Winter storms continue.

Since the new year the snow has slowly accumulated to the point that it is turning into a real winter, despite a slow start. We haven’t had a huge dump that dropped massive amounts of snow that buried buildings then settled out, but the steady trickle means that we probably have more dense, settled snow on the ground now than we’ve ever seen here at Sagehen.

We desperately need a real snowcat with a blade capable of moving snow. With such a machine, we could not only keep the road open but also maintain access to the upper basin sensing towers and move snow away from the building eaves so that the roofs can continue to shed their load. At present, the snow is getting so deep & compacted that the roofs can’t slide anymore, putting our structures at risk of collapse. A snowcat would also save incredible amounts of time & effort that we need for other things now that our use & workload has increased so dramatically. During the new year’s storm cycle, it took 5 of us [Jeff & me, the winter caretakers & a winter researcher] all day to work our way out to the highway on snowmobiles, then to clear the snow away from the garage so that we could get our cars out...a task that would take mere minutes with a bladed snowcat.

Historically, Sagehen always had a bladed snowcat, but during the desperate days of the 1990’s, it went away. Since our arrival in 2001, we have put incredible effort into finding a partner to purchase a machine, but we’ve had no luck. We even donated our personal tractor to Sagehen in the hopes that it would work for removing snow, but while incredibly useful for early & late seasons when the snow is shallower, it’s just not the right tool once the snowbanks get high & there is nowhere left to put the snow.

We applied for a National Science Foundation Field Station & Marine Labs Facilities grant last year—one of the few sources of grant money for facilities available to us. The grant would have purchased a snowcat & a garage to put it in. Unfortunately, we were shot down. Some of the reviewers felt that we should just use snowmobiles, since they are cheaper, demonstrating a profound naivete about winter in the Sierras generally & snowmobiles in particular. I guess snowmobile advertising is very effective if it has convinced people that a snowmobile is actually a real tool for getting around in the winter in untracked snow rather than the incredibly labor-intensive toy that our experience & observation has shown them to be when there is no packed snowcat track to follow.

Not one to give up easily [or ever, really], Jeff changed tacks & is trying to put together a group of interested parties to purchase a snowcat. He located a used machine in great condition for a very reasonable price. If we can get the various users of Sagehen data to pitch in, then we may finally have solved this largest of thorns in the Sagehen side!

Winter arrives at Sagehen.

It never really feels like winter here at Sagehen until snowfall accumulates deep enough to close our access road to wheeled vehicles.

The storm that ended yesterday finally did that. We received about 5' of new snow that started out extremely wet & sloppy, but chilled down to light fluff by the end.

Fortunately, Jeff & I had help digging out. This winter's tenants include Avalanche Forecaster Brandon Schwartz & his wife Jamie: our fill-in caretakers again this winter. We're also hosting resident pine marten researcher, Katie Moriarty.

We keep the road snowpacked with snowmobiles & our little snowcat [when it works], so things are plenty firm enough to ski, snowshoe or walk into the station. Contact us before arriving if you need a snowmobile ride or trailer haul for your equipment.

Orphaned bear cub released at Sagehen.

This summer was very hard on the black bears of the Sierra Nevada. Dry weather forced them out of the hills to look for food and water, where they bumped up against encroaching development throughout their range.

This arrangement seldom ends happily for the bears. 70 Tahoe-area bears lost their lives this year to traffic collisions. Animal control officers were also forced to deal with the consequences of irresponsible people who refuse to acknowledge that allowing bears to get into our food supply means that the bear will ultimately have to be killed.

There is at least one happy ending, though. Yesterday, we built a den and released an orphaned cub here at Sagehen in the same area where we successfully released 2 cubs in 2004. We know this previous release succeeded for several reasons: first, there were no skeletons in the den in the spring. Second, we found the radio collars that dropped from the cubs after their spring emergence. And finally--thanks to ear tags--Doug Updike was able to identify one of the cubs from Dept. of Fish & Game camera trap pictures this summer.


Read the background story of this latest release below. See our website for links to more articles & video of the release:

"September, 2007: The search for a bear cub that got loose in North Auburn ended successfully thanks to the efforts of several government agencies Tuesday. The cub was spotted in a redwood tree early Tuesday by residents of a home located north of Bell Road in North Auburn. The residents were alerted to the bear’s presence by the barking of their dogs.

The rescue was a joint effort by the California Department of Fish and Game, the Animal Services Division of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, Sheriff’s Office, Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, county Public Works Department and Cal Fire. At about 1 p.m. Tuesday, a Fish and Game veterinarian succeeded in sedating the 40-pound cub, using a tranquilizer mounted at the end of a long pole. The vet was able to reach the bear’s perch high in the tree by standing in the bucket of a boom truck supplied by Public Works. The tree’s branches broke the cub’s fall from the tree. After examining the animal, the vet pronounced the cub unhurt from the fall and said she is a little underweight but generally in good health.

'It was a heart-warming end to a very-challenging situation', said Dr. Jim Gandley, assistant director of the Health and Human Services Department. 'Each of the agencies pitched in to protect the public while taking every possible precaution to keep the cub from being injured during the rescue.'

The county’s Animal Services Division took control of the cub Monday afternoon after its mother was hit by a car and killed near Truckee. Animal Services transported the animal to its Auburn shelter because it was too late in the day to deliver her to a Fish and Game facility in Rancho Cordova. At the shelter, animal control officers placed the cub in an outdoor cage made of heavy-duty pipe and wire mesh after reinforcing it with extra panels. Sometime Monday night, the cub escaped by forcing its way through a small opening in the reinforced cage. Animal control officers and Sheriff’s Department deputies searched for the animal throughout North Auburn Tuesday morning. Animal Services officials had notified residents and schools near the shelter that the bear was loose, emphasizing that any bear cub should be considered a danger to humans and domestic animals."

Summary:

- Cub's mother hit-by-car and killed near Truckee.
- Cub observed in tree near highway and people became concerned that it
couldn't survive on its own.
- Cub captured by local animal control and transported to Auburn to be
housed for the night; DFG was to pick it up the following day.
- Cub escaped during the night.
- Cub immobilized the following day and taken to DFG animal pens
and cared for until January, 2008.
- Cub weighs at least 80-lbs and appears to be in excellent health
- Cub released at UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station. Story & video | More press coverage here. | Video interview.