Issues

Improved Yellowstone cell service is on the way, as trails are closed to allow the installation of new antennas at the Mount Washburn Fire Lookout — but some groups are decrying the upgrades as an unnecessary intrusion into the Park’s bucolic nature.

It seems hard to believe, but 1988’s Yellowstone fires are all of sudden 30 years ago. “Sometimes it seems like 30 weeks,” Roy Renkin, a park biologist and vegetation researcher said recently.

Yes, the stories about lines and traffic jams created by Yellowstone crowds are indeed true, as the National Park Service tallied 810,884 visits in June 2018, a slight increase over last year (803,652 visits) and below June 2016 (838,316 visits) numbers, which remains the busiest June ever in Yellowstone.

With the Yellowstone National Park fire danger level upgraded last week to moderate, we’re now seeing the first fire activity of 2018, with the lightning-ignited Hayden Fire visible from the Grand Loop Road between Canyon Village and Mud Volcano.

Plan accordingly: Popular Mount Washburn trails and trailhead parking lots from Dunraven Pass and Chittenden Road will close Thursday, July 12, at 12 a.m.

A new Yellowstone Lewis River bridge is being proposed by National Park Service officials, and the NPS is seeking public comment on the project.

When current Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk launched an effort to remain in the post–first via public comments, then from a failed effort to retire in 2019–one of his warnings was that the Park’s bison management policies could come under fire.

Yellowstone Forever funding to the tune of $5.9 million will be used for 53 priority projects in Yellowstone National Park, including the wolf program, trailhead information displays, visitation analysis and black bear research.

The numbers are in: We saw the highest Yellowstone May visitation numbers ever in 2018, which will undoubtedly lead to more discussions of how best to handle increasingly larger crowds in America’s first national park.

Opponents of a proposed mine just north of Yellowstone National Park in Montana’s Paradise Valley won a key legal victory when Park County Judge Brenda Gilbert ruled that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) must conduct a more extensive environmental review before issuing an gold mining exploration permit.