Phillips County Research Articles

Landscape Structure and Plague Occurrence in Black-tailed Prairie Dogs on Grasslands of the Western USA

Landscape structure influences the abundance and distribution of many species, including pathogens that cause infectious diseases. Black-tailed prairie dogs in the western USA have declined precipitously over the past 100 years, most recently due to grassland conversion and their susceptibility to sylvatic plague. We assembled and analyzed two long-term data sets on plague occurrence in black-tailed prairie dogs to explore the hypotheses that plague occurrence is associated with colony characteristics and landscape context. Our two study areas (Boulder County, Colorado, and Phillips County, Montana) differed markedly in degree of urbanization and other landscape characteristics. In both study areas, we found associations between plague occurrence and landscape and colony characteristics such as the amount of roads, streams and lakes surrounding a prairie dog colony, the area covered by the colony and its neighbors, and the distance to the nearest plague-positive colony. Logistic regression models were similar between the two study areas, with the best models predicting positive effects of proximity to plague-positive colonies and negative effects of road, stream and lake cover on plague occurrence. Taken together, these results suggest that roads, streams and lakes may serve as barriers to plague in black-tailed prairie dog colonies by affecting movement of or habitat quality for plague hosts or for fleas that serve as vectors for the pathogen. The similarity in plague correlates between urban and rural study areas suggests that the correlates of plague are not altered by uniquely urban stressors.

A Cry for Help: Kansasfreeland.com

On 9 February 2005 the cover story in USA TODAY profiled several Kansas towns in which new settlers could receive free building lots (Ritter 2005). Officials in some of these communities are sweetening the offer with rebates on local taxes. People in Crosby, North Dakota are going farther still: They add complimentary memberships in the local country club, fitness center, and curling association (Crosby 2005). Recruiting advertisements of this type, which are increasingly common in the central and northern Great Plains, are an obvious response to population loss. However, because such losses have been a fact of rural life in Kansas for more than a century and for nearly as long in Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Montana, it is curious that the free-land movement should arise now. The timing of these land programs, in fact, is more interesting than their degrees of success. Since the days of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, scholars and local residents alike have agreed that the Plains were settled too intensively during the pioneer period. The region's climate simply could not support the corn-based, 160-acre agricultural system imposed on it by people from Ohio, Illinois, and other eastern states (Kollmorgen 1969; Emmons 1971; Worster 1979; Raban 1996). People still debate whether primary blame for this oversettlement should be placed on rainmaking and other scientific schemes for dry farming, on railroad promotional excess, or on simple settler greed. Looking at a specific north Kansas example, however, all would concede that the 14,442 people who lived in Phillips County in 1900 were too many for the land to sustain. Therefore, as that number declined to 10,435 in 1940 and to 9,273 in 1950, the consensus view held that a necessary accommodation was being made (Helyar 2001, 2: 16). Farms were larger, and a few ill-conceived hamlets had disappeared, but people thought that the county as a whole was poised to begin a period of lasting prosperity. A similar view predominated in the seats of several hundred other counties throughout the region. Although the optimism of local residents seems foolish in retrospect, it was an easy belief for them to sustain through at least 1970. Not only did logic support the idea that a single population adjustment would stabilize the rural economy, but people also noticed that nearly all county-seat communities actually thrived amid the change. In Phillips County, for example, Phillipsburg grew from 1,008 residents in 1900 to 2,589 in 1950 (Morgan 1953, 111), a circumstance that allowed its merchants to increase sales even as the county population fell by more than 30 percent. Local grocers and hardware sellers naturally attributed such gains to their marketing prowess. They used the profits to erect stately houses, modern hospitals, and public bandstands. As their town's population expanded further to 3,241 in 1970 (Helyar 2001, 2: 68), Phillipsburg people maintained an air of unreflective self-satisfaction. Life was good in Mid-America. That census year represented a pinnacle for the community, however. Soon thereafter, as its population began to decline along with that in the rest of the county, an observer might expect to see an altered public mood. This did not happen. Just as residents refused to acknowledge that their growth in previous decades had been mostly a product of transportation improvements that allowed rural people to shop at the county seat instead of at country stores; they now turned a blind eye to how a new generation of automobiles and highways was enlarging the retail scale once again. People were increasingly willing to drive an hour or more to sample goods and services even slightly more specialized than gasoline or groceries. This set a cycle in motion. Local automobile dealerships and dental offices began to close in the 1970s and 1980s. Then the absence of such businesses necessitated trips to the larger city even by people who did not want to go. …

