Henry H. Holdsworth / Wild By Nature Gallery
American journalist Todd Wilkinson, who lives in Bozeman, Montana, has been writing
w w w. ye l l ows to n e a d ve n t u re g u i d e. co m
Henry H. Holdsworth / Wild By Nature Gallery
who founded the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative in Jackson, Wyoming, a hub for wildlife research, told me the danger now is of the region being loved to death. The very uncommon, otherworldly mystique of the region, makes it glow brighter like a beacon, causing more to seek it out. But, Clark maintains, there are limits. Consider: In 1916, around 327,000 visitors descended on all of the 35 national parks then in the system. Last year, Yellowstone and Grand Teton each broke visitation records with more than four million logged in each park. Systemwide, more than 307 million visits were made to national parks in 2015, bringing the total going back the beginning of the 20th century to more than 13 billion. Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said the day is rapidly approaching when the park will have to limit the number of people allowed to enter during the peak summer season. The good news for readers of this magazine is that, for now, those who venture more than a mile down a backcountry trail leave the crowds behind. That’s good for solitude-seeking wildlife too that need secure habitat which isn’t inundated by people. And between a record number of people moving to Greater Yellowstone and the effects of climate change, species are coming under added stress. In a story on development trends in the region I penned for National Geographic, Clark told me the survival of Greater Yellowstone is not about just asking wildlife to adapt: it’s about humans altering our behavior to help accommodate that adaptation. Clark, now writing a book titled Signals from the Future: Greater Yellowstone of Tomorrow? is concerned that although the hallmark of Greater Yellowstone today is that things like wildlife migrations still play out in grand fashion, human population pressures and climate change stressing wildlife could cause things to unravel. “Extinction of species is like a big tsunami that’s gathering worldwide and it’s going to crash on the shore of Greater Yellowstone,” Clark said. “The survival of Greater Yellowstone is not about just asking wildlife to adapt, it’s about humans altering our behavior to help accommodate that adaptation.” Dayton Duncan, who co-produced the popular PBS television series titled The National Parks: America’s Best Idea with Ken Burns, told me this, in an interview when President Obama made his first trip to Yellowstone with his family in 2009. “Yellowstone is a uniquely American invention,” Duncan said. “The National Park System is also an American idea. The very notion of setting aside the most spectacular places in the country for everyone, rather than just for the rich or nobility, came from us, and it, in turn, spread across the world. It is part of who we are as a people, embedded in our civic DNA.” The best thing that you can do to save Yellowstone and Grand Teton in this Centennial Year of the National Park Service: Realize they belong to you, that you can use your voice to tell your friends and elected officials they matter. You may never own a giant piece of private property but together with other citizens you hold the title to something better: our national parks.
Marmot parent and cub in fallen Douglas fir tree, Grand Teton National Park
about the West and Greater Yellowstone for 30 years. His work appears in National Geographic among many different publications and he is the author of several books including the recent, critically-acclaimed Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek:
An Intimate Portrait of 399, the Most Famous Bear of Greater Yellowstone featuring images by Jackson Hole nature photographer Thomas Mangelsen. Book only available here: mangelsen.com/grizzly.
Limited Edition Photographs, Books, Calendars, Note Cards
Full & Half Day Private Photo Safaris 95 W. Deloney • Behind the Wort Hotel • Jackson, Wyoming 307-733-8877 www.wildbynaturegallery.com Wild by Nature Inc. is an “authorized permittee of the National Park Service”
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