Before attacking journalists, Lynn, maybe you should do some
fact-checking on your own. It seems Solotaroff is not too far off base
-- there certainly seems to be enough proverbial "smoke" to make the
claims you attack him for:
From Scientific American: Lack of food drives human-grizzly
conflicts—and human-grizzly fatalities (http://bit.ly/gEteZB)
From Billings Gazette: Scarce pine nuts leaves Yellowstone grizzlies
hungry, more dangerous (http://bit.ly/eql2yl)
From the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service -- in 2003!: How will the supply
of Whitebark Pine Nuts
affect Grizzlies in Yellowstone? (http://1.usa.gov/gRPLBf)
From National Parks Traveller: Bison, Pine Nuts, Trout and Grizzlies:
Perfect Storm For Yellowstone National Park's Wildlife Managers?
(http://bit.ly/hvimcP)
From Deseret News -- in 2003: Bumper crop of pine nuts for grizzlies
(http://bit.ly/id9v0v)
From Environment360 -- in 2009: Yellowstone’s Grizzly Bears Face
Threats on Two Fronts (http://bit.ly/eeavZx)
From Yellowstone Science -- in 2006: Grizzly Bear Nutrition and Ecology
Studies in Yellowstone National Park (http://bit.ly/dOLbYV)
All this is from the first 10 hits of a Google search on the subject --
all of it supports the notion that loss of important forage may drive
bears into regions where they are more likely to come into contact and
confrontation with humans. If you know of contrary evidence, we'd love
to hear it. Otherwise, your attack on journalism seems driven more by
your own bias than on any actual fault with the work journalists do.
Journalists do NOT have to wait until the scientific community makes up
its mind -- which it almost never does on anything -- before drawing
their own conclusions about an issue. Journalists are supposed to be
independent, too, and sometimes they might (heaven forbid!) come to
different conclusions that scientists will. Nevertheless, what they say
and write should should be based on evidence, or at least on reasonable
inference drawn from available evidence. It appears Solotaroff's
statements are journalistically -- even scientifically -- valid at this
point.
Dave
On 4/17/2011 12:17 PM, Lynn M. Moore wrote:
I heard the NPR interview yesterday and was left angered. I have been a public
radio supporter for many years. NPR has been under attack for presenting
unbalanced coverage. For the first time, I have to agree. The only part of
the interview with Paul Solotaroff that may represent current scientific
hypotheses is the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Ten years of drought in
Wyoming is linked to the pine beetle epidemic, and is a significant departure
from the historical range of variability in this system. The loss of the pine
nuts represents a significant loss of food source to the grizzly. But the
accuracy of the interview stops there.
Paul Solotaroff is speculating about the loss of trout (brook, cutthroat, and
rainbow) numbers. While there may be an effect upon these populations from
climate change, I do not think that scientists have enough data as yet to make
that statement. Most fish research concerning climate change is focused upon
downstream areas where the warming trend is more pronounced.
Anyone who has ever hunted outside of Yellowstone Park knows that for decades, for as
long as managed hunting has occurred, the grizzly bears of Yellowstone Park have learned
the gun shot "dinner bell." The bears have not suddenly learned this behavior
over the last ten years.
Finally, if you read the original "Ghost Park" article by Solotaroff in Men's
Journal, two paragraphs are devoted to the gory details concerning the bear fatalities
last year. Not even the right wing conservative newspapers in Wyoming detailed how Dr.
Evert was killed. He does not seem to mention the fact that bear attacks occur every year
in the Rocky Mountain Region and are largely a result of the bear-human interface.
This interview is a blatant example of why the public questions our science.
If a journalist's job is to fact check using multiple sources, then what
Solotaroff does is not journalism, it is sensationalism. Soltaroff does not
communicate important information to the public and policymakers; what he
communicates is an opinion not fact.
Lynn Moore
Graduate Student
Program in Ecology
University of Wyoming
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