Winter in wonderland: adventures in Yellowstone’s sublime season

A bison in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley (photo by Beth Pratt)Last week, avid wolf watchers gathered in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley despite the negative 38F temperature, gazing through binoculars at a wintry landscape that crackled with life. Elk danced over the snow to escape predators, and bison displayed their white masks from foraging for food. As the sun rose and the light penetrated the cold air, it created an endless display of sparkling white diamonds on the snowy ground.

This week temperatures soared to above freezing and visitors walked through a fairy-tale terrain in the Upper Geyser Basin. Steam from the thermal features floated through the air, covering the basin in a lazy mist. As Old Faithful erupted into the clear blue sky, its plume gave birth to clouds that hovered over the ground.

Yellowstone in winter is full of wonder. Whether snowshoeing at the Mammoth Terraces, cross-country skiing in the Upper Geyser Basin, or taking a snowcoach tour to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, exploring the park in winter is a memorable experience that provides spectacular scenery and excellent wildlife watching.

Yellowstone National Park Lodges offers a variety of packages for winter adventures, such as the Winter Wildlife Expedition, and is currently featuring a $49 per night room special at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. The non-profit Yellowstone Association teaches an array of excellent field seminars and private tours as well, including the upcoming Wolves in the 21st Century and Winter Ecology.

View a slideshow of Yellowstone’s winter wonderland below:

New innovative store in Yellowstone educates visitors about climate change in national parks

Cutting the dedication ribbon for the new For Future Generations: Yellowstone Gifts (photo by Shad Stites)At a special celebration yesterday in Yellowstone, Deputy Superintendent Chris Lehnertz andXanterra Parks & Resorts' General Manager Jim McCaleb cut the unique dedication ribbon—created from bison-dung based paper—for the new store “For Future Generations: Yellowstone Gifts.”

The store features an innovative approach to green retail: its sole purpose is to educate and inspire park guests to help protect national parks. Lehnertz commended Xanterra for the depth of the company’s environmental commitment and for helping to support the mission of the National Park Service with the store’s important interpretive displays on climate change.

Xanterra’s Director of Environmental Affairs in Yellowstone, Beth Pratt, spoke about the threats climate change presents to national parks and its wildlife such as the pika and grizzly bears. She also introduced what she believes is the most significant aspect of the store: the new sustainability scorecard Xanterra developed that rates all products offered in the gift shop on social and environmental attributes. “We believe this is the first retail store to extensively utilize a transparent and extensive environmental scorecard.”

The celebration also included a sustainable vendor fair with displays from businesses with products sold in the store and suppliers who assisted with the green remodel of the facility. After a dessert buffet that included locally made chocolate, Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, gave a presentation on climate change.

See below for a photo slideshow of the event:

And see below for a video of the dedication event:

National Wildlife Federation President speaks in Yellowstone about climate change

Larry Schweiger, NWF President, wildlife watching in Yellowstone (photo by Beth Pratt)President & CEO of the National Wildlife Federation Larry Schweiger appealed to an audience inYellowstone National Park yesterday to take action at this important “moral moment” in the fight against climate change.

Schweiger outlined the overwhelming evidence that thousands of peer reviewed scientific reports have documented on climate change, and showed startling images from around the world representing the toll global warming has already taken on this planet. He recently attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and urged attendees to put pressure on their elected representatives to pass comprehensive legislation.

Schweiger also related how he spent the morning on a wildlife watching tour in the park despite the negative 38-degree temperature. “I hope for more days like this. Yellowstone needs 40 below days to remain a healthy ecosystem for its inhabitants like the whitebark pine and the grizzly bears.”

At the end of his presentation, Schweiger displayed photographs of his grandchildren and made a heartfelt plea for Americans to assume leadership in the fight against climate change for the sake of future generations. “I don’t know a single parent who wouldn’t do anything in their power for the sake of their children. But yet we are leaving our children a dangerous inheritance with a rapidly changing climate.” In his new book, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth, Schweiger echoes this sentiment: “For the sake of all children, please join me in this effort to avoid a climate crisis and keep wildlife thriving.”

Last Chance: National Wildlife Federation President’s impassioned plea for wildlife

Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation (photo courtesy NWF)Since the age of fourteen, Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation(NWF), has been active in wildlife conservation. Over his impressive career, he has spearheaded environmental efforts through his work in non-profit and government service, and since 2004 has led the NWF, America’s largest conservation organization.

Like most environmental leaders, Schweiger realizes the dire consequences that climate change presents toward life on earth, and he recently attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to urge world governments to act. His new book, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth, is an impassioned plea for us to combat climate change before it destroys the precious legacy of life that we leave to our children and grandchildren. All author proceeds from the book are being donated to NWF.

Last Chance outlines the threats that wildlife face from climate change, most alarmingly the statistic that “40 to 70 percent of all species could be extinct within our children’s lifetimes if we don’t take action now.” The book, however, is not just a compilation of scientific figures, although it provides an excellent summary of the projected impacts of climate change. Indeed, Last Chance also serves as a call to action for every citizen of the world.  “Global warming is not only an intellectual matter, but also a deeply moral and spiritual issue that lets no-one off the hook. We must all answer, not just with our best thoughts and words, but with our hearts and actions.”

