Posted on 06 January 2012. Tags: David Gaillard
Dave’s dog survives avalanche and four-day trek through Montana wilderness
Kerry Gaillard and Oly look for snowmobile trespass in wolverine country west of Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of Dave Gaillard.
With the tragic death of our friend and colleague Dave Gaillard, it’s been a rough week for the entire extended Defenders family. But a ray of hope broke through the dark clouds yesterday in the form of a Welsh corgi named Oly.
Oly, the Gaillard family’s dog, had been with Dave and his wife Kerry on New Year’s Eve when they got caught in an avalanche while cross-country skiing. Oly disappeared into the tumbling snow along with Dave, and was presumed dead. Miraculously, four days later, Oly turned up at the motel in Cooke City, Montana, where Dave and Kerry had stayed the night before the avalanche.
The story has since gone viral, appearing on the Today Show this morning as well as news outlets from coast to coast. See print coverage from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Reuters, USA Today and video from NBC-Montana and the Associated Press (below).
Hopefully, Oly’s incredible survival story will help lift the spirits of Dave’s family as they gather today for his memorial service outside Bozeman, Montana.
Defenders’ President Jamie Rappaport Clark, Rocky Mountain Director Mike Leahy and the rest of the regional staff will be there to honor Dave’s memory. For the rest of us, our thoughts and prayers are with you, Dave.
Posted in Features, Heroes, In the News, Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, Video, Wildlife
Posted on 04 January 2012. Tags: David Gaillard, fisher
David Gaillard (far right) during a recent trip with his fellow colleagues and "citizen scientists" to collect hair samples from grizzly bears in Montana. Click the image above to see Dave's blog post and video from the trip.
One of the last emails Dave ever sent landed in my inbox on Friday afternoon. While most of us at Defenders had already headed home for the long holiday weekend, Dave was still thinking up new and better ways to protect the critters he cared so much about. He had compiled a list of conservation successes for 2011 for his beloved “meso-carnivores”—wolverines, lynx, fishers—and mentioned wanting to do a similar recap for each quarter of 2012.
That’s just the kind of guy he was. For two decades, Dave was deeply dedicated to protecting the wild animals and wild places that make the Northern Rockies so special. Whether he was tromping through the backcountry with “citizen scientists” in search of wolverine tracks, or defending critical lynx habitat from oil and gas drilling, he was always focused on a mission much larger than himself. And he did it with a warm smile, infectious laughter and an uplifting spirit that made us all want to cheer for the underdogs he was working hard to save.
Here’s a look at just some of the great work that Dave was involved with over the past year:
Forest Carnivore Year-end Report 2011
By David Gaillard, Defenders of Wildlife, Bozeman, Montana
America’s large carnivores the wolf and grizzly bear continued to grab the lion’s share of the headlines (so to speak), but 2011 was an important year for smaller carnivores that must overcome the same magnitude of challenges or greater across our northern forests with just a fraction of the attention and resources. Here is a look at some highlights this past year for the forest carnivores—lynx, wolverines and fishers—in the contiguous United States.
Wolverines in 2011
This rare and mysterious carnivore continues to gain public awareness and excitement, thanks to major advances by researchers, award-winning documentaries, and increasing attention by land and wildlife management agencies…
Lynx in 2011
Last year was another sleeper for lynx in the lower 48, which is ironic given they have now been listed as a Threatened species under the ESA for more than a decade, and critical habitat has been designated across 40,000 square miles in the northeast, Midwest, Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest regions. These few news items pertain to the implementation of lynx protections on the ground…
- Oil and gas projects on the Bridger-Teton National Forest south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming delayed for further analysis, in part due to the potential harm incurred by lynx:
- Montana completes a Habitat Conservation Plan focused on lynx, grizzly bears and three rare species of trout that will guide the management of its forested state trust lands across 500,000 acres of western Montana for the next 50 years.
- The State of Maine and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are developing regulations to reduce the risks to lynx from traps set for other species.
Fishers in 2011
Fishers lag even farther behind lynx and wolverines in terms of public awareness and conservation actions, despite the fact that they are probably the rarest forest carnivore in the U.S. Rocky Mountains, and perhaps even more imperiled across their West Coast range in California, Oregon and Washington. Yet even fishers got some important attention in 2011…
Monitoring Forest Carnivores in 2011
“Citizen science” is an emerging buzzword for all of the forest carnivores now that advances in wildlife genetics make it possible to gather important information from noninvasive sampling of hairs and scats. Methods include snowtracking, hair-snare stations and remote cameras, much of which can be conducted by amateur wildlife enthusiasts with some basic scientific training and outdoor skills. Here are some links showing interesting results in 2011:
We here at Defenders will miss Dave very much, but we take some solace knowing that he died doing what he loved to do most: savoring the rugged wilderness under a beautiful Montana sky with his beloved wife.
Dave, your life was an inspiration for us all. Rest in peace, dear friend.
Readers: If you have any thoughts or memories to share, please feel free to add a comment below. You can also make a donation in Dave’s honor by visiting www.defenders.org/dgmemorial.
Posted in Canada Lynx, Climate Change, Commentary, Experts, Features, Habitats and Highways, Heroes, In the News, Public Lands, Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, Species at Risk, Wildlife, Wolverine
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