ANNUAL SURVIVAL AND POPULATION ESTIMATES OF MOUNTAIN PLOVERS IN SOUTHERN PHILLIPS COUNTY, MONTANA

Information about the demography of declining species is especially relevant to their conservation and future recovery. Knowledge of survival rates and population size can be used to assess long-term viability and population trends, both of which are of interest to conservation biologists. We used capture–recapture techniques to study the demography of Mountain Plovers (Charadrius montanus Townsend) in southern Phillips County, Montana, USA, in 1995–2000. We used the robust design to estimate annual survival (ϕ), conditional capture (p and r) and recapture (c) probabilities, and the annual population size (N) in the presence of temporary emigration. The results support age-specific differences in annual survival that are a function of juvenile body mass and are correlated with the area occupied by prairie dogs. Body mass had a positive effect on juvenile survival; the slope coefficient for the additive effect of body mass on juvenile survival was 0.77 (95% ci = 0.25, 1.28) on a logit scale. A measure of p...

Federal Troops and the Elaine Massacres: A Colloquy

THOUGH CLEARLY A CENTRAL EPISODE in Arkansas's racial history and a tragedy of grievous proportions, much remains unknown about Elaine riots of autumn 1919. It is certain that dozens and perhaps hundreds of African Americans died at hands of whites in days following an initial exchange of gunfire between deputies in Phillips County and members of a black sharecroppers' union. The precise sequence of events and number of casualties, however, continue to be debated. So does role of U.S. Army troops sent to Phillips County on second day of violence. Though troops have long been credited with restoring order, Grif Stockley, author of most comprehensive study of episode-Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2001)-believes that soldiers participated in slaughter of innocent black people. balance, he writes, the evidence suggests that military used excessive force and may have killed perhaps hundreds of (p. 66). Another student of events, Jeannie M. Whayne, has suggested that available evidence does not yet permit such a conclusion. In her essay, Low Villains and Wickedness in High Places: Race and Class in Elaine Riots (Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Autumn 1999), she notes that troops disarmed white civilians as well as blacks and wonders whether Phillips County planters may have seen military intervention as a means to stop white violence before it undermined a sharecropping system based on black labor. Stockley and Whayne discussed evidence with respect to federal troops and Elaine massacres at a debate held on February 21, 2002, at University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. The debate was conducted under auspices of Hartman Hotz lecture series and was moderated by Tom Dillard, curator of Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System. Excerpts from debate follow and are published with permission of University of Arkansas School of Law. Transcription is courtesy of Arkansas Center for Oral and Visual History. Grif Stockley: Before I begin to try to put on some evidence that military was involved, let me just briefly set stage for you. On September 30, 1919, there was a shoot-out at a small church in Hoop Spur, which is three miles north of Elaine. Black sharecroppers were having a meeting to discuss how they could improve their situation. Probably some whites, and I'm summarizing here, came out to disrupt meeting. There was a shoot-out. Nobody knows who fired first shot, but one white man, W. H. Adkins, was killed. After that, blacks fled church. Many whites believed that blacks were fighting back. Calls went up and down delta saying there was a revolt by blacks, and mobs of from six hundred to a thousand whites came in from neighboring counties next day. But also next day, there were some telegrams sent to governor's office in Little Rock asking that United States troops be brought in to put down situation. Governor [Charles Hillman] Brough came over on a train next day with about six hundred U.S. troops. They were armed with twelve machine guns. The troops who came over were veterans of Second Battle of Marne. They were stationed at Camp Pike. Since all of this occurred, things have been debated back and forth. But essentially in my view there was a massive cover-up. Evidence shows that United States troops were involved [in deaths of blacks]. The first piece of evidence is from Walter White, a field secretary for national NAACP who managed to get an interview with Governor Brough. [Although White was African-American], he looked white. He pretended to be a newsman. The next day he came down on a train to Helena and talked with some individuals, particularly whites. He was advised by [black attorney] Scipio Jones not to talk with blacks for fear he might get them in trouble. …

Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919

Book Reviews Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919. By Grif Stockley. (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2001. Pp. xxxii, 264. Acknowledgments, preface, introduction, maps, illustrations, chronology of events, notes, note on sources, index. $29.95.) Arkansas history has no story more troubling than that of the violent confrontations between black laborers, white mobs, and the U.S. Army near the Phillips County town of Elaine in 1919. Black people and white people were killed, the Army was called in, and twelve black men were sentenced to death. The state's already well established negative image got another unwelcome boost-the governor of Kansas went so far as to refuse an extradition request. No Arkansas event has been more assiduously avoided, so variously interpreted, or so hotly contested. The initial official version, put forward by white business leaders and politicians and published in Arkansas newspapers, claimed that blacks, duped by outside labor agitators, had plotted a murderous insurrection aimed at killing white landowners. Acting prudently, local authorities and Gov. Charles Hillman Brough averted more widespread loss of life by speedy deployment of U.S. Army troops. Five white men died as heroes, while approximately twenty-five black troublemakers were killed and hundreds of others were arrested. Order was restored; there were no lynchings. Following fair trials, twelve ringleaders were sentenced to death. This version was immediately contested. Both a 1919 article by NAACP officer Walter White and a 1920 booklet by antilynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett described the event as a violent response by whites to peaceful attempts by blacks to organize a union. Armed white mobs from surrounding Arkansas and Mississippi towns terrorized the black population. Innocent men and women were shot down. Army troops, when they arrived, also participated in the slaughter. Hundreds of black citizens were killed. Jailed blacks were tortured to coerce confessions, and trials were a mockery of justice, with court-appointed defense attorneys conducting no cross-examinations and calling no witnesses. And so the controversy began-words flying almost as soon as the bullets stopped. Many books and articles have since appeared, but consensus has proved elusive. Grif Stockley's Blood In Their Eyes arrives, then, as a conscious participant in an enduring dialogue. Deeply read in the prior scholarship, Stockley makes clear his own position in his choice of subtitle-for him the Elaine conflict was a race massacre where for two horrific days area blacks were murdered by the hundreds, first by roving bands of white vigilantes on October 1, and then by U.S. Army troops on October 2. The successes of the official version resulted from the skillful manipulation of Governor Brough and utilization of local and media by the Phillips County planter elite: As early as the second day of the Elaine massacres, the white power structure in the Delta, including the media, began to formulate an explanation of the events that was psychologically irresistible to almost everyone, including the governor and the black elite of the state (p. xv). Blood In Their Eyes is a passionately argued book based on years of diligent research. It possesses many strengths. Stockley is himself an attorney, and his discussion of the various trials and legal maneuverings is especially effective. His portrayal of Scipio Jones, the black Little Rock attorney who successfully pursued legal appeals to overturn the death sentences, is particularly persuasive, and one of the book's high points. Jones was patronized by northern NAACP officials in his own day, and is sometimes dismissed as a class-conscious Uncle Tom by more recent historians. But Stockley's careful portrait reveals a brave and tenacious man who labored long and acted adroitly to save men's lives-and succeeded, against odds. The story has other moments of intelligent and/or courageous behavior-by white defense attorneys George Murphy and Edgar McHaney, Pulaski County chancellor John E. …

"We Have Just Begun": Black Organizing and White Response in the Arkansas Delta, 1919

ON THE LAST NIGHT OF SEPTEMBER 1919, Phillips County deputy sheriff Charles Pratt and two assistants traveled twenty miles south out of Helena, Arkansas, in apparent pursuit of a bootlegger. Shortly after stopping-reportedly to repair a flat tire-in front of a small church at Hoop Spur, just north of the town of Elaine, a shot rang out, followed quickly by a volley of gunfire. Inside the church, a group of black farmers was meeting to consider plans to demand a better price for their cotton and a fairer settlement from their landlords. Many had recently joined the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America, a local group that had organized chapters of black workers in several Phillips County communities. Interrupted in their discussions by the shooting and believing their union to be under attack, the men hastened to the windows, loaded their weapons, and joined the fray.1 After receiving news of the initial clash at Hoop Spur, public officials, local businessmen, and plantation owners in Helena organized a campaign to crush the black union. Their efforts, aided by the intervention of more than five hundred federal troops, marked the bloodiest clash of a tumultuous year of racial violence and labor strife in the United States.2 Joining armed posses from three states, the troops raided homes, chased sharecroppers into the woods,jailed and interrogated hundreds of black men and women, and forced hundreds more back to work in the fields and sawmills. Army reports acknowledged twenty-five African Americans were killed. Unofficial reports place the death toll much higher.3 In the aftermath of the Elaine Race Riot, sixty-seven African Americans were hurriedly sentenced to prison terms for their participation in a purported rebellion and twelve were condemned to death for the murder of five white people who died in the fighting. All the sentences were overturned after a highly-- publicized five-year legal battle that reached the United States Supreme Court.4 Looking back across eighty years, the attempt by African American workers to organize a union in the Arkansas delta might appear foolhardy, even self-destructive, given the overwhelming political, social, and economic power of the white elites. It would be easy to fall back upon popular stereotypes of black southerners in explaining the surprising upsurge of militancy in Phillips County. Their efforts might be dismissed as the tragic result of the assumed rural isolation, ignorance, and naivete of black delta farmers. Similarly, it would be easy to rely on popular representations of white southerners to explain the murderous reaction of Phillips County whites. Most contemporaneous press accounts and some historical treatments have considered the events in such a way. The southern press presumed that gullible sharecroppers had been duped into a money-making scheme by either Robert L. Hill, a charismatic black union organizer, or U. S. Bratton, a white attorney who had provided legal assistance to some of the union members.5 The national black press and liberal magazines emphasized the viciousness of the posses and law enforcement officials, but offered little to explain the motivations of Phillips County whites. Attempting to build popular support for the legal defense of the accused sharecroppers, these publications described the black men as simple and guileless victims of a racist hysteria.6 Much of the subsequent scholarship on Elaine, including two books and a half-dozen articles, has not proceeded much beyond these characterizations. The black farmers are portrayed as passive victims while whites remain a monolithic mob of reactionary hatemongers. The stereotypes, however, obscure the very distinctive conditions shaping the actions of both blacks and whites in Phillips County in 1919. At the end of the First World War, county residents confronted radically changing economic and social conditions. Under these circumstances, blacks and whites developed conflicting visions of Phillips County's future and their role in it. …

