3rd Annual Greater Yellowstone Crane Festival

Teton Regional Land Trust

4 days ago

Get to know Tim Brockish of our Teton Regional Land Trust Board of Directors:

When and why did you join the Land Trust Board of Directors and what committees have you served on?
I was invited to join the board in January of 2013 by Tim Hopkins, who was then serving as Vice-President. At that time, Tim was helping us to protect critical habitat from development in the Rexburg area near our home. We had already been involved with TRLT in placing an easement on part of our property in 2005 as part of a NAWCA grant. I was coming to the realization that land protection is fundamental for meaningful conservation. During my term, I have served on the finance and development committees.

What's your favorite thing about being on the board of the Land Trust?
I enjoy meeting and getting to know like-minded people who share our concern for conservation.

Insight into your co-board members and the Land Trust staff:
Our board members are from a wide variety of walks of life and are talented, engaged and devoted. The staff is the engine of the Land Trust and their careful diligence and enthusiasm is incredible. It is gratifying to know great people with the conviction and the determination to make a difference.

Tell us about your family:
Our family consists of my wife, Wendy, and me. Wendy comes from a family in Wisconsin involved in conservation. Wendy has a talent for languages, including Chinese and especially French. I was born in Colorado the oldest of eight. I was in the Peace Corps in the Fiji Islands and have lived in Germany and Japan. In 1985 we settled in eastern Idaho for a work opportunity and have enjoyed living here ever since.

How about your pets?
We have two donkeys, Hank and Pete. Both are big enough to ride and are wonderful companions. Hank was voted Grand Champion at Montana Mule Days when he was a youngster. Our dog Trip, a border collie mix, is currently learning all kinds of useful tricks and good behaviors. This summer fourteen chickens are roaming the yard and providing a colorful mix of eggs. Tree swallows and wrens fill the nest boxes scattered around and add to the summer fun.

What is your profession?
We have owned a computer sales business in Idaho Falls since 1991 called CompuSmart. We work primarily with Idaho National Laboratory and we are proud that INL continues to choose us as a vendor.

What's your favorite bird in the TRLT region?
Trumpeter swans. They are a conservation success story rebounding from dangerously low population numbers in the 1930s. In 2015 with help from our power company and conservation-minded supporters we were able to get a dangerous one-mile stretch of power lines buried along the slough near our home. The project was called Swan Safe.

What are some of your other interests?
I like biking, photography, and music. I enjoy putting little movies together. Thanks to TRLT we have a nice amount of acreage around our house. I get satisfaction stewarding the land, helping the native plants thrive.

What do you do for fun?
We enjoy traveling to France to visit our dear friends.

What inspires you?
I am inspired by the daily acts of compassion, courage, and perseverance by ordinary people.

Memory of Joselin:
A memory that captures her essence for me is catching her getting misty-eyed emotional when she was hearing someone express their heartfelt passion for nature and conservation. We are deeply grateful for all that she did for us and we miss her tremendously. ... See MoreSee Less

Teton Regional Land Trust

6 days ago

Species Spotlight - Bald Eagle

Bald Eagles are iconic American birds and the only eagle species unique to and found throughout North America. Bald Eagles are found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. This sea eagle is a large, brown-bodied bird with a large white head and white tail feathers. It has an impressive six to eight-foot wingspan. The adult’s bright yellow feet are strong, unfeathered, and equipped with sharp black talons for grasping prey. The powerful, bright yellow, hooked bill is used to tear and dismember prey. The species’ estimated average life span in the wild is 30 years and eagles have been known to survive in captivity for nearly 50 years. The sexes are identical in color, but females are about 25 percent larger than males. Bald Eagles vary in size by location throughout America, with larger birds found in the colder Northern regions.

