Elk in a field on the Charles Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Flickr photo by by Nathan Jongewaard.

September marks the time of year when lush river bottoms along the Missouri River in north-central Montana are transformed into their annual splendor. In the late afternoon hours on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR), golden light hits the fall colors of the cottonwoods, redosier dogwood, willow and chokecherry, illuminating a unique palette of color that lasts only a few precious weeks.  In addition, hundreds of elk congregate along the fertile river-bottom in the Slippery Ann Elk Viewing Area—a cacophony of bugles and grunts fill the canyon walls into the twilight hours.  With the nearest major city hundreds of miles away, it’s no problem getting front row seats.

What is the Elk Rut?

The elk mating period, widely referred to as the “rut” is a spectacular opportunity to view large herds of male elk bulls aggressively pursuing female elk cows in a ritual courtship.  This annual courtship is photoperiodic, meaning that as the days become shorter in September elk take notice and the cows come into estrus. Large bull elk are on high alert and will often fight to secure a harem of more than 20 cows and spend significant time and energy fending off smaller, inferior bulls.  Since elk shed their antlers every year, the older bulls grow a larger set than the previous year—sometimes growing as fast as an inch per day during the summer and ultimately weighing more than 40 pounds. Using these massive antlers, the dominant bull is able to fend off the lesser competition and gain the opportunity to reproduce.

This video I had the honor to film through a spotting scope while at the CMR.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to Get to the CMR

As the best places often are—traveling to the CMR is difficult and requires a certain degree of planning.  Although massive in size (1.1 million acres) this national wildlife refuge is extremely remote.  Most adventurous travelers drive through Billings, Montana and head north for about 150 miles to where the Missouri River crosses the landscape.  From there, one can follow signs to the refuge towards the east and roll down the windows to listen for bugling elk.  For more information on how to visit this spectacular refuge please contact fischerk@nwf.org.

NWF’s Work on the CMR

NWF has been intimately involved with wildlife and resource issues on the CMR for more than 25 years. Currently NWF is working collaboratively with landowners, agencies and sportsmen to restore a wild, free-roaming population of bison to the CMR. Show your support for wild landscapes like the CMR by sharing this exclusive footage with your family and friends and by learning more at NWF.org/RestoringBison.

Climate Threat to America’s Future Can’t be Laughed Off

September 7 – Last night, President Obama delivered his nomination acceptance speech, saying he will “continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future.”

Jeremy Symons, senior vice president for conservation and education of the National Wildlife Federation, issued this reaction:

“All candidates for office at every level of government should have a plan of action to tackle the vital conservation issues facing America, particularly climate change.

Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Signed Today

September 7 - At today’s signing of the revised Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in Washington, D.C., representatives from Great Lakes United and the National Wildlife Federation applauded the completion of the Agreement but cautioned the U.S. and Canadian governments that the hard work of implementing the Agreement is just beginning.

“If fully implemented, the agreement will benefit millions of people by restoring the health of the largest fresh water resource in the world,” said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the Great Lakes office of the National Wildlife Federation.

National Wildlife Federation to Celebrate 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act

September 6 – The National Wildlife Federation is celebrating the upcoming 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act (on October 18) by launching its first “Fish Tale” event.  Anglers and fishing families are invited to share their fish photos and stories to highlight the importance of clean water.  Throughout September and early October, NWF will post guest blogs and many of these pictures and stories, underscoring the importance of clean water to good fishing through a dedicated flickr site. These messages will be shared with decision makers.

“The National Wildlife Federation played a key role in the intial passage of the Clean Water Act,” said Land Tawney, National Wildlife Federation’s senior manager for sportsman leadership. “Today we continue mobilizing our members and affiliates to support and defend this bedrock conservation law. I could not be more proud of our efforts and countless other hunters and anglers from across the country that has made clean water a priority.”

NWF Says New Keystone XL Map Revisits Old Problems

September 5 – Today, TransCanada, the energy giant proposing to build the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline issued a new route map.

