[…] the past 15 years, the organization has acquired and protected 300,000 acres of grassland and hopes to grow the reserve to 3.5 million acres — more than Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Teton combined. By working with private property owners rather than against them, these environmental gains are accomplished in a civil manner and are […]
[…] no one,” Zinke said in a speech to Interior Department employees in March. One place the secretary might look for lessons in innovative land management is the Yellowstone-like wonderland in northern New Mexico called the Valles Caldera. Encompassing more than 139 square miles of high country in the Jemez Mountains, the Valles Caldera’s vast […]
[…] here? National parks are incredibly cheap for such incredible and popular attractions. The most visited park—Great Smoky Mountain National Park—is free and a week-long pass to both Yellowstone and Grand Teton is $50 per vehicle. As a point of comparison, Disneyland starts at $100 per person per day. Raising fees could help reduce overcrowding and […]
[…] Prairie Reserve, a non-profit organization working to create a nature preserve that, when completed, will encompass an area of Montana’s northern plains 1.5 times the size of Yellowstone National Park. The reserve raises funds to purchase private lands and also works to obtain leases on public lands. So far, American Prairie Reserve is home […]
[…] efforts to reintroduce large wildlife such as the Smokies elk. Many such strategies have helped mitigate clashes farther west, as with wolves and bison in and around Yellowstone National Park, although the presence of such species remains controversial in many places. The key to ensuring that a successful conservation story doesn’t devolve into spite-killings […]
[…] featuring artwork of wolves were sold for $30 apiece to help raise funds and make the program sustainable. The organization used the same strategy for ranchers near Yellowstone when wolves were reintroduced to that park in the 1990s. More recently, a handful of conservation groups helped pay for fencing for landowners who want to […]
Road maintenance required near the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park. Reed Watson provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources – Subcommittee on Federal Lands on “Identifying Innovative Infrastructure Ideas for the National Park Service and Forest Service” on March 16, 2017. Introduction Chairman Bishop, Ranking Member Grijalva, and […]
[…] this constitutes progress, it will take much more to reinvigorate the crown jewels of our American landscape. Yosemite alone has more than half-a-billion dollars in unfunded projects. Yellowstone, the park’s debatably more famous sibling, requires more than $630 million in maintenance. And across the country, the Blue Ridge Parkway has $517 million in unfunded […]
[…] access. To see how far the USFS is willing to push its interest in access across private property, consider the advice from District Ranger Alex Sienkiewicz ( Yellowstone Ranger District) posted on July 7, 2016, on the Facebook page of the Public Land/Water Access Association: “NEVER ask permission to access the National Forest Service […]
[…] brink. In recent decades, as it has become affordable to get bison to the dinner table, commercial herds of bison have grown to over 500,000 head. Today, Yellowstone is home to nearly 5,000 wild bison, descendants of the last free-roaming herds. In the summer months, the bison are a huge draw for tourists, even […]