National Parks
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For years noisy and dirty snowmobiles dominated winter tourism in Yellowstone, but now they are beginning to be displaced by a new generation of clean, quieter, and warm snowcoaches. The coaches also feature numerous options for stopping, and dropping off skier and snowshoers, stripping away one of the arguments in favor of snowmobiles — the…
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Recently I posted an article about the Park Service’s latest winter plan, and its proposal to stop maintaining snowmobile access through the high elevation East Entrance to the Park. The East Entrance road crossess 20 avalanche paths, and the Park Service keeps it open by firing artillery shells to trigger the avalanches. Unexploded ordinace is…
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I posted a story on this in November when 18 inches of rain fell. Since then the weather has continued very wet, and the full extent of the damage to the infrastructure is immense. I can already see one political issue emerging. A large portion of the main entrance road washed away and is now…
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A number of the thermal vents in Yellowstone release high levels of carbon dioxide, the very gas that is building up in our atmosphere. Carbon dixoide is a crucial element for photosynthesis, and some have argued that the growing levels of this gas will make the world greener, better. Unfortunately they tend to work for…
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The powerful livestock organization R-CALF has written to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture urging that a program be implemented to rid the Greater Yellowstone area of brucellosis. This includes Yellowstone Park. The means they suggest for doing this are draconian. According to a story today by Brodie Farquhar in the Casper Star Tribune they include:…
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Actually they do much better than just pay their way. Story in the Casper Star Tribune. “Each dollar spent on a national park generates at least $4 of value, but despite that clear economic payoff the parks suffer from underfunding, a new study says.” A good question is, why does Congress underfund the national parks…
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Parts of the Yellowstone Caldera are swelling rapidly. The Sour Creek Dome just east of Haden Valley is rising 6 centimeters a year as (likely) magma flows in under it. Story in the Billings Gazette. By Mike Stark.
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Yesterday it was revealed that the famous Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park had washed out in the big Pacific Northwest rainstorm. Today the news is that flooding has closed Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State. More rain is predicted for today and this weekend. News Story.