Southeast Arm of Yellowstone Lake
Yellowstone………For most people the word brings to mind visions of Old Faithful Geyser, the green of pine forests, campgrounds brimming with colorful tents and RV’s, roads busy with wildlife-viewing summer visitors and rangers giving campfire talks to hushed audiences as the fire crackles and pops. Yet, to some, Yellowstone brings to mind something even more precious – real wilderness. This Yellowstone Wilderness is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the sometimes crowded tourist areas. This Yellowstone is raw nature, encountered only on its own terms. This Yellowstone is a land of trails leading to far off hidden corners of the Park. It is a land of deep, profound silence, punctuated by rushing rivers daring to be crossed without a bridge. It is a land teeming with wildlife, providing a look back in time to the America that once was. And always it is a land of surprises, with every turn bringing something new and unexpected. Welcome to the Yellowstone Wilderness Mag, a free online publication dedicated to celebrating the Yellowstone backcountry while advocating for its designation as Federal Wilderness.
Yellowstone is a vast and complex place, with enormous value to all of humanity for many reasons. The Yellowstone Wilderness Mag explores the true essence of Yellowstone, its incredibly well-preserved backcountry, which is over 96 percent of the Park, in great detail through photographs and writing. It isn’t the intent of the Yellowstone Wilderness Mag to divulge the exact location of “secret” or “hidden” beauty spots in Yellowstone, but rather to celebrate the backcountry as a whole, leaving mystery and exploration to the backcountry traveler, whether they be online, or on the trail.
Much has been written about Yellowstone, the world’s first National Park, and much continues to be written. The Yellowstone Wilderness Mag believes that, as time goes on and the world’s ecosystems become more and more fragmented, Yellowstone’s primary value lies in the fact that its backcountry areas comprise the largest remaining intact ecosystem in the world’s temperate zones today. While respectfully providing a platform for an ongoing dialogue concerning issues of importance to the Yellowstone backcountry, the Yellowstone Wilderness Mag provides factual, educational, relevant commentary on many of these issues while trying to focus on the goals of long-term ecosystem health and wilderness designation. The Yellowstone Wilderness Mag definitely provides a counter-point to the official National Park Service backcountry management policies. The Yellowstone Wilderness Mag, obviously, is not a government publication and is not affiliated with, or beholden to, any organization or cause other than that of informing and educating on the subject of Yellowstone’s backcountry.
In the spirit of stewardship and good journalism, the Yellowstone Wilderness Mag views its first official duty as being a voice crying for Yellowstone’s Wilderness to be designated as such, as the Wilderness Act of 1964 mandated (see Laws Regarding Yellowstone Wilderness). While most people believe Yellowstone is a completely protected sanctuary, guaranteed by law to remain forever pristine and inviolate, this actually is not the case. While it’s true Yellowstone receives the protection it rightfully deserves as a National Park, its backcountry also presently lacks official Wilderness Designation. When one considers that the Wilderness Act, passed in 1964, required all National Parks to evaluate their roadless backcountry lands for inclusion into the Wilderness Preservation System, and this still has not been done with Yellowstone, one can’t help but wonder why, especially since inclusion would be one of the most important ways to insure permanent, long-term survival of this unique ecosystem. That’s right folks, what we’re saying is that the U.S. Congress is, at the time of this writing, an incredible 50 years overdue on this action! Congress HAS designated wilderness in many other large National Parks, by the way. This mandate may actually be one of the longest-running ignored conservation laws in the U.S. at this time. (Legal scholars feel free to start researching). Anyway, we at the Yellowstone Wilderness Mag feel wilderness designation is actually very important, and more than just a mere formality required by law.
