Cold weather, like the system that pushed our temperatures down past 30 below in many areas of the state last weekend, isn’t a lot of fun if you have to work outside. And while extreme cold can make some types of hunts more successful, it can also increase your risk of frostbite and hypothermia. You just can’t stay out in that kind of cold too long, unless you have some pretty amazing cold-weather gear.
And it’s tough on wildlife, too. Some species that live in our state find a nice, cozy spot to curl up and go into torpor or full hibernation during the cold months, but others don’t. Those that don’t still have to brave that cold to find food to eat and water to drink. The longer the winter goes on, the thinner and weaker they get. And some of them just don’t make it.
But face-freezing, bone-chilling cold does have some benefits. One of those is that long cold periods kill off the pine beetles that are ravaging our forests. And the whitebark pine beetles in the Tetons are causing more headaches than any other pine beetles in the state.
That’s because the whitebark beetles kill the whitebark pine trees, which produce whitebark pine cones. These cones are a great source of nutrition for grizzly bears in the years when the trees produce the cones. They don’t make cones every year, so the bears adapt and find other food sources. But the more whitebark pine trees we lose, the harder it is for the state to take control of the management of grizzly bears.
What we need is a good, long stretch of super-cold weather to knock down those beetles. The bears are doing just fine, and they’ll find food where they can. But the more whitebark pine cones they have to eat, the better our chances of getting them – and keeping them – off the endangered species list. So bring on the cold.