Low Villains and Wickedness in High Places: Race and Class in the Elaine Riots

PERHAPS NO EVENT IN THE HISTORY of the Arkansas delta has received as much attention and been the subject of more speculation than the Elaine Race Riot of 1919. Historians, struggling with a mass of rich but contradictory and even tainted evidence, have failed to arrive at a common narrative of events. One noted account amounts to little more than propaganda for the planter elite of Phillips County, while another, a contemporary essay written by a future black leader, focused on exposing the evils of the plantation system.1 As varied as their interpretations have been, however, virtually all share a common shortcoming. only exception is to be found in a novel based on the Elaine riot by an Arkansas protege of Norman Mailer-and that book failed to find an American publisher.2 Competing interpretations of the riot emerged almost as soon as it had ended. Walter White, assistant secretary-and, later, executive secretary-of the NAACP, visited Phillips County incognito in mid October 1919 in order to secure material for an article he later published in Nation. White's interest in the riot almost cost him his life. An African American who, with his blue eyes and blond hair, passed for white, he barely escaped a lynch mob that had discovered his true identity.3 White took exception to the official version of the riot embraced by white officials and published in Arkansas newspapers. This version insisted blacks intended to murder certain white planters and take their lands. Whites, it was said, had discovered the plot accidentally after two deputies whose car had broken down were fired upon by blacks attending a meeting of a sharecroppers' union at Hoop Spur church outside Elaine. Walter White countered that African Americans had organized the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America to sue planters for a fair settlement of their crops, that whites had fired into the church at Hoop Spur in order to disrupt a meeting of the union, and that blacks had returned fire only in self defense.4 However the incident really began, one deputized white official, W. A. Adkins, lay dead and another, Charles Pratt, was seriously wounded. Several days of brutal violence ensued. A posse was quickly raised and rushed to the scene. White men from other parts of Arkansas, as well as from Mississippi and Tennessee, joined in the hunt for the alleged insurrectionists, some of whom fought back. Local white leaders wired Governor Charles Brough asking for federal troops from Camp Pike to restore law and order. Colonel Isaac C. Jenks commanded the 583 soldiers who were dispatched early in the morning of October 2 and were accompanied by Brough. Immediately upon his arrival, Jenks disarmed all blacks as well as white civilians and set about quelling the violence. Martial law was declared, and federal troops patrolled the streets of Elaine and Helena and scoured the countryside. By the time order was restored two days later, five whites and at least twenty-five blacks lay dead. Several hundred blacks were incarcerated in Elaine and Helena. When the Phillips County Grand Jury convened on October 27, over one hundred were still being held. In subsequent trials twelve were sentenced to death for first degree murder and another sixty-seven to prison terms. white community celebrated the trials and convictions as evidence of the rule of law over mob violence.5 Most of the facts in the official version of the riot were disputed not only by Walter White but by lawyers who appealed the convictions of the twelve black men sentenced to death. Yet the official version showed some staying power. One account written forty years after the riot essentially reiterated it. In 1961 J. W. Butts and Dorothy James published The Underlying Causes of the Elaine Riot of 1919, in this journal, arguing that a few disgruntled and misled African Americans hatched a plot to murder white planters and take their lands, that this insurrection was discovered before the conspirators could bring their plans to fruition, and that the white community responded reasonably given the situation. …

