The fate of Caw Ridge

OK one more Caw Ridge post. 

It is an interesting case study showing how much little say Alberta Fish and Game has.

The best is when fish and game describes the mine's route as 'directly perpendicular' to the the [declining] caribou's migratory route.

http://albertawilderness.ca/issues/wildlands/kakwa/archive/2009-12-caw-ridge-two-cheers-for-albertas-fish-and-wildlife-division/view

Oh ya, I met with the biologists in charge of monitoring this herd and 'stable' was not the word they used. So I have to retract my earlier statement.

Caw Ridge Captures

Ok, the last Caw Ridge post for a while. My season is done until September when hopefully I draw for sheep up there.

I'll get this out of the way. Here is the 'gored' photo. She weighed 55 lbs and had horns that were 11 cm long - this is average size for a one year old.

Now I know looking at the wound you want to call me a pussy, but it's been 10 days and it's still tender - and I could barely walk the for the first two days after it happened. Her horn probably went more than halfway in. It was a pretty slick move to watch - as I grabbed her shoulders she casually put her horn into my leg.


OK, now onto captures:

I was doing all the weights this year which was pretty awesome. We have 3 electronic scales and we end up getting a tonne of data. For the first group of 25, I got weights on 20 of them. We hide behind a blind while doing this.

When we don't drug them and if all goes smooth, one person grabs the legs and the other the horns. After a bit of wrestling and rope work, we carry them out of the trap

We then (Radio) collar them

And measure them (well only Steeve does this part)

And finally release them.

The Arab-Jew Caw Ridge Peace Summit

Caw Ridge Cabin: the site of the latest round of Israeli-Arab peace negotiations. On the first morning, in an ill-advised team-building exercise, the mediator took the Jewish and Arab delegations on an expedition to check on the goat traps.

The ease with which foreign interlopers were able to capture, subjugate, and document the peaceful native inhabitants was, for the Arab delegation, an uncomfortable reminder of the plight of the displaced Palestinian people. The summit was off to an inauspicious start.

Another cruel reminder of the universality of the Arab experience came a few hours later, with the sighting of an American Golden-Plover.

Historically, this arctic-breeding species does not breed this far south, but like the Israelis, they are not content to stay in their own ample territory, but instead push beyond their borders to infiltrate and settle the land of other ethnic groups. Peace negotiations began to stall.

The low point of the summit was reached later that day, when the Jewish delegation pointed out to the Arabs one of the armed militiamen hired to patrol the security perimeter.

This thinly-veiled threat was not lost on the Arab delegation.

(The only reminder of a brave goat attempting to make a home in his native territory, as is his birthright.)

At this point, the Arab delegation was only willing to continue talks with its defences ready at all times, preferably while holding the strategic high ground.

An 11th hour breakthrough was the only hope, however dim, for an agreement. A media blackout was put into effect, and all negotiations took place entirely behind closed doors. Although neither delegation revealed what exactly happened during that final, tense negotiating session, witnesses reported smelling cigar smoke wafting from the meeting room, and a source in the hotel’s housekeeping department claimed to have cleaned up several empty Scotch bottles and beer cans the next morning.

Against all odds, a deal was struck and the peace summit was a resounding success.

And on the drive home, we stopped at a friend’s place and they showed us the Great Horned Owl nest on their land, complete with almost-fledged chick. I can’t think of any metaphor for Arab-Israeli relations, but it was pretty sweet.

The Smithers chicken run and cutthroat slayfest

In my temporary period of unemployment I decided to head to to the Clong forced labour camp near Smithers, for some poultry-related construction. The view from my holding cell was terrible.

The coop was already built, but they still needed a run to add some range to their freedom. Posts went in first, to a depth of a couple feet. This image of the newly installed posts does not capture the effort involved in the pounding. Alana had attempted to capture the action, but the images were so graphic they self-deleted from her memory card.

Next came the badass homemade door. Somehow it fit flush, and is seriously solid.

We salvaged chainlink fencing from the dog run left by the previous owners, and connected it all up. Chicken wire will be added to the top to get it up to the height of the posts. Lastly a trench needs to be dug around the perimeter, and wire mesh buried a foot or two deep to keep the predators from a tunnel assault. The holes in the chainlink are still too large to contain the chick(en)s, so they are under house arrest for now. Plus, they seem afraid of the outdoors.

Our reward was a cutthroat slayfest on a nearby lake, followed by the discovery that their property has morels. This was after a bit of trial and error in the morel hunt on the way home.

After finding where the fish were, it was non-stop. They weren't big (1st and 2nd year stocked), but were acrobatic when hooked, and we could have easily filled double our limit.

Pan fried cutthroat trout, fresh pasta with morel (and other mushroom) cream sauce, blanched fireweed shoots (very bitter... maybe blanching longer is the ticket).

A good end to the trip, and there is an open invitation for me to sleep in the chicken run whenever I return.

Caw Ridge Day 1.

How our quad got there.

I got the other quad a third of the way up the mountain and hiked the rest -it sucked.

The herd of caribou is the redrock prairie-creek.

I believe they are considered 'stable.'

Where they go, the wolves follow.

Caw Ridge in May...

is bad ass.

But slow internet.

Starting to see more sign of bear, but no sightings yet.

It's also a very french crew this year, so D you better brush up on your conversational french.

---
A few questions, maybe you all can help me with as a non-cervid biologist.

i) Are caribou legs evolved for running in snow?
ii) Is their natural anti-predator response to run at you?
iii) Is it too early to have velvet on antlers?

Obama's new digs

It may be a step down from the White House (a little dirtier, too many roommates, not as nice of a view), but he/she gets fed regularly with fresh clean water and it's a consistent temperature throughout the day.

We were supposed to wait until June 22nd for our order of chicks, but we were able to get some heritage breeds (21 barred rocks, 4 buff orpingtons, 1 buff Brahma) about 10 days ago and I got impatient. So far we have lost an orpington (we named it stink eye due to the nasty abscess around its eye) and named the Brahma, Obama. Hopefully, it doesn't end up being a cock/meat bird.

The past week has been crazy because the coop was not complete... until yesterday. However, I'm happy to report that they are out of the house and into their new digs.
Note faux hardwood, linoleum floor.

I scavenged all of the wood for the coop, but I had to cough up some money for some insulation.

Ventilation. Tin roof I was able to get from a friend's old house.



















I also caved and bought new plywood for the interior walls (easier than puzzling it all together). I haven't given them full reign of the coop yet, so they are in an area coop for now.

Obama Brahma with its' feathered feet.