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Is it time to expand Yellowstone National Park? – Daily Montanan [1]

['More From Author', 'July', 'George Wuerthner']

Date: 2023-07-31  

Wildlands advocates should work to expand Yellowstone National Park and preserve the entire Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem under National Park Management.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the largest intact temperate ecosystem in the world. But it is suffering the cumulative impacts of a thousand cuts. Something needs to change, or we may lose our last chance to get it right.

Across the globe, large, protected areas have been shown repeatedly to be the best way to preserve evolutionary processes and biodiversity. Even where species decline is noted, the creation and maintenance of protected preserves tends to slow the losses and, in some cases, reverse the trend.

If we can’t preserve the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem here, where can we?

Depending on how you define the borders, Greater Yellowstone is anywhere from 20-23 million acres. To put that into perspective, that is roughly the acreage of Maine. The heart of the ecosystem is the 2.2-million-acre Yellowstone National Park. Surrounding the park are other parklands like Grand Teton National Park and national forest wilderness areas.

Unfortunately, most of the public lands outside the National Park and Wilderness Areas are “open” for business. Mining, logging, livestock grazing, oil and gas drilling, and Industrial recreation all find a favorable reception in the national forests.

The National Park Service is the ideal agency for managing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem because its mission is to enhance and preserve natural processes and minimize human influences.

The NPS has a mandate to manage these lands for all people.

Enlarging Yellowstone Park would ensure more winter range for the park’s ungulates like bison, elk and pronghorn. It would ensure predators can roam freely over more of the landscape without fear of being trapped or shot. A bigger park would store more carbon and preserve more headwater streams from mining, grazing and logging.

Parks and wilderness are among our best lifeboats for countering this species’ demise. Given the fundamental mission of the NPS to protect and preserve evolutionary and ecological processes, not to mention individual species, the creation of a Greater Yellowstone National Park would likely ensure that the ecosystem will continue to be a place where species have a chance of survival into the next century.

Wildland preservation is an expansion of “rights” to other creatures. It fosters an attitude of self-control and personal responsibility—both essential elements of any society.

We should leave the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem more intact than we found it, and we have an obligation to ensure that future Generations and the lands’ wildlife and plant life are enhanced and increased.

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