The Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone National Park have served as iconic symbols of American identity for over a century. Whether we have visited these places or not, they still thrive in our imaginations as expanses of wilderness untouched by civilization. Many decades have passed since this frontier was claimed by farmers, towns, and railroads, but these large areas of remaining intact ecosystems still provide us with the building blocks of life such as clean air and freshwater. They provide critical habitat for wildlife and hold spiritual and recreational value. Yet these places may only exist as we know them for a short while longer. Climate change is wreaking devastating consequences on the landscape and our policy protections for wildlife are woefully inadequate. Below, five scientists and advocates share their perspectives on key aspects on the fight to protect wildlife and wild places in Yellowstone and the encompassing Rockies.
Defending the Yellowstone Grizzly
By Doug Peacock
The tracks of the sow and two-year-old came out of a dead-end thermal drainage, which led up into the deep snow of the high country. Although midApril was a bit late, they may have just emerged from their winter den. I stashed my heavy pack and followed their trail, hoping to backtrack them and see where they had come from. The tiny creek followed a wild fissure in the earth lined with steam vents and hot springs. Some of them were large—deep azure at the bottomless middles, turning sequentially turquoise, cream, yellow, and red as the waters cooled at the edges and supported the different algae that refracted the various colors. A pair of ravens accompanied me out of this crack in the planet’s crust and onto the deep, soft snow.The bear family had walked out the morning before. I gave up and turned back. Even if they had just left their den, it was probably miles away; grizzlies like more rugged terrain for den building. Just as I was about to leave the area and strap on my snowshoes, I rounded a timbered corner and spotted the sow and her two-year-old digging at the edge of open ground. There was no way I could get around the bears without spooking them. I sat back and watched until dusk, when I retreated a mile and set up for the night. I went back to fill my canteen, but before I could get to the creek I saw the sow and cub grazing and digging their way downstream. I backtracked again, giving them room, and filled my canteen at a muddy rivulet back in the trees. It was their valley not mine. *** The idea of saving an animal like the grizzly bear is shockingly new. Prior to the last several decades, the American brown bear was summarily dispatched on virtually every occasion over every inch of the hard and rapid conquest of the West. He was a varmint, a giant pest, the devil incarnate. He was poisoned Spring 2010
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