Joe Mendelson, National Wildlife Federation climate and energy policy director said,

“The reason TransCanada needs to keep rerouting the Keystone XL map is because it’s just a bad idea. Each new map amounts to a catalog of which property owners will suffer, and what habitat will be placed at risk.  The best approach is to ditch Keystone XL entirely and embrace clean energy solutions that don’t spill or explode.”

Montanans Voice Overwhelming Support for Restoring Bison

September 5 – As wildlife managers continue work on a statewide bison-management plan, a new survey underscores overwhelming public support for restoring a herd of wild, wide-ranging bison on public land in Montana. Additionally, Montana voters specifically support restoration to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in central Montana.

Sixty-eight percent of Montanans support restoration of wild bison on federal or state land, while just 26 percent are opposed, according to the survey commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation and Wildlife Conservation Society.

MRGO Must Go Coalition: Restore the Coast as Congress Mandated

September 5 – A coalition of community leaders, policy experts and coastal scientists released joint comments today on the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Report.  The report, which is being release four years beyond Congressional deadline, contains the Army Corps’ plan to restore a portion of more than 600,000 acres of coastal wetlands and waterways impacted by the MRGO shipping channel. The MRGO has been directly linked to intensifying the destruction of Hurricane Katrina by destroying the wetlands that once buffered the greater New Orleans area from storm surge.  The public comment period, ending September 6, is the last chance to comment on the Army Corps plan.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• KXLF: New poll shows support for re-introduction of MT bison
• Associated Press: TransCanada proposes new Neb. route for oil pipeline that company says avoids sensitive areas
• The Hill: New Keystone route proposed, but green groups unswayed
• UPI: TransCanada submits new Keystone XL pipeline route to Nebraska authorities
• The Atlantic: The False Promise of Back-to-School Commercials (OpEd)
• The Orange Leader: Report: Summer’s Signs of Things to Come
• The Canadian Wire: TransCanada submits new Keystone XL pipeline route to Nebraska authorities

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

Since Theodore Roosevelt established the first national wildlife refuge in 1903, the National Wildlife Refuge System has been preserving native habitats to protect hundreds of animal and plant species. Not only do refuges provide protection for wildlife and plants, they also provide excellent recreational opportunities to get people interacting with nature. However, refuges need our help to continue to be the world’s premier habitat conservation system.

NWF's initiative will help restore wild, free ranging bison to their native prairie habitat.

A Safe Haven for Wildlife

The refuge system’s top priority includes protecting wildlife and preserving native lands. As the largest refuge in the lower 48 states, the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge contains approximately 1,100,000 acres. Animals protected within the Charles M. Russell refuge include mule deer, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferrets, approximately 235 species of birds, and hopefully soon, American bison.

The National Wildlife Federation has been actively engaged in bison restoration in the Charles M. Russell. To help restore this once prevalent and majestic creature to its native habitat, you can help protect bison by taking action.

Interacting with Refuges

National Wildlife Refuges provide many opportunities for outdoor recreation including:

• Hunting
• Fishing
• Bird-watching
• Photography
• Wildlife Observation
• Environmental Education

Annually, the 45 million visitors contribute nearly $1.7 billion to local economies and support tens of thousands of local jobs and additionally, studies estimate that refuges return over $874 for every $1 spent in refuge services. Every state has at least one national wildlife refuge, and there’s a national wildlife refuge within an hour’s drive of most major cities. Find out where your nearest National Wildlife Refuge is located.

Help Threatened Habitats

The Refuge System faces some serious problems, including:

• 

  Arctic wildlife are at risk from oil drilling's devastating impact on native habitats.

  The total operations and maintenance backlog for the Refuge System exceeds $3.3 billion.

• More than 2.5 million acres of refuge lands are overrun with non-native invasive plants, while nearly 4,000 invasive animal populations ravage millions more acres.
• Drug production and smuggling, wildlife poaching, illegal border activity, assaults, natural resource violations and other crimes are on the rise in the Refuge System, yet only 213 full-time law enforcement officers are available to patrol the System’s 150 million acres.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is especially threatened. The oil and gas industry wants to drill in the refuge, endangering the future of iconic wildlife species, such as caribou, gray wolves, polar bears, and more, due to toxic spills and habitat degradation. You can help support NWF’s efforts to stop the attack on arctic wildlife.

