Yellowstone

Given the popularity of Yellowstone National Park and the news that this year was the busiest on record, Suzanne and Jamie and I opted to make a trip over the last few days of summer and, perhaps, avoid some of the congestion. It also would put us on the ground as the weather cooled in hopes of seeing an increase in wolf activity which was, ostensibly, the real justification for the visit.

The fact is that wolves, and wildlife in general, are only one aspect of a visit to this place. The park itself is primarily a geological preserve. The wildlife is there only because the land has been protected. That protection, and the arbitrary boundaries established when the reserve was set aside in 1872, have created more than a unique and remarkable island of wilderness, it has allowed us to view the changes to the ecosystem created by development and advanced the science of biogeography while allowing us to view both the minute changes and the massive impacts of our interaction with the natural world.

The term "island Yellowstone" has come to be applied to both the park itself and those protected areas adjacent to it. There are wilderness areas abutting the boundaries. There is Grand Teton National Park to the south; but there is also an abundance of unprotected land consisting of National Forest and private holdings. The term "island" becomes meaningful if you consider the impact to the biota of Yellowstone; boundaries mean nothing.

We typically view the health of an ecosystem based on the obvious. In a place like Yellowstone, that would be the apex predators - the grizzly and the wolf. Both these animals are well known to be walking a fine line between survival and disappearance. As noted in the news headlines of late, wolves, following the success of a reintroduction program begun in the fall of 1995 havebeen deemed so abundant that hunting has been allowed in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho this year. That might imply there is no longer a need for concern, that we have somehow managed to correct the wrongs of past decades and all is well once again. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There are wolves in Yellowstone again. And the grizzly, after teetering on the edge for years, seems once again to be re-established. The news that there are many other species facing serious threats might come as a surprise, but as I said, the top of the food chain seems to be the headline grabbers. What of the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout? Almost gone. What of the Whitebark Pine? Dying in frightening numbers. There are others as well, pressured by development and grazing and logging on the adjacent lands. And before dismissing these as insignificant, understand that the trout might be viewed as the canary in the coal mine - a harbinger of changes on a scale that escapes our immediate notice. The Whitebark Pine, on the other hand, is essential to the survival of the grizzly as well as the Clark's Nutcracker to say nothing of the squirrels. As one goes, others will follow.

Yellowstone Park is magnificent. Both as a place and as an idea. It also serves as an example of the Law of Unintended Consequences in that it simply will not allow us to ignore the toll taken on the land by runaway development. Wyoming has the good fortune of being home to both Yellowstone and the Grand Teton parks, and the misfortune to be the home of massive amounts of natural gas - maybe fifteen trillion cubic feet - as well as oil, oil-shale, coal-bed methane. Guess what's going to be happening in Wyoming....

While the energy industry salivates at the opportunity to extract this reserve, others are stepping back saying , "wait a minute...what does this do the the land?". And, of course, to the water, and to the less obvious populations of non-apex animals and to the plantlife. Nothing gets off this train unharmed.. Ironically, money was at the root of the establishment of Yellowstone when the railroads saw an opportunity to cash in on tourism, and money may well be the cause of the death of the place if we stand idly by.

There are clearly polarized positions in the Northern Rockies. A biologist we spoke to in West Yellowstone at the Wolf and Grizzly Discovery Center, told us that if you want to get into a fight pretty much anywhere in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming, just mention wolves. There are the adoring legions of followers sitting on hillsides in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone, spotting scopes trained on the distant treeline across the river, and there are the gun-toting-Sara-Palin-like-shoot'em-from-helicopters folks who think the only good wolf is one with a bullet in the brain. There seems to be very little middle ground on this. Unfortunately, the same can be said about grizzlies and coyotes and oil and gas. In the words of my old buddy Dubya, "if you're not with us you're against us". Devisive. The middle ground on this one is very, very hard to find.

The national treasure which is the Yellowstone River is 671 miles of free-flowing, undammed river. The longest such unencumbered river in the 48 states. I mentioned trout earlier - the numbers there may well tell the story of all that is wrong in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which is the park and all the land, wild and tame, that surrounds it.

Pelican Creek empties into Yellowstone Lake which is both fed by the Yellowstone River and then empties into the Yellowstone River. Pelican Creek is considered some of the finest wildlife habitat in the region and maybe in the world. In the 1980's, Pelican creek had around 30,000 spawning cutthroat trout. In 2004, fisheries biologists found nine. Yes - 9 - fish. Other streams in the area are much the same. We are walking on thin biological crust here, not unlike wandering through the geyers basins of the park and risking breaking through the thin crust and falling into a thermal pool. We'd best tread lightly.

This is the grim news, but in the midst of it all is much to be hopeful about. First is the fact that many, many people are aware of the tenuous state of affairs in Yellowstone and are not standing idly by waiting. Then there is the undeniable success of the wolf reintroduction program. In spite of the convtroversy, and in spite of massive resistance, there are now mulitple successful packs living within the protected confines of the park boundary. After decades of "wildlife management", some semblance of normalcy has returned to the wildness of Yellowstone.

There is also the undeniable fact that, as I mentioned, record numbers are visiting the park. People are aware of just how remarkable place this is and the more folks we get with an interest in preservation the better.

There is conservation and there is preservation. Conservation, the supposed mantra of most government land management agencies, requires them to follow the US Forest Service mulitple use approach in one way or another. These agencies have the misfortune of having to please the loggers, the miners, the hunters and fisherman, the hikers, the RVers, mountain bikers, the motorcyle riders all at the same time. An impossible task. The unfortunate side effect of this approach is that in the end, no one is satisfied. Everyone gives up something of what they want and ends up with less. The Park Service has a slightly different mission in that preservation is the key. At times it feels like the restrictions placed on us by the Park Service as excessive and you'll often hear me complaining, but in truth, preservation is what we need. We simply need to stop cutting and bulldozing and drilling and grazing on massive amounts of land in the Greate Yellowstone. Easy for me to say, since I don't live there and don't own any of it. But then, maybe that's what's needed - people like me who can offer an outsider's perspective without having to juggle my own personal financial impact.

Given our government's propensity for handing out tax dollars, perhaps a good approach would be to stop giving milliions to millionaires, and start spending that money to buy up vast tracts of this land before it's too late. In the end, some people would have to move so at least compensate them for it, but Yellowstone needs it more than AIG execs.

If you haven't visited Yellowstone, you should. It's unlike anyplace else on the planet. It's an idea and a reality. It's a gurgling geological wonderland and a wilderness of animals that can hurt you. It's bitterly cold and miserably hot. It's packed with RVs and it's utter emptiness. But mostly, it's yours. Take care of it.