photos top to bottom: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River, Mountain Goat in Beartooth Mountains, Grizzly in Yellowstone National Park., Beartooth Mountains,
Some four million people visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks annually. Drawn by amazing scenery, wildlife and geysers, tourists from all around the world flock to these incredible parks. Just stand around Old Faithful Geyser and listen to the chorus of foreign languages reacting to its regular eruptions. What millions of tourists from the U.S. and many other countries realize is that these are sacred lands in a world where nature has not only been tamed, but often destroyed.
This year, I was fortunate to be a guide for Heatherlea Expeditions from Scotland in partnership with U.S-based Naturalist Journeys to tour these two parks and their adjacent National Forests and Refuges. On our tour, we saw more than 140 species of birds and at least a dozen species of mammals, including Bison, Black and Grizzly Bear, Northern Gray Wolf, Coyote, Mule Deer, Pronghorn, Mountain Goat, Pika and River Otter. We not only saw these birds and animals; we saw them at close range interacting with one-another. The species abundance and diversity in this area is not coincidental. It is due to the enormous land base and the quality of the natural habitat set aside by visionary politicians (not always an oxymoron) from years past.
Together, Yellowstone and Grand Teton Parks comprise 2.5 million acres. What makes them even better as wildlife and ecological reserves is that they are contiguous to seven National Forests and three National Wildlife Refuges. The sum total of all of these areas is over 20 million acres of connected natural landscapes, also known as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Three Rs were key to the preservation of these sacred lands: Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and John Rockefeller. Teddy Roosevelt, with the capable assistance of Gifford Pinchot, established National Forests and National Wildlife Refuges. John Rockefeller purchased 35,000 acres of land between the two parks and held it for 15 years until Grand Teton Park was finally approved. FDR’s pocket veto of a bill opposing “Jackson Hole National Park” allowed this to happen. Finally in 1950, Harry Truman signed the bill merging Rockefeller’s 35,000 acres with the rest of the park. U.S. Grant approved the designation of Yellowstone as our first national park in 1872.
Ken Burns referred to National Parks as “America’s best idea.” Public lands such as National Forests, National Monuments and Wildlife Refuges were great ideas too. We all know what would have happened to these lands without these designations. They would be privatized, developed, and cleared of most wildlife like the lands surrounding them. It is worth noting that the three Rs included a republican, a businessman and a democrat. Are there leaders today with the backbone, vision and collaborative spirit to protect sacred lands for future generations?
Sources: Theodore Rex, biography of Teddy Roosevelt by Edmund Morris; The Big Burn by Tim Egan; Yellowstone – a Visitor’s Companion by George Wuerthner