Attributes of Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Colonies in Northcentral Montana

We examined several characteristics of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies in Phillips County, Montana, including slope, aspect, soils, land tenure, and distance from roads using a geographic information system (GIS). Colonies exhibited significantly smaller slopes, but not significantly different aspects than did randomly located polygons. In addition, colonies were more prevalent than expected on well drained clay-loam and loam soils and on U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land than on other soil types or on private land. Although prairie dogs commonly use roads for dispersal, distance to nearest road was not related to prairie dog density nor to colony area. These findings could be used to develop a cartographic model of preferred black-tailed prairie dog habitat useful for prairie dog monitoring and management, and for estimating prairie dog expansion potential for possible black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) reintroduction sites.

Charadrius montanus: Montane, Grassland, or Bare-Ground Plover?

The Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) is an aridland member of the Charadriidae. This plover is generally considered an associate of the North American shortgrass prairie, which is dominated by blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides; Graul 1975). The species breeds at many locations across the western Great Plains plus at isolated locales in western Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico (Leachman and Osmundson 1990) and recently in eastern Utah (K. S. Day pers. comm.). Continental populations of the Mountain Plover declined 63% from 1966 to 1991 (Knopf 1994), with the historic and current breeding stronghold being the Pawnee National Grassland in Weld County, Colorado (Graul and Webster 1976). Currently, a second major breeding population of Mountain Plovers is on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, Phillips County, Montana. Unlike when found on the grassland landscape of Weld County, Mountain Plovers in Phillips County selectively nest in prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) towns (Knowles et al. 1982, Olson and Edge 1985) in vegetative settings that include prickly pear (Opuntia polyacantha), fringed sagewort (Artemisia frigida), big sagebrush (A. tridentata), western wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii), and blue grama. Collectively, Weld and Phillips counties provide nesting habitat for approximately one-half of the continental population of Mountain Plovers. Despite the differences in vegetation associations at the two major nesting locales, both Graul (1975) and Olson and Edge (1985) have described the tendency of plovers to place nests in areas of low herbaceous vegetation, reduced shrub cover, and near prominent objects such as cow-manure piles or similar-sized rocks. However, plover nests on Montana prairie dog towns also occur in areas of approximately 27% bare ground, a descriptor not mentioned by Graul (1975). The bare-ground variable may have some significance in light of recent findings of plovers sometimes nesting on plowed fields (Shackford 1991, pers. comm.) and descriptions of wintering habitats of plovers that mention use of freshly plowed ground in the San Joaquin and Imperial valleys of California (Grinnell and Miller 1944). We used a methodology similar to that employed in the Montana studies to ascertain if nest sites of Mountain Plovers also include a component of bare ground in native habitats on the

Attitudes toward a Proposed Reintroduction of Black‐Footed Ferrets (Mustela nigripes)

Sociological considerations are crucial to recovery efforts such as the proposed reintroduction of endangered black‐footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) into Phillips County, Montana. Many past reintroduction attempts have failed or been less successful because they neglected these concerns. This study examined knowledge, attitudes, and opinions of ranchers toward black‐footed ferrets, prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), and the proposed ferret reintroduction using informal, unstructured interviews and a mail sample survey. Ranchers within the proposed reintroduction site were antagonistic toward the program, the ferret, and especially the prairie dogs upon which black‐footed ferrets depend for survival. Of six sample groups, local ranchers scored highest on negativistic, libertarian/dominionistic, and utilitarian attitude scales and lowest on moralistic, humanistic, and naturalistic/ecologistic attitude scales. Their attitudes were most similar to those of ranchers statewide, followed by residents of Phillips County, Montana, Billings, Montana, residents, and members of the Montana Wildlife Federation; they were least similar to attitudes of members of conservation organizations other than the Montana Wildlife Federation. Local ranchers perceived themselves as having little knowledge of black‐footed ferrets, even though they received significantly higher scores on the black‐footed ferret knowledge scales than did most other groups, and they perceived themselves as having great knowledge of prairie dogs, even though their scores on the prairie dog knowledge scales were no better than any other group. These results are useful for ranking the suitability of reintroduction sites, for formulating policies, and for developing more effective public relations campaigns. The results highlight the need for education and public relations programs that do more than simply provide facts and information. Well‐conceived public relations programs should use pressure, purchase, and persuasion to try to change or neutralize opposition and to develop, conserve, and strengthen support. Endangered species reintroduction and recovery programs will rarely succeed if they do not actively consider and incorporate the values, attitudes, behaviors, and desires of the local public.