Mr. Schweiger will be speaking on climate change and signing copies of his new book in Yellowstone National Park on January 7, 2010 at 8:00 pm at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. 

Why Copenhagen matters to Yellowstone and all of our national parks

Success at Copenhagen is crucial to the survival of Yellowstone--and all of our national parks. (Photo by Beth Pratt)World leaders gathering in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference negotiated over a draft climate agreement and methods for transferring green technologies to developing countries. Connie Hedegaard, President of the conference, reported “we have made considerable progress over the course of the first week.” Protesters disagreed, with tens of thousands flooding the streets of the city yesterday, holding banners with messages like “There is no Planet B” and demanding immediate action from the delegates.

Although to most people the bureaucratic meetings in a distant city seem to have little relevance to their own lives, what happens in Copenhagen doesn’t stay in Copenhagen. The inability to come to a consensus on a treaty has dire repercussions for the entire world. And here in the United States, progress—indeed, a solution to the climate crisis—is imperative to the survival of our cherished national parks.

Climate change is already threatening our national parks—some of the best-protected places on the planet. Jon Jarvis, the newly appointed Director of the National Park Service (NPS), deemed climate change “potentially the most far-reaching and consequential challenge to our mission than any previously encountered in the entire history of the NPS.” If we don’t develop a global solution to reduce the ever-increasing production of greenhouse gas emissions, the future of “America’s Best Idea” is at stake.

In Yellowstone National Park, a tiny insect has become a serious threat to the mighty grizzly bear. As a result of warming temperatures at higher elevations, the mountain pine beetle has gained a foothold in whitebark pine forests and is destroying an important part of the bear’s diet. Scientists now predict glaciers will disappear from Glacier National Park by 2030, and Joshua Tree National Park may lose its namesake tree within the next century. Climate change and other environmental ills have pushed a third of amphibians on the verge of extinction, including the mountain yellow-legged frog in Yosemite. And rising temperatures have diminished habitat for the cold-loving pika—a high elevation dweller than can perish from overheating--in Yosemite and other parks.

Recent reports by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, and the National Parks and Conservation Association warn of these threats and many others that climate change pose to our national parks.

Copenhagen must be successful at uniting the world to stop global warming. Using the strategies discussed this past week—many of them practical, feasible and workable—week two of the conference must yield comprehensive solutions. If our leaders fail to act, they not only fail the grizzly bears in Yellowstone and the yellow-legged frogs in Yosemite, they also fail to protect our country’s important heritage of national parks, what writer Wallace Stegner called “the best idea we ever had.”

View a photo slideshow of Ten National Parks in Peril.

Meet the star of 2012: the Yellowstone Supervolcano

John Cusack flees the Yellowstone Supervolcano in 2012 (photo Courtesy of Columbia Tristar Marketing Group)As a resident of Yellowstone National Park, I have come to accept that I live atop a massive time bomb (residents of the Bay Area of California can identity with this disaster denial syndrome). Underneath my feet a plume of restless, superheated rock extends hundreds of miles into the earth. One day, the pressure of the magma accumulated over thousands of years will release, and spew a plume of lethal ash and gas 100,000 feet into the sky, creating a nuclear winter around the planet. 

In an instant, the supervolcano will become Yellowstone's most famous--and final--attraction. Its potential to end the world as we know it makes the popular Old Faithful look like a toddler in the geothermal world.

The newly released disaster movie 2012 features John Cusack, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson, but the real star of the film is the Yellowstone Supervolcano. As Woody Harrelson declares from his front row seat to the eruption as a gigantic burning rock hurls toward him, "It's beautiful." And truly, the site of the pastoral hills of Yellowstone furiously bubbling like boiling water is fascinating to view on screen. The explosion made myself and fellow moviegoers jump out of our seats from the visual (and the good sound system) of the overwhelming force that obliterated my beloved Yellowstone landscape in seconds. I couldn't totally achieve my suspension of disbelief as I did keep wondering where all of the park's plentiful herds of bison and elk were in the scenery--the film showed only one dead elk and nary a bison.

While much of the plot of 2012 is purely fictional, the Yellowstone supervolcano is not simply a screenwriter's speculation. Much of Yellowstone National Park is located on a caldera that spans approximately 45 miles and is considered one of the world’s most active geologic hot spots. National Geographic recently featured an article on the park's volcanic activity and detailed its turbulent history, which included dozens of volcanic eruptions spanning back 18 million years with three "supervolcanos," one of which left a hole in the ground the size of the state of Rhode Island . “We call this a caldera at unrest,” geophysicist Bob Smith said of Yellowstone in the article.

The supervolcano activity in Yellowstone appears to be on a 700,000 year cycle--give or take 50,000 years. Since the most recent eruption occurred 640,000 years ago, some scientists have speculated the next one is imminent. A recent flurry of earthquake activity in the winter of 2008/2009, which resulted in a swarm of 900 seismic events over a two week period, fueled rumors that the "big one" was approaching.  Yet the exact date is anyone's guess and no scientific evidence points to a 2012 scenario. 