Upper Pebble Creek, Proposed Wilderness Unit 5
So, “why wilderness”, you might ask? “Isn’t Yellowstone Park adequately protected by existing laws?” While it’s true National Park protection is a very high level of protection for land in many ways, road-building and industrial tourism development are not exclusively prohibited in National Parks (see Laws Regarding Yellowstone Wilderness). Additionally, the history of Yellowstone, as well as many other National Parks, has been fraught with concessionaire and development corruption (see Recommended Reading). At the time of this writing, 2013, there are presently proposals for another road in Alaska’s Denali National Park, and this type of pressure never ceases until legally brought to bay. Keep in mind that forty years ago no one would have thought Grant Village in Yellowstone would ever exist, yet there it sits, a hotel, tacky ski-slope condo-type rental units, a couple of restaurants, a gas station, gift shop, parking lots, etc., all in the middle of prime grizzly bear habitat and former wilderness. Given what we’ve seen in the past, who knows what the future holds, in terms of political climate and attitudes towards the Yellowstone backcountry? Polls have often shown Americans care deeply about the environment. That is, until they think they have to choose between the environment and the economy, which is often the way choices are presented to them. It doesn’t take an overly-active imagination to see possible huge future unemployment, for example, and National Parks are great places to spend money on stimulus-type bills (jobs!). And, we all know where to spend the big bucks – roads! Putting two and two together, one could easily see a future “Thorofare Wilderness Village”(Live Like the Mountain Men!), or perhaps a “Mary Lake Grille” (Nutritious Bison Burgers in the Heart of Yellowstone!) That’s not even mentioning the huge hot-spring resort potential of the Bechler region in Yellowstone’s southwest corner (may we spend eternity in damnation if putting that thought on the internet causes it to become reality).
Management actions by the National Park Service on other Yellowstone issues, such as the winter bison migration issue, also are influenced by the fact that the Park’s backcountry has yet to be designated Wilderness. In other words, the seasonal bison “hazing” which occurs In Yellowstone would most likely not be allowed, as the motorized equipment required for the operation would have to receive a wilderness exemption. Undoubtedly, the Montana Department of Livestock and the private interests it serves whose goal of containing bison solely within Yellowstone is assisted by the fact that the Park’s backcountry has not yet been declared Federal Wilderness. It appears to be quite a convenient situation, government employees, on both the federal and state level, being allowed to use snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters to corral, position and slaughter public wildlife for private benefit. Bison supporters would be wise to take note, by the way, and work for wilderness designation (see How You Can Help).
So, while we don’t necessarily want to sound alarm bells just yet, we at the Yellowstone Wilderness Mag feel, after 50 years, it’s time to get wilderness designation for the Yellowstone backcountry, for protection against possible future development as well as to establish clear wilderness-value priorities for present backcountry management, which hopefully will not include activities such as helicopters and snowmobiles hazing the Park’s buffalo, among other things.
Grizzly in Shadows
In Yellowstone, the areas between the roads actually comprise at least 7 large wildernesses. To the credit of the National Park Service management in Yellowstone, all potential wilderness units have been inventoried and digitally mapped. Current Park Service recommendations divide the Park into 10 different wilderness units. The Park’s proposals add a small wilderness within Park boundaries to the west of where Montana State Highway 191 enters Yellowstone and allows for administrative travel in 2 of the large wildernesses seasonally, on 2 roads only, thereby accounting for the total number of proposed units (see #1 through #4 on map at upper-right sidebar.) Many of these areas adjoin other, already designated Forest Service wildernesses. These potential wilderness areas fit together both geographically and ecologically like a giant puzzle, each of them holding a key to the long-term survival of the 18 million acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Since Federally designated wilderness, and only Federally designated wilderness, is to remain forever undeveloped and without roads and the accompanying human-dominated landscape, this status is the only way to insure that the Park’s backcountry will remain forever pristine and will be passed on to future generations unimpaired, as the National Park Act requires.
Fortunately, these areas are generally managed as wilderness by the National Park Service and they presently remain “de facto” wilderness. In fact, the Park Service has done a reasonable job of preserving these areas as the national treasures that they are. These areas are perhaps the wildest remaining places in the lower 48 states today. They are some of the most unique wild areas in the entire world. Their ecological health is essential to Yellowstone’s status as an International Biosphere Reserve, an area of worldwide importance. They are the vital organs of the world’s first National Park and they remain worthy of inclusion into the National Wilderness Preservation System.
So join me now, into a land seen by few of Yellowstone’s visitors. Join me, into a land of steaming hot springs and ancient petrified forests, where the grizzly, wolf and cougar still vanish into the shadows.
Join me into the Yellowstone Wilderness.
