This month, Yellowstone National Park turns 150. A milestone well worth celebrating.
Yellowstone is often associated with Westerners. Its grizzlies, exploding volcanoes, wolf packs, and elk traffic jams are all what come to mind. Not to mention the bubbling, iridescent hot springs that draw swarms from all over the globe. The park is a treasure in the Northern Rockies. But, to me, a 35-year-old journalist, the real wonder of Yellowstone is its rich wildlife world.
But any discussion about wildlife here is wrapped in a paradox. Despite COVID-19 or perhaps because of it in 2021 Yellowstone broke all monthly, seasonal, and annual visitor records with nearly 4.9 million visits. This is 860,000 higher than in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic. Yellowstone could easily surpass 5 million this year with social media and marketing efforts aimed at the 150th anniversary of the park.
Even if the park doesn’t reach that milestone, many people who have been visiting the park for decades claim its roads and its ability to serve visitors are already overwhelmed. There are also many public facilities in the gateway cities of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Even though it only affects a small portion of the parkland, all the curious tourists create troubling ripples.
Yellowstone is neither an isolated island nor a drive through zoo. It is the only ecosystem in Lower 48 that has all of the original mammal types that existed before Europeans arrived.
Based on the health and diversity of its wildlife populations, Yellowstone now feels wilder than it did in 1872 when poachers and bounty hunters almost wiped out all the wildlife.
Grizzly bears were rescued from a population that was in decline. Bruce Babbitt, Interior Department, brought back wolves in the mid-1990s. The parks bison population, which was only 23 at one time in the late 19th-century, now stands at 5,000.
If Yellowstone hadn’t been created, if Yellowstone’s winter range had not existed, and if environmental protection laws hadn’t been in place, it is unlikely that these original species would still be around. Many biologists believe most would have perished.
Some people are not celebrating Yellowstone’s birth. Some have called the park an emblem of injustice, which led to the expulsion from their native lands of Indigenous people. These critics see a park that non-white citizens claim they have never been invited to embrace as part their heritage. This must be addressed by the National Park Service.
Once broken, the fragile connections that hold the ecosystem together can’t be repaired. These connections reach far beyond the park boundaries through rivers and migration trails.
The boom in outdoor recreation in West has caused a lot of people to move into parks that are adjacent to national forests. The high numbers of visitors rival public-land usage levels around Moab and Utahs Wasatch. Another threat is that neighboring States like Montana encourage the killing park wolves, bison and others who cross Yellowstones invisible boundary.
Private lands in the vicinity of Yellowstone are being developed and transformed by unplanned development. Chris Servheen who was the U.S. park director for 35 years, warns that this development is the biggest threat to the preservation of grizzlies, and other park species. Fish and Wildlife Services has been the national director for grizzly bear recovery since 1985. Servheen states that wild animals suffer when people, roads, and houses move into their territory. While coexistence may seem like the ultimate goal, humans always win any dispute with wildlife that seeks to survive.
Dave Hallac, who runs the science division at Yellowstone, told me five years ago that he was concerned not only about the Yellowstone ecosystem dying by 1,000 cuts but also death by 10,000 scratches as more people vie for their piece. This trend has only increased.
What is Yellowstone’s most lasting value? This park shows that humans truly appreciate this unique place of wildness. The park also conveys an urgent message to these same people: Limiting our consumption of wild places is something we must choose to do. This is a good thing, and it’s becoming more rare.
Todd Wilkinson contributes to Writers on the Range. writersontherange.orga non-profit dedicated to encouraging lively discussion about the West. He is a Montana writer, and he founded Mountain Journal. mountainjournal.org.