Control of Spider Mites in Cotton, 1990

Abstract Treatments were applied on 1 Aug to ‘Stoneville 453’ cotton in Phillips County, AR, using a CO2 powered backpack sprayer calibrated to deliver 10.5 gal/acre at 50 psi through TX-4 hollowcone nozzles on a 19-inch spacing. Plots were 2, 38-inch rows, 50 ft long arranged in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications. Evaluations were made 2 DAT using a hand-lens to count the number of spider mites on a total of 3.6-inches2 of leaf area on the upper portion of the cotton plants in the center 2 rows of each plot.

County Records for Two Mustelids in Kansas

Southward dispersal of the least weasel in Kansas has been well documented (Choate et al., 1979). No previous specimens have been reported from Rooks County (Bee et al., 1981). On 23 April 1982, a female least weasel was obtained by Mr. Phil Hinger at a place 51/2 mi N, 41/2 mi E Plainville (W1/2 sec. 34, T.8S, R.17W) between Elm Creek and Medicine Creek, both tributaries of the Kansas River System. Mr. Hinger stated that he had taken the weasel from his dog. The specimen was given to Ron Little and Scott Hanzlicek of the Kansas Fish and Game Commission, who subsequently gave it to the Museum of the High Plains, Fort Hays State University (MHP 20931). External measurements (in mm) of the specimen are: total length, 186; length of tail, 27; length of hind foot, 20; length of ear from notch, 10. The animal was in summer pelage. The nearest other records of occurrence are approximately 30 mi N, 6/2 mi E in Phillips County, and 71/2 mi N, 151/2 mi E in Osborne County (Choate et al., 1979). This specimen represents not only the first occurrence of this species in Rooks County, but also the westernmost locality of record for this species in the state.

Waterfowl Production on Three Age-Classes of Stock Ponds in Montana

Waterfowl use and productivity was studied on 27 stock ponds of 3 age-classes (0-5, 6-10, and 11+ years) in north central Montana during 1978-79. Breeding pair use was primarily a function of pond size. Brood use was influenced principally by the availability of food and cover. Brood densities were highest on ponds with emergent vegetation covering >30% of the area, submerged vegetation covering >20% of the area, and with 40% of the area <61 cm deep. Incorporation of these physical features should be considered at the time of pond construction. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 47(1):112-117 With continued wetland drainage in areas such as the prairie pothole region of North America, stock ponds are becoming increasingly important to waterfowl production. Recommendations to enhance waterfowl use of stock ponds have been made (Uhlig 1963, Lokemoen 1973, Gjersing 1975), but little information exists for some geographic areas on the relationship between waterfowl use and stock pond characteristics. The objective of this study was to compare waterfowl use and productivity with physical and vegetational features on 27 stock ponds of 3 ageclasses in Phillips County, Montana during 1978-79. The author acknowledges R. L. Eng for project planning, technical supervision, and critical review of the manuscript; R. D. Crawford for critical review of the manuscript; personnel of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Malta, Montana for their cooperation; and F. M. Gjersing and M. G. Miller for advice and field assis-

Selective Use of Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Towns by Mountain Plovers

