Yellowstone Park News

Friday, April 13, 2007

Requiem For Winter

YELLOWSTONE OPENS ON 20th
Get Out Your Mobile Condominium
grab your cell phone & put on your rainbow gear

(Photo by Tom Murphy - link, link)

.. A few years ago William Kittredge wrote an essay that was published in Owning It All and was reprinted in The Montanan.

In it he does well by those of us that have chosen to live here. He also reminds us just why winter is so special.

". . . Winter protects Yellowstone from the hordes of recreational automobilists and bicyclists and tromping backpackers with their multicolored gear, all the cartoon tourists of summertime. You and me and the kids, and Uncle Ted in his Winnebago, and sister Sue whose eyes are blue, everybody in pursuit of a few sweet moments spent checking out a sacred remnant of what we persist in calling wilderness, even after the highways are built. Maybe two million visitors between mid-May and Labor Day.
And then the crowd goes home, leaving Indian summer for those who live in the northern Rockies year-round. Along about the middle of September the leaves go seriously into the business of turning brilliant color along the Firehole River and the other fishing waters. And the trouts, the wonderful slick-bodied trouts, rainbow and brown and cut-throat and brook, hungry again in the cooling streams and given to lifting ravenously to suck down an ephemeral bit of feather tied handsomely to a barbless hook."

.. Well, the fish are about to be shared with the world and the park will entertain whoever can afford to get here and pay the fees. The roads will be crowded, the construction delays will be frightful, the Old Faithful Visitor Center will be gone, and the concessionaires will be happy.
.. The few sunny days we had this week, and the thermometer approaching 40 F let us all know that winter is gone. Summer never really arrives in Yellowstone -- but it's nice to have the longest and most beautiful Spring in America. To the rest of the world we say: "Bring It On," winter's never that far away.

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Yellowstone Openings & Closings: roads, facilities, ice cream shops, etc.
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Did You Know?
There are more people hurt by bison than by bears each year in Yellowstone. Park regulations state that visitors must stay at least 25 yards away from bison or elk and 100 yards away from bears.
IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THESE REGULATIONS?

Sunday, April 08, 2007

New Web Rangers Site

VIRTUAL WORLD ALLOWS KIDS TO RANGE
Get Your Own Desk & Ranger Station
sign up now

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.. There is a new WEB RANGER site for kids of all ages. The National Park Service has rolled out the new Web Rangers site, and it is worth a visit. You can read the announcement here. The old site will be available for a limited time and you can find it here. You can find out about the program here.
.. There are some differences in the two sites, most notably personalization. This requires the users to register & The National Park Service to set 'cookies' on your computer to track the session and progress of the child through activities and puzzles and awards. You can read about the cookies and the NPS Privacy Policy for this site here.
.. There is an English version, and a Spanish version of the new site. The NPS seems to have created their own version of "MY SPACE" for the kids. As stated:

"The most exciting addition is that kids from around the world will be able to post their own pictures and stories about their parks experiences in a moderated setting. This peer-to-peer sharing holds tremendous promise for civic engagement on a global scale. The new site will build a community of kids excited about their national park legacy and get them up and out to see these places for themselves."

.. This is probably a good thing and it's a product of Best Buy Retail Stores in partnership with the National Park Foundation.
.. Nowhere on the site did we find games or activities that referred to 'back-stabbing in-fighting,' 'stonewalling the public,' 'planning for snowmobiles,' delisting threatened or endangered species,' 'political appointees,' or 'verbal misdirection.' Perhaps the NPS should take a peek at this virtual world and learn.

HI MOM

YNP PROVIDES FREE WEBCAM VIEWS
Send A Wave Home
this year's cam-guide
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nps photo

.. Use this guide to identify the major geysers that are erupting.

nps photo

VISIT THE OLD FAITHFUL WEBCAM

Friday, March 30, 2007

Doane Denied

LANGFORD, WASHBURN, & WHO?
Cruel - Cruel - History
Kind - Kind - History
Winter's Gone; Snowmobiles Aren't

nps photo of historic reenactment in 1957

Cruel - Cruel - History

.. In January we posted two notes about Kim Allen Scott, (-1- -2-) and his book "Yellowstone Denied. For a brief review of the book, and some contemporary psychological analysis click on over to "The Magic Of Yellowstone" and see another view.

