Oct 7, 2026
2026 has been a busy year for Yellowstone. September was the busiest September on record. Visitors have seen stories about school starting by the end of August and imagining fewer travelers. The word is out that fall is a beautiful time. It is indeed. September is the peak of the elk rut so the exciting behavior of bull elk bugling and chasing the cows into herds, males challenging other males and occasionally, bull elk charging other species (not excluding humans who forget about keeping their distance with the excitement of all this behavior!
This was a tough year for bears. In other newsletters I’ve mentioned the drop in the native trout population due to non native Lake Trout populations (who eat the Cutthroat) . It is not known how they came to inhabit Yellowstone Lake. Probably an illegal dump from enthusiastic sport fishermen, but nothing is confirmed.
Bears are active as they are putting on pounds of reserves to help them make it through a winter in the den. Typical food sources vary through out the year. Historically, spawning cutthroat trout in the spring and early summer (streams feeding into Yellowstone Lake and beyond) have been an important food source. Elk calves at the same time, are also sought after by both Black Bears and Grizzly Bears. Dozens of germinating plants are also important for the bears. Bears will dig up entire hillsides or gently pluck off flowers from individual plants! Don’t forget the insects they love….
Later in the Year, they will look for berries that are ripening, (such as huckleberries, mountain ash, chokecherries and serviceberry). This year we had poor berry production. As the season transitions into late summer and fall, they have come to depend on Whitebark Pine cones and seeds. The cones do not fall off the tree naturally, so these are typically harvested by Clarks Nutcracker
and Red Squirrels. The seeds are cached with the idea of being a winter food source. The other interesting phenomenon are bears climbing into the high elevations above timberline and rolling rocks over to unearth Army cutworm moths. Army cutworm moths are up to 75% fat, packing about half a calorie per tiny moth.
A single hungry grizzly can flip rocks and eat between 40,000 and 60,000 moths per day, fulfilling up to half of its daily caloric requirements during hyperphagia (the heavy eating period before hibernation).Because the food source is so abundant, dozens of grizzly bears have been documented congregating and tolerating each other’s presence in the same small boulder fields.
Very few of their natural food sources were abundant this year and it was a tough year for bears as I mentioned earlier. In years when their preferred food sources have not been abundant, they do tend to get in more trouble seeking food closer in proximity to “us” as they are attracted to human food sources.
The fall colors in deciduous forests are legendary, but even here, we have quite a fall display. Woody plants like Chokecherries, Rose bushes, Huckleberries, Willow, Dogwood and many more respond to temps and less light and the changing colors light up the stream banks and hill sides. Aspen, Cottonwood and shrubby Rocky Mountain Maple turn and the landscape is on fire with color.
This edition of Nature News, I want to share with you an interview that was done in Elberta, Michigan at a Radio Station WUWU. Kelly was the host and Mark Stoltz and Susan Grace and I spent an hour with Kelly in the studio. We shared memories of Jim, Susan played a song Jim wrote for her, and we focused on the Kid for the Wild scholarship fund that was created remembering Jim. If you can listen to this. You’ll hear lots of stories and maybe have a chance to know more of Jim’s being.
https://elbertalaborheritagecenter.org/archive/
You’ll want to scroll down to Oct 2 and look for the 11:00 show called Random Acts of Music. To listen to the interview, you’ll have to scroll to the second half of the show. It was fun and wonderful to share stories with Susan Grace (Stoltz), and Alaskan singer songwriter and global environmental educator and Mark Stoltz, member of a band KC and the Benzie playboys. World’s most charismatic rug board (washboard) and fiddle player. You’ll hear lots of great stories.
https://elbertalaborheritagecenter.org/archive/
if you have a chance to see the film Arctic Dance, about Mardie Murie, Susan Graces Song “Sweet Alaska” highlights many moments in that tribute film
OK, last news is about the Kid for the Wild scholarship fund. Its been a fun year looking at the applications and what youth today are hoping to experience. For the first time this year, we have a spring deadline for application and now a fall deadline, so we have 2 scholarship periods offered this year.
You can find a lot of information on the website about the Kid for the wild Scholarship and the programs the recipients have experienced. https://walkinjim.com/kid-for-the-wild-scholarship/
Our hope is to offer these young people opportunities to experience time outside so it becomes part of what they believe in and who they are. Of course it is different for each recipient, but so rewarding to continue to encourage being in the natural world. As always, this scholarship fund exists its because of donations so support us if you can fit that into your giving for the year!
That’s it for now. Thank you, as always, for checking in on this. Appreciate all of you and let’s hold on to hope…Leslie