Issues

No one seems particularly happy with the proposed Winter Use Plan put forward by Yellowstone National Park officials earlier this month -- and that may be good news for those who actually want to see it implemented.

Call it the Yellowstone National Park equivalent of demand-based planning: a draft Winter Use Plan from the National Park Service has variable daily-use limits based on demand and overall usage numbers.

Officials with the National Parks Conservation Association are working to save a vexing issue: How to reverse the serious decline of the number of pronghorn antelopes in Yellowstone National Park. The solution is appallingly simple.

Snowmobile-advocacy groups, concessionaires and regional outfitters have already won the battle over the next Winter Use Plan for Yellowstone National Park, as the National Park Service has distilled the many public comments into six proposed usage scenarios that would not really change much at all and continue the current ban on cars in the Park during winter months.

Year by year the distribution of wolf packs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem becomes larger and more dense. New packs spring up, or move, each year. Some packs disappear, in some cases because the wolves naturally die off or split, in other cases, such as the Moccasin Pack near Red Lodge, Montana, because they are eradicated by agreement of the relevant state …

Yellowstone National Park biologists suggest a drop in the wolf population is due to a return of distemper in the packs. Out of the 11 Yellowstone packs, three have no pups, with several more showing a reduced number. In addition, the adult mortality rate seems to be higher than normal, leading Doug Smith, Yellowstone’s lead wolf biologist, to suspect the …

[Friday July 19, 2008] As shoe dropping goes, the Rocky Mountain wolf story has more footwear than Imelda Marcos. On Friday, July 18, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction restoring the gray wolf in the northern Rocky Mountains to the endangered species list. The western wolf was delisted by the federal government (Fish and Wildlife Service) in …

[Thursday April 10, 2008] At least ten wolves have been reportedly killed in Wyoming since the state took over wolf management responsibility March 28th. Four were killed by the U.S. Agriculture Department Wildlife Services in Sublette County, near Lander, Wyoming as they were marauding cattle in an enclosed area. All of the wolves killed were outside the state defined ‘trophy-game zone’, …

[Friday, March 21, 2008] Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials kill pack’s four wolves because of cattle predation. Moccasin Lake, located in the northern reaches of the Beartooth Mountains, about twenty miles west of Red Lodge, Montana has been home to the “Moccasin Lake Pack” for several years. The territory is close the national forest boundary and in a region with …

   Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding Greater Yellowstone Region can be enjoyed for exactly what it is—a beautiful and unusual place. There’s nothing wrong with taking at face value what you see here. However it’s important to understand that preserving and maintaining this beautiful and unusual place doesn’t happen by accident. It costs money and takes a lot of effort. It …