Contribute to the Future of Refuges

Go bird-watching, take pictures, or walk on the nature trails – your support and engagement in the refuges helps protect habitats and wildlife for future generations. Every state has at least one refuge, many located within an hour’s drive of most major U.S. cities. You can also observe local wildlife and find parks, trails, and other nature sites using NWF’s NatureFind.

Bulls establish rank in Yellowstone National Park, the home of the last wild U.S. bison.

The bison, or American buffalo, roamed the plains and woodlands of North America tens of thousands of years ago. It was a contemporary of saber-toothed cats, woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos but was a better survivor: the bison is the largest land animal in North America today, and once numbered in the millions (the exact figure is disputed, but likely approached 40 million animals on western grasslands).

Neither its size nor its numbers protected it.

Once guns arrived in North America, and a market opened for wild meat and hides, only decades elapsed before the bison all but vanished from its native range in the United States and Canada.

The woodland bison of eastern U.S. forests vanished by the early 19th century, and the plains bison was all but wiped out by 1884—in less than 20 years of intensive hunting.

Saving Bison

Some people, most notably hunters, wanted to save the bison. Outstanding among them was National Wildlife Federation Conservation Hall of Fame member Theodore Roosevelt, who as a young man joined with leading naturalist (and Conservation Hall of Fame inductee) George Bird Grinnell in an effort to save the last bison.

The year was 1887, and in the U.S. wild bison were restricted to fewer than 100 animals in Yellowstone National Park. Saving the iconic species was a huge challenge. No Endangered Species Act existed to protect the animals, and even the 1872 law that created the park failed to authorize protections for park resources. People still entered Yellowstone quasi-legally to cut firewood and to kill game for markets. Elk and bison were still being shot.

Under pressure from Roosevelt, Grinnell and their allies, Congress finally in 1894 enacted a law protecting the natural resources within Yellowstone National Park.

Protection alone did not suffice to recover the bison: decades passed before the herd began to recover. Nevertheless, today the Yellowstone animals remain perhaps the only genetically pure U.S. bison still alive, the last truly wild bison in the United States.

The years that went into making the park safe for wildlife has paid off for the American buffalo—its number there sometimes reaches as high as 4,000.

The Fight Goes On

National Wildlife Federation is involved in what might be called the next phase in restoring U.S. bison. The Federation is partnering with Indian tribes across the nation, with promising developments occurring right now for reintroduction of bison from Yellowstone in the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations in Montana.

NWF  is also initiating a long-term plan to restore bison to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR to aficionados) south of the reservations. The refuge may offer the last grassland large enough to allow the nomadic species to follow a normal pattern of life, moving in herds across a vast prairie.

The story of the bison reinforces at least three critical lessons in wildlife conservation:

1. Without legal protections, a rare or imperiled species is unlikely to survive
2. Despite tremendous efforts, recovering a depleted wildlife population may be the work of years and even decades—the destruction of a species moves with speed, but the biological pace of recovery in species that breed slowly cannot be hastened.
3. Suitable habitat is the key to species protection—without Yellowstone National Park the bison as a wild creature would almost certainly be extinct today.

Habitat at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and the two Indian reservations offers promise for the future of the American buffalo. Anyone who helps to restore this species is picking up the work that Theodore Roosevelt and his colleagues started more than 100 years ago and is marching in step with the generations of conservationists, hunters, wildlife enthusiasts and just plain bison fans who helped ensure that today we can see bison in native habit and not only in museums—an inheritance we too will want to leave to future generations.

Help bring bison back to their native prairie habitat. Give today and your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar!

The photo associated with this blog was donated by a competitor in the annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. If you are a nature photographer, you may want to participate this year in the 41st annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. In addition to cash awards, winning photos will appear in National Wildlife magazine and on the NWF website.