The bald in their name is a derivation of balde, an Old English word meaning “white”. Eagles and their plumage were sacred to many Indigenous populations long before the Bald Eagle became the symbol of the newly formed United States in 1782. It first appeared on an American coin in 1776 and became the national emblem in 1782 (with competition from the wild turkey). Ever since, Bald Eagle insignia have come to symbolize our nation’s strength and freedom. The eagle emblem has topped military standards and flags, has adorned the noses of warplanes, and even gone to the moon on spacecraft. In our country, the Bald Eagle undoubtedly enjoys wider public recognition and symbolism than any other animal.

In Idaho, large concentrations of wintering Bald Eagles are found along Lake Coeur d’Alene, Lake Pend Oreille, and sections of the Snake, Salmon, and Boise Rivers. They primarily eat fish and waterfowl, though they are opportunistic and will also eat small mammals, carrion, and they will steal food from ospreys and other smaller birds. Where fish are abundant (as at spawning runs), an eagle may wade in shallow water to pursue them. Not only can they see five times better than humans at great distances, but their vision also stays in focus during rapidly changing depths. When you consider the eagle's flight and hunting style, this vision is necessary to safely fly at 30 to 40 mph and dive at 100 mph. Eagles are also excellent swimmers and can do a “breaststroke” with their wings while towing a fish catch in their talons.

Bald Eagles usually mate for life. They build the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species. Because Bald Eagles often use and add to the same nest for years, some dwellings can get up to nine feet wide and 20 feet deep and weigh two tons. Eagles lay two to three eggs and both adults help incubate them. In Idaho, chicks are born in June, light in color, and will have an adult ever-present for the first three weeks of their life. They will stay in the nest for about three months. The fledgling eagles are brown with whitish tails and wing linings, but the pure white head and tail feathers do not appear until the birds are four to five years old. Immature bald eagles are distinguishable from the Golden Eagle, both of which you might find along the South Fork of the Snake River, in that the immature baldy has a larger head with a larger beak, mottled brown feathers compared to a golden eagle’s warm brown, straighter wings, and feathers that don’t completely cover the legs. And usually, the attentive parents of an immature Bald Eagle are not far away.

A variety of protections, including the Endangered Species Act and the banned use of the pesticide DDT, helped foster a rebound in eagle populations that had reached a dire point in the 1970s. Still, up to 80 percent of eagles die before they reach adulthood. Habitat destruction and human-related disturbance of wintering and nesting eagles are still major contributors to the eagle’s decline. Bald Eagles are sensitive to a variety of human activities and may avoid areas where they encounter humans. As our human population grows and expands, the available habitat becomes scarcer. Poisoning from the ingestion of spent lead shot has been identified as a serious mortality factor in waterfowl, and in turn by the animals, like eagles, that eat waterfowl. In spite of the substantial fines and jail time for a convicted offender, eagles killed by gunshots are discovered and reported to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game each year. Electrocution from touching power lines, and death from automobiles or trains when eagles are attracted to road-killed animals, are other direct causes of Bald Eagle mortality in Idaho and throughout the country. Threats from climate change here in Idaho include wildfires, which incinerate habitat, and if they burn repeatedly, prevent it from recovering. Spring heatwaves endanger young birds in the nest.

Appropriate timing and location of farming, logging, construction, and recreation can be essential to eagle’s nesting success. It is important to respect posted nest area closures, and landowners can adopt stewardship practices, including providing eagle nests with visual and spatial buffers to human activity, avoiding the use of toxic fertilizers and pesticides, removing roadkill from roads, identifying power lines that may pose an electrocution threat and delaying rodent control until migrant eagles have passed through. A pair of Bald Eagles may become accustomed to a tractor working in a field near the nest site or may tolerate traffic moving along a nearby road. Bald Eagles can live with human activities if land managers and users consider the birds’ needs. The recovery and stability of Idaho’s Bald Eagles are an example that good stewardship can lead to conservation success!

Your donations to Teton Regional Land Trust through Tin Cup will help protect important habitats for Bald Eagles and other Greater Yellowstone wildlife. To donate today, you can go to our website:
www.tetonlandtrust.org

Thank you for your support!

Amazing photos by Timothy C. Mayo ... See MoreSee Less