Time To Create A Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park

Clepsydra geyser erupting, Fountain Paint Pots, Yellowstone NP, WY. Photo by George Wuerthner

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is a global treasure. It is one of the largest ecologically functioning temperature zone landscapes in the world.

Yellowstone bison are of global significance as the least domesticated herd in the country. Photo by George Wuerthner

Yellowstone National Park is the central feature of the ecosystem, and the park is internationally recognized as one of the best examples of an intact ecosystem, as designated by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve.

The Palisades Roadless area and proposed wilderness near Jackson, Wyoming. Photo by George Wuerthner

Yellowstone has the largest concentration of thermal features in the world. It possesses significant geological features, such as the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Yellowstone Lake is the largest lake of its size in the United States. Two major mountain ranges, the Gallatin Range and the Absaroka Range, provide abundant subalpine and alpine terrain. And the park is the headwaters of two major river systems: the Yellowstone-Missouri-Mississippi and the Snake-Columbia.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Photo by George Wuerthner

Yellowstone has a diverse assemblage of predator-prey relationships, including wolves, bears, cougars, coyotes, foxes, wolverines, and smaller predators such as martens and river otters. It is home to the least domesticated herd of bison in the country. Other wildlife includes the trumpeter swan, peregrine falcon, white pelicans, and numerous species of birds, amphibians, and small mammals.

Yellowstone has a diverse array of predators, including wolves. Photo by George Wuerthner

It also has one of the last strongholds for Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

Lone Mountain at Big Sky, Montana. Rural subdivisions fragment the landscape. Photo by George Wuerthner

Nevertheless, despite all these superlatives, the ecosystem is under duress from a thousand cuts. Oil and gas development, mining, logging, livestock grazing, predator killing, bison killing, and housing development on private lands that are slowly choking off the migratory pathway of wildlife. Climate change is exacerbating all of these impacts.

Oil and gas development near Pinedale, Wyoming. Photo by George Wuerthner

To counter this death by a thousand cuts, the United States should recognize the opportunity to create a Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park under the administration of the National Park Service.

Everything that is green on this map is part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Depending on exactly where you drew the boundary, a Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park could encompass 23 million acres. As with some Alaskan parks, a portion of the new park could be designated a “preserve” where limited hunting might continue.

A large ecosystem national park would help preserve migration corridors for wildlife like elk. Photo by George Wuerthner

At 23 million acres, this ecosystem can sustain its processes, wildlife corridors, and a diversity of habitats, ensuring the future survival of wildlife.

Livestock grazing is a major land use in the ecosystem that compromises the ecological integrity of the landscape. Photo by George Wuerthner

Currently, the ecosystem is administered by the Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and various state agencies, all with different management mandates and policies that fragment the landscape. Placing the ecosystem under Park Service administration would improve overall management and protection.

It is easy to see how much of the private lands and even much of the public lands in Greater Yellowstone are impacted by roads. Also, despite the millions of visitors, Yellowstone NP is the least roaded area in the entire ecosystem.

A mantra in Conservation Biology is ‘go big and go connected.’ China appears to have gotten the message. Although the United States has been a conservation leader for more than a century, China is rapidly developing a world-class national park system.

Porcupine drainage in the Gallatin Range, an area that needs wilderness protection to ensure the ecological integrity of the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Photo by George Wuerthner

China has just established the Sanjiangyuan National Park, a spectacular 47 million-acre protected landscape larger than the state of Florida. To put this into perspective, Yellowstone NP is 2.2 million acres, and the largest US Park, Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska is 13.2 million acres.

Mount Blackburn, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. The Wrangell-St. Elias NP, at 13.2 million acres, is the largest park in the United States. A Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem NP would be nearly twice as large. Photo by George Wuerthner

By 2035, China plans to expand its national park system to eventually encompass 49 parks covering 272 million acres, which would be triple the size of the U.S. National Park System.

The Wyoming Range south of Jackson currently has no protection, but would be part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park. Photo by George Wuerthner

One way the United States could maintain its international position as one of the world’s finest park systems is by creating a Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park.

A bison calf. Photo by George Wuerthner

The park would be large enough to ensure genetic, species, and landscape diversity, thereby improving the ecosystem’s integrity and long-term stability.

Wildlife viewing is one of the major activities in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by George Wuerthner

Beyond the ecological value of a Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park, such an expansive park would be a significant economic draw to the region, especially if environmental integrity were a primary management goal.

Maintaining migration corridors for wildlife is essential to sustaining populations with a changing climate. Photo by George Wuerthner

Expanding Yellowstone to encompass the entire ecosystem would go a long way towards ensuring the ecosystem remains viable into the future. And such an extensive and sustainable parkland would be a tremendous gift to the entire world.

Coyote. Photo by George Wuerthner

Creating a Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park would require an act of Congress. However, since most of the land within the proposed park is already federal, it would only require a change in administration for the National Park Service.

Lands such as South Cottonwood drainage near Bozeman, currently under threat of logging by the Forest Service, would receive protection as part of a Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park. Photo by George Wuerthner

Ideally, the same legislation would establish a wilderness designation overlay on all suitable lands within the proposed park.

Acquisition of critical private lands is essential for a functioning ecosystem. Photo by George Wuerthner

As part of any legislation, I would like funding for the acquisition of critical private lands, including wetlands, wildlife corridors, winter range, and other ecologically important landscapes.

Expansion of Yellowstone National Park to cover the entire Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem would ensure America’s central role in global conservation. Photo by George Wuerthner

The measure of a great nation is not the resources it develops, but the landscapes it can preserve and protect. A Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem National Park would be a lasting legacy that would ensure America’s conservation prominence on a global scale.