Yellowstone National Park

Established in 1872 as the world’s first national park, Yellowstone has served as the inspiration for preserves throughout the world. No place on earth better represents the national park ideal.

Yellowstone Park is a land of superlatives: the greatest variety of geothermal features on earth; one of the most extensive petrified forests; and diverse wildlife including the grizzly bear and free-roaming herds of bison, elk, moose, bighorn sheep and mule deer. Yellowstone Park is headwaters to three major river systems, the Green, Yellowstone and Snake rivers, and supports a renowned trout fishery. Recognizing these values, the United Nations has declared Yellowstone a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve.

Another measure of the Park's value is visitation, which has grown steadily. Yellowstone hosts over 3 million visitors a year – 1 million more visitors will visit this year than did in 1980. Along with overall increases, there has been a tremendous increase in off-season (fall, winter and spring) use. In 1967, about 5,200 travelers visited during the winter months. Today, there are well over 100,000, with many using individual snow machines.

The rising human population of Yellowstone, both transient and resident, brings pressure on Park resources. These impacts include the loss of wildlife habitat; the removal – and sometimes death – of wildlife as a result of confrontations; documented poaching; and the effect of vehicles, construction, and recreational use on air and water quality.

The Wildlife of Yellowstone:

bighorn sheep
bison
elk
gray wolf
grizzly bear
lynx
moose
mountain lion
mule & white-tailed deer
river otter
wolverine

yellowstone cutthroat trout

Over the long term, the integrity of Yellowstone also depends on the environmental quality of lands nearby. Some current or potential external threats to Yellowstone are obvious. They include acid mine runoff, disruption of geothermal aquifers by drilling, and the loss of migratory habitat to timber harvest, mining, and development. Development and subdivision around the park continues to increase as the Yellowstone region becomes home to more people and increases in popularity as a tourist destination. And the west boundary of Yellowstone Park is a straight line on satellite images, marked by the clearcuts of the Targhee National Forest.

Other threats, like regional losses in biodiversity, are subtle but far-reaching. A 1980 report on the “State of the Parks” issued by the National Park Service Office of Science and Technology detailed some 46 internal and external threats to the integrity of the Park. Of over 200 units surveyed, Yellowstone, the world’s first wildland reserve, was ranked near the top of the list for serious environmental problems.

In the Media

Apr 27, 2008 - CUT land a good first step in bison management (Bozeman Daily Chronicle) -

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