--Habitat use by Mountain Plovers (Charadrius montanus) was studied in north-central Montana during 1978 and 1979. Mountain Plovers were found to selectively inhabit black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns. Horizontal visibility and bare ground were significantly greater inside prairie dog towns used by plovers than adjacent areas. Total plant cover and grass cover were significantly lower inside prairie dog towns than on adjacent areas. Most towns on the study area were associated with an area that was intensively grazed by cattle. Plovers used only the active towns larger than 3 ha located on level upland sites (n = 16 out of 35). The ecology and behavior of the Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) have been studied in southeastern Wyoming and northeastern Colorado (Laun 1957; Baldwin 1971; Graul 1973a, b, 1974, 1975; Graul and Webster 1976). None of these reports mention Mountain Plovers using prairie dog towns. Cameron (1907) found these plovers to be associated with prairie dog towns in southeastern Montana. Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns occupy level sites, are intensively grazed by cattle, and have short vegetation. Prairie dog towns represent a distinctive habitat in this region and also are used by Homed Larks (Eremophila alpestris), Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus), and Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia). The purpose of our study was to investigate the association of Mountain Plovers with prairie dog towns, and to describe related habitat characteristics. STUDY AREA AND METHODS Our study area, comprising 560 sq km on the north side of the Missouri River, was 100 km southwest of Malta in Phillips County, Montana on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR; Fig. 1). It is within the timbered breaks of the river and is characterized by alternating deep-cut coulees and steepsided ridges. Major ridgetops are broad and flat, becoming progressively wider with increasing distance from the river. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) dominate slopes with northerly exposures. The dominant plant species on the level ridgetops are western wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii), blue grama (Bouteloua gracillis), prickly pear (Opuntia polycantha), fringed sagewort (Artemisia frigida), and big sagebrush A. tridentata). Knowles (1975) described fully the vegetation of this area. The mean annual precipitation and temperature are 35 cm and 6.6?C. To obtain distributional data on Mountain Plovers, we established a system of 18 vehicular transects throughout the study area (Fig. 1). Nine of the transects, totalling 19.2 km, were in prairie dog towns, and nine others, totalling 18.5 km, were outside of towns. The route was run 10 times, generally in the morning, at approximately one-week intervals from I June to 8 August 1979 using a three-wheeled all-terrain motorcycle. Cruising speed along the transects was 15 km/h; we stopped only to record observations of Mountain Plovers visible from the vehicle. A chi-square test of homogeneity was used to test the hypothesis that numbers of plovers within and outside of towns were homogeneous. Horizontal visibility within and adjacent to six prairie dog towns used by Mountain Plovers was measured with a coverboard 2 m high, I dm wide and divided in 1 dm intervals. One transect was placed inside and one adjacent to each of the six towns. Each visibility transect consisted of two parallel, 150-m lines spaced 60 m apart. Six stakes were placed along each line at 30-m intervals. Coverboard sightings were taken from each stake along one line perpendicular to the corresponding stake on the opposite line, and diagonally to the closest stake left and/or right of the corresponding stake (stake 1, line A to stake 2, line B, etc). This scheme allowed 16 measurements per transect. Eye level for the sightings was at 1 m and visibility was estimated to the nearest 5%. A Mann-Whitney U-test was used to test

SIX METEORITES FROM KANSAS: PETROGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS AND RARE GASES

Electron microprobe analyses and petrographic observations demonstrate that Almelo Township (L6), Beeler (LL6), Kalvesta (H4), Phillips County (L6), and Yocemento (L5) are typical ordinary chondrites. Selden has abnormally iron‐rich silicates and nickel‐rich metal, and it may have been a lower petrologic type that has been shocked to an LL5. Shielding corrected exposure ages range from 0.80 m.y. (Kalvesta) to 47.0 m.y. (Yocemento).

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Phillips County Community College (Arkansas)

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Phillips County Community College (Arkansas)

Beyond Black: An Alternative to Ethnocentric Guidance

Journal of Non-White Concerns in Personnel and GuidanceVolume 5, Issue 4 p. 148-152 Beyond Black: An Alternative to Ethnocentric Guidance Robert C. Goldman, Robert C. GoldmanSearch for more papers by this author Robert C. Goldman, Robert C. GoldmanSearch for more papers by this author First published: October 1977 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-4950.1977.tb00060.x Robert C. Goldman is Director of Financial Aid and a Vocational Counselor, Phillips County Community College, Helena, Arkansas. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume5, Issue4October 1977Pages 148-152 RelatedInformation

Formation of olivine-metal textures in pallasite meteorites

The olivine-metal textures of pallasites help elucidate the formation of these meteorites. Large sections of pallasites with angular olivines commonly contain olivine masses 5–30 cm in size, which appear to have been disintegrating into smaller fragments, like those dispersed through the metal. It is suggested that these masses were parts of olivine layers, which were intruded by underlying molten metal. Gravitational separation of olivine and metal was probably prevented by incipient solidification of metal. Pallasites with rounded olivines probably had a fairly similar history, but with additional annealing after metal solidification had started. Grain boundary energy was reduced by decreasing the area of metal-olivine interface and increasing the contact between touching olivines. Because of the vastly different nature of metal and olivine, their mutual interfacial energy is high and the degree of anisotropy of this energy is low. The occurrence of profuse, small faces on rounded olivines is therefore consistent with the ‘metamorphic’ origin which is proposed for rounded olivines. In many pallasites with angularolivine macrostructures, magnifications of 5–50 × reveal similar rounding effects, including aggregates of rounded olivines, and individual crystals which may be faceted. The high metal-troilite ratio of Phillips County suggests that this pallasite formed by mixing of olivine with S-rich liquid metal around 1000°C, near the Fe-FeS eutectic temperature.

