Yellowstone is the world’s first national park, established in 1872. And Big Wild has organized and run guided Yellowstone backpack trips since 1979. Because the Park Service has built too many roads and facilities in Yellowstone, and because it encourages motor tourism above all else, it costs them a lot of money to provide the amenities needed by over 3 million annual tourists, most of whom rarely ever leave the roadside. Even though over 90% of the park is back-country de-facto wilderness, over 90% of its human visitation is front-country. These tourists demand gasoline, restaurants, stores, cell towers, parking lots, campgrounds, electricity, WiFi and roadside bison and bears that will cooperate with cell-phone photography.
Who pays for all of this habitat fragmentation? We do. We as taxpayers, that is. Yet as Congress continues to cut budgets for the national parks, agency managers are looking for ways to augment funding so that we can have wider roads, fewer potholes, more cell towers and spiffier lodges and visitor centers. In other words, the National Park Service needs more funds to accommodate more tourists since our country has more people each year (the population bomb has exploded) — and more international travelers, too. More more more. More of everything is deemed to be better. Ask the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. But of course, when it comes to wild nature, more humanity is not better.
As I type this missive it still costs 15 bucks a head to enter Yellowstone, or 30 dollars per automobile. Not too bad a deal, really, although just a few months ago the Feds wanted to double the fees. That produced an outcry, and rightly so, because such entry fees would be a hardship for many. So for now, public outrage saved the day. The fees are scheduled to go up by just $5 this June: to $20 per person or $35 per auto. But I’ll wager that within a year or so, they will go up again. And then again, incrementally. For now, though, a Yellowstone vacation is still affordable, thanks to public outcry. But I do wish that we could garner the same level of public outrage for the lack of designated Wilderness in Yellowstone, or for killing bison, or for the tragic upcoming Wyoming hunting season for grizzlies on public lands outside the park…..
Actually, what I really wish for Yellowstone is that the Park Service and its supporters would re-think the basic premise of the park. Perhaps we might reconsider the placement of some of the roads, like the one through Hayden Valley, one of the greatest temperate zone wildlife habitats on Earth. Roads can be removed and wildness restored. Let’s re-wild Hayden Valley! Let’s also get rid of the L.A. Freeway-style four lane cloverleaf monstrosity at Old Faithful. Let’s limit vehicles. Let’s remove back-country power line corridors (yes, theses insults do exist!) — bury them along the roads. I’m for more grass, less pavement. Fewer humans and more bears. More silence and less motor noise. None of these suggestions will be easy to accomplish, but nothing worthwhile ever is. Let’s ask: what do we really want for Yellowstone as the 21st century unfolds? So until we begin to debate the very premise of unlimited motorized industrial tourism in Yellowstone, I will continue to oppose more funding and bigger budgets for the Park Service, whether they come from increased entry fees or a well-meaning but misguided budget increase enacted by some future Congress.