"I don't think we need heroes; they get in the way. They lead us to the severe judgments we make about other people. If you set yourself on a pedestal, then you will be rightfully taken down. Doane was never turned into a hero, was bitter about it, and now his biography is the story of a bitter, dead, white man and why he never got the glory he so hungrily lusted after. And, as cynical as it sounds, it is hard to deny that truth. The sadness is that because we live in a world where that kind of glory, where that kind of heroism is so adored, we aren't allowed to meet Cheyney Doane on his own terms, terms that are probably not a whole lot better or worse than the rest of us, or might not have been if we didn't live in a society that has such artificial metrics of value."

.. Well, so be it.

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Kind - Kind - History

.. On April 24, 1903 happenstance allowed "TEDDY" to be present at the laying of the cornerstone of the Gateway Arch at the north entrance to Yellowstone Park.
.. Because of this, it's now called the "Roosevelt Arch." Doane just was never that lucky.
.. To this day many people give Teddy credit for inventing, establishing, and preserving Yellowstone. Such are the whimsey's of history as we know it.
.. So be it.

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Snowmo's Still With Us

.. Even as Spring begins it's transition away from Winter & into Summer, snowmobiles remain on the minds of many.
.. It seems that a letter was sent to a lot of people about how bad snowmobiles are for the park. Zealousness got the better of the sender and he included Bob Barbee's signature without approval, and without Bob knowing about it.
.. If you're quick you can read about it at the Bozeman Chronicle site. If not, the note is reproduced below. This is the kind of zeal that replaces reason in heated arguments - too bad, we'd really like to know what Bob thinks.

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This was on the Bozeman Daily Chronicle web site on Friday, March 30, 2007 - for just one brief day. We reprint it here in the interest of access.
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Name of former YNP head inserted in letter by mistake

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer
- Former Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Bob Barbee's name should not have been included among a list of former National Park Service brass opposed to snowmobiling in the park, said the man who distributed the list.
- "It was my mistake and my mistake alone," said Bill Wade, chairman of the executive council of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, a group critical of snowmobiling in the park.
- The foul-up came earlier this week, when several former Park Service directors sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne calling for the elimination of snowmobiling in Yellowstone.
- The letter included a facsimile of Barbee's signature.
- However, Barbee never signed the letter and didn't approve the use of his name, said Wade, who e-mailed copies of the letter to the media and others.
- Wade said his group created two versions of the letter and circulated them among potential signatories for approval. One letter included Barbee's "signature block" and one didn't.
- Wade said he didn't know if the facsimile of Barbee's signature was electronic or a photocopy.
- Barbee was out of the country and couldn't be reached for approval prior to the letter's release, Wade said, but the version of the letter with his signature was disseminated to some media outlets.
- "I just simply screwed up and sent out the wrong version to a few of you," Wade said Thursday.
- A Chronicle story about the letter ran Tuesday, and mentioned Barbee, who ran Yellowstone from 1983 to 1994, a time of rapid snowmobiling growth in the park. He is retired from the Park Service and lives in Bozeman. He could not be reached for comment this week.
.. Ray Grass of the DeseretNews.com believes that snowmobiles are the best way to see Yellowstone and is neither ashamed, nor shy about it.
.. The folks at EarthJustice, on the other hand feel that the current iteration of the Yellowstone winter use plan is a "Return to the 'Bad Ol' Days."

.. Brodie Farquhar, writing for the Casper Star Tribune, has a note about the in's -'n' - out's of the current plan.
.. National Parks Traveler has an extensive list of news sources on this topic - it must be important.
.. There seems to be no alternative to the BAN - NO BAN arguments. There is a third road that has been completely ignored in this polemic. Would people like snowmobiles if they were cleaner and quieter than the current coaches and vans? There are roads to this possibility. The Billings Gazette ran an article a while back, and A Step Apart has a similar post.
.. So be it.