Pallasites—metal composition, classification and relationships with iron meteorites

Concentrations of Au, As, Co, Ga, Ge, Ir, Ni and W were determined in the metal of 28 different pallasites plus 6 which are probably paired, to help elucidate their origin. Most divide into two clusters: No. Ni (%) Ga (μg/g) Ge (μg/g) Au (μg/g) Fa (mole %) Main group 19 7.8–11.7 16–26 29–65 1.7–3.0 11–13 Eagle Station trio 3 14–16 4.5–6 75–120 0.8–1.0 19–20 In the main group Ni is negatively correlated with Ga, Ge and positively with Au and probably with the Fa content of the olivine. The other members of the Eagle Station trio are Cold Bay and Itzawisis. Rawlinna, Springwater and Phillips County have metal compositions appropriate to high-Ni main group members but fayalite contents are too high for main group trends. Glorieta Mountain and Pavlodar appear to be unique pallasites. Ilimaes, Antofagasta, Ollague and Salta are probably pieces of Imilac, a main group member. On a Ga-Ge plot, main group pallasites overlap the field of IIIAB iron meteorites and Au, As, Ir, Ni and W contents of the metal are very close to those of the high-Ni IIIAB irons. It is likely that both groups formed in the same parent body. The Eagle Station trio might be related to certain anomalous irons with high Ge/Ga ratios and may have formed in a more oxidizing environment.

Waterfowl Response to Rest-Rotation Grazing

Waterfowl production on the stock-water reservoirs in the Milk River Association Allotment, Phillips County, Montana, was studied during 1973 and 1974 to evaluate the influence of rest-rotation grazing management. The breeding pair population increased by 42 percent, from 190 to 270 pairs, and brood production increased by 50 percent, from 127 to 191, during the study. Breeding pairs, broods, and species diversity increased on the allotment since 1970. Changes in the distribution of breeding pairs and broods suggested a positive response by waterfowl to the previous year's rest treatment, and a negative response to heavy grazing pressure during the late summer and fall of the previous year. Waterfowl responded positively to rest and deferred treatments, and negatively to spring grazing during the current season. Shoreline and upland transects established during 1974 indicated that new vegetation accumulated most rapidly in those pastures deferred from early season grazing. The greatest accumulation of residual vegetation occurred in the pasture rested and the pasture grazed only during the spring. Regrowth, following relief from grazing, contributed to the accumulation of residual vegetation. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 40(1):60-68 The construction of stock-water reservoirs has provided waterfowl breeding habitat in regions where such habitat was sparse or absent (Bue et al. 1952, Smith 1953, Uhlig 1963). The importance of these reservoirs in the annual production of waterfowl results from the comparative stability of water levels between years (Bue et al. 1964), the relatively high rate of reproductive success associated with low population densities (Smith 1953, Rundquist 1973: 62), and the large area involved (Smith 1953). A potential conflict between waterfowl and grazing animals exists on these reservoirs. Bue et al. (1952) demonstrated that grazing by cattle reduced the nesting cover rating of the upland vegetation around stock ponds. Furthermore, the quality of the shoreline cover decreased with increased grazing intensity, resulting in a reduction in use by breeding pairs and broods. Kirsch (1969) found higher nest densities and nesting success on ungrazed than on grazed plots. Rest-rotation (Hormay and Talbot 1961) is a grazing system which employs periodic rest to achieve an improved range condition. A grazing formula may be designed for maximum livestock production, but it also may consider other land uses. Gjersing (1975) demonstrated higher reproductive success and increases in waterfowl production on two allotments managed with restrotation, as compared to control units with continuous grazing. This study was a further evaluation of waterfowl response to rest-rotation management and emphasized responses to the individual treatments of the grazing formula. Field data were collected during the summer of 1973 and the spring and summer of 1974. The author gratefully acknowledges R. L. Eng for project planning, field assistance, and advice during preparation of the manuscript; D. C. Quimby and W. R. Gould for critical review of the manuscript; and F. M. Gjersing and J. D. Jones for project planning and field assistance.