
• Avoid being struck by a moving vehicle, do not stand in the roadway while viewing or photographing bears.
• Maintain a safe distance, at least 100 yards from bears.
• Never surround, crowd, approach or follow bears.
• Don’t block the bears line of travel.
• Do not run or make sudden movements, this may cause bears to attack.
• Watch other people in the area, are they putting you in danger?
• Do not feed bears.

How Is Wind Cave Different From Other Caves?

Mr. Hawkins

Wind Cave is known for its length and the maze-like configuration of its passageways. Almost all of the known cave passageways lie beneath a land area of about one mile square making this the most complex maze cave in the world. Few caves are longer than Wind Cave, but none as complex.

Cave Formations

A cave is defined as an opening in the earth large enough to hold a person. Most caves are created when slowly-moving water dissolves, or eats away at limestone rock, creating spaces, caverns, and tunnel-like passages. Wind Cave began developing millions of years ago, but most of the cave forming activity was pretty slow until the uplift of the Black Hills which occurred between 40 and 60 million years ago. This uplift opened fractures in the limestone allowing water to enter the limestone and more cave to form. The waters that made Wind Cave probably sat in the limestone for long periods of time. Water did not flow through the cave like a river. This way the water had plenty of time to dissolve passageways along the many small cracks, developing the complex maze-like pattern that you can see on the cave map.

Wind Cave is quite different from other caves. Instead of stalactites and stalagmites, the cave is decorated with boxwork. Boxwork is a crystalline formation that probably predates the cave. Approximately 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave 

Boxwork Formations

Cave Formations or Speleothems

Caves are home to many interesting features or speleothems. Wind Cave is known for a unique formation call boxwork. In other caves the most common speleothems are stalactites and stalagmites. They form when water drips into the cave leaving behind a little bit of calcite. As each drop falls, more calcite is left behind creating stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and/or dripstone. When the water drips from the cave ceiling a stalactite begins to grow. While stalactites grow from the ceiling, stalagmites are formations that grow up from the ground. When they meet, they form a cave column. In Wind Cave these types of water formations are rare.

Cave Life

Caves are found deep in the earth and are worlds without sunlight. Without sunlight, plants can't grow. So food is carried into caves by either streams or small openings that let organic material wash into it. Wind Cave does not have a river or stream in it so food in is pretty scarce. So life beyond the entrance to the cave is limited to very small organisms such as mites and springtails. Below is a list of the types of life one might find in a cave.

· Trogloxenes - are casual visitors. They will visit a cave for a short period of time but they have to leave the cave to complete their life cycle. Bats are the creatures most people associate with caves. Wind Cave National Park hosts eight species of bats, six of which are cave-dwelling however they are not commonly seen in Wind Cave. Bats are trogloxenes because they must leave the cave to feed.

· Troglobites can spend their whole life in a cave, but they don't need to. Wind Cave has a few salamanders that spend their life in the cave.

· Troglobite are fully adapted to live in a cave. They spend their whole life cycle in a cave. Many do not have eyes or pigment in their skin. In Wind Cave these are the springtails and mites that are found in the far reaches of the cave. 

Who "Discovered" Wind Cave?

Mr. Hawkins

The First Visitors

American Indians of the area have known about the opening to Wind Cave and the winds that move in and out of it for centuries. It is a sacred place for many tribes. Today, we understand that the movement of the wind is related to the difference in atmospheric pressure between the cave and the surface.

Sometimes Windy Opening at Wind Cave

The first person reported to have entered the cave was Charlie Crary in the fall of 1881. He claimed to have left twine to mark his trail, and others entering the cave later found his twine in 1890. J.D. McDonald, a miner, was hired to manage the claim. The mining was unsuccessful, but McDonald and his family realized they could make money by giving cave tours and selling formations from the cave. They filed a homestead claim over the opening and worked on improving a manmade entrance and enlarging passageways for tours.

One of J.D.'s sons, Alvin, spent much of his time exploring and mapping the cave, faithfully keeping a diary and making a map of his findings. On January 23, 1891, Alvin wrote that he had "given up finding the end of Wind Cave".

Feuding 
Meanwhile Peter Folsom had gained control of the mining claim on the cave. Folsom and the Stablers joined forces against the McDonalds in court with both sides trying to prove that the other party had no claim to the cave. In December 1899, the Department of the Interior decided that since no mining nor proper homesteading had taken place, neither party had any legal claim to the cave. In 1901, the land around the cave was withdrawn from homesteading.

A National Park Evolves 
On January 3, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill creating Wind Cave National Park. It was the eighth national park created and the first one created to protect a cave. Wind Cave was the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world. More than 130 miles of explored passages make it one of the world's longest caves.

What Do Grizzly Bears Eat?

"Be a part of the Our National Parks blog." 

Mr. Hancock

Scavenger Hunt Instructions:

• Read the questions below and click on the underlined link. 
• Find the answer to the questions and post the answers in the comment section below. 

Sweet Vetch

Upon den emergence grizzlies will subsist on the root of sweet vetches as they gather their strength. What are the scientific names of these vital grizzly bear food sources? (Big hint: Use Control + F to get a drop down box. Type "sweet vetch" and you won't have to read all 148 pages right now.) 

Bears have been observed feeding on Cutworm Moths exclusively for how many months in the summer?

Montane Vole

That is the family name of the montane vole? ( Don't forget to use Control + F to find the answer quickly.)

What percentage of Yellowstone northern range elk calves are taken as prey each year by grizzly bears, coyotes, black bears and golden eagles?

Bear Facts

"Where grizz endure, you are part of the ecosystem, whether you believe you are or not. You are in nature, the way people used to be. It's enough to make you lose your swagger out there. For some, that will be upsetting; for others, an opportunity to reconnect."

Douglas H. Chadwick True Grizz

Mr. Hancock

Here is some grizzly data from True Grizz by Douglas H. Chadwick which I have been reading in preparation for our trip to Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons this summer.

• Other names: Silver Tip, oso plateado, Bear That Walks Like a Man, Old Ephraim
• Scientific Name: Ursus arctos horribilis 
• General Characteristics: Dished face 
• Weight: From 250 pounds (Rocky Mountain females), to 1,800 pounds (Alaskan males) 
• Length: 6 to 9 feet 
• Claw Length: 3.5 to 4 inches
• Top Speed: 30 to 35 miles per hour with rapid acceleration
• First Time Mothers: age 3 or 4
• Infant Weight at Birth: just 1 to 1.5 pounds
• Litter Size: 2 to 4
• Duration of Mother-Cub Association: 2 or 3 years is usual
• Interval between Births: most often 3
• Longevity: 25 to 30 years
• Intelligence, Emotions, and Sociability: keen, highly developed, semi solitary
• Typical Home Range: Rocky Mountains, males: 200-500 sq. mi. females: 50-300 sq. mi.
• Numbers in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: 400-600. Possibly more.
• They are listed as threatened in the Lower 48 since 1975 under the Endangered Species Act