Will the supervolcano erupt on December 21, 2012? Probably not. And even though I don't believe the world will end on that date,  those of us who reside in Yellowstone might have a few anxious moments when the day arrives. At least we can take comfort in knowing that like Woody Harrelson's character in 2012, we'll have front-row seats for the catastrophe and avoid the apocalyptic nuclear winter that will follow. Until then, I'll blissfully ignore that lurking under my home is a force capable of planetary destruction. 

See below for a video that details how the VFX team for 2012 created the Yellowstone supervolcano eruption.

Yellowstone grizzly bears to remain on endangered list

Grizzly bears in Yellowstone are threatened by climate change (photo by Beth Pratt)Grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem remain protected as the result of this week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. 

Two years ago the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wanted to remove the grizzly bear from the endangered species list. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a non-profit advocacy group, filed suit to block the removal. 

The non-profit won the case and Judge Molloy placed the grizzly bears back under federal protection in September, stating, "Without the protections of the Endangered Species Act, the Yellowstone grizzly bear distinct population segment will be placed in jeopardy." The government appealed the ruling and sent the case back for review, which was resolved with the announcement this week of the grizzly bear’s protection being upheld.

In Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area, a tiny beetle may decide the fate of the kingly grizzly bear. A beetle that destroys the whitebark pine tree has gained a considerable foothold in Yellowstone because of the effects of climate change. High in nutritional value, whitebark pine nuts provide a valuable food source for the bears. The relationship between the bear’s survival and the whitebark pine was an important part of Judge Molloy’s decision. 

In some parts of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, beetles have destroyed up to 70 percent of the trees in whitebark pine forests. Removing this important component of the grizzly bears’ diet puts considerable stress on the species that could ultimately lead to extinction. Louisa Wilcox, senior wildlife advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, has warned, “If these trees go, they could take Yellowstone’s grizzlies…with them. If we want to save not just the whitebark pine, but the animals and plants like the grizzly bear that depend on this tree for food, we need to move to protect and restore them now.”

Even the popular news host Stephen Colbert has raised attention about the plight of Yellowstone’s bears—albeit humorously—with a segment on his regular feature “Threatdown.” Yellowstone’s bears have also attacked Colbert for promoting anti-ursine propaganda and fear mongering.

Live from Greenbuild 2009: Josh Bernstein on learning from past cultures

International explorer Josh Bernstein addresses a full house at Greenbuild 2009 (photo by Beth Pratt)For the presentation at Greenbuild 2009 by international explorer and Discovery Channel host Josh Bernstein, it was standing room only. Bernstein, who has traveled to over 40 countries and owns the innovative outdoor survival school BOSS, shared with the audience his ideas for making the environmental movement more relevant and engaging.

His talk included a brief survey of past cultures and the reason for their demise, and he focused on two that may have disintegrated for environmental reasons: the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and the Maya civilization. Bernstein connects both cases to our current situation: the societies were “highly advanced but also unable to stop their own ruin through the over consumption of natural resources.” Despite the parallels to our present environmental crisis, he is hopeful we can learn from these historical mistakes and take action at this critical juncture. “We seem to love stories with a rough time before the end. Think of Rocky or Star Wars,” he joked.

To move forward, and to address the current problem of global warming, Bernstein believes the environmental movement must make a fundamental shift in its approach. “It’s unfortunate we’ve tied the movement to a color. This may be semantically petty, but the environmental movement is not visual, but visceral. It has to be about what people are feeling.” He urged participants to be strong leaders and commit to a course of affecting change, but change that connects to people on an emotional level. “We need to shift the way we relate to each other and to the planet from one of ignorance to one of openness.”

To help minimize his environmental footprint, Bernstein purchases offsets for his 500,000 miles of annual travel, and for the travel of the participants to his outdoor school. He recognizes offsets are a temporary patch to the overall problem, but thinks it’s an approach that at least helps foster investment of new energy sources. During his extensive wanderings across the globe, he is already seeing the impacts of climate change in the cultures he studies; he told the audience of the societal devastation an Eskimo tribe experienced that had to relocate from their ancestral home due to the widespread melting of ice.

Bernstein hosts the popular Discovery Channel show, Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein, and also owns BOSS (The Boulder Outdoor Survival School), the oldest and largest such school in the world. Participants at BOSS “exfoliate the urban world” by embarking in a wilderness experience from the perspective of traditional cultures; primitive survival skills are taught such as fire making. The courses are powerful and transformative and as Bernstein states provide a “renewal of connection to the natural world that can be life changing.”

Live from Greenbuild 2009: Al Gore inspires and Sheryl Crow rocks

The Honorable Al Gore presenting the keynote address at Greenbuild 2009 (Photo by Beth Pratt)After an exhausting day spent browsing the expansive tradeshow or sitting in several educational sessions, Greenbuild participants headed to Chase Field for an opening celebration