The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is actually a large area covering three states, Montana to the North, Idaho to the West and Wyoming to the South. The Yellowstone National Park is unique within this ecosystem because of its geology, it is an old volcano. This study covers just a few aspects of what makes up the GYE. One area of interest is why the bison leave the park during the winter and spring months. The yellow polygons in the map above show areas to the north and west of YNP where bison and elk leave the park. These areas are a cause of concern for ranchers who graze their cattle near the park boundaries during the spring months. One question that comes to mind is; does the snowfall during the spring months make foraging for food difficult enough for the bison, elk and other grazing wildlife to leave the park? This study considers the amount of vegetation that accumulates during the summer months as stored food for these large animals. As the snow melts and re -freezes during the spring does this cause stress on these large mamals as they search for food? Does it also make them want to leave the park?
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometry (AVHRR) satellite images and National Weather Service Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) maps will help evaluate ecology habitat for large animals in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Slide show of project: fam-maps.htm
Project definition and references: fam.htm
Meta Data sources for this project: metadata.htm
Project lesson instructions and lesson questions: lessons.htm
Some other sites of interest
This page was created on September 10, 1999.
Last revised December 2, 1999. RHH
e-mail mailto:ahowe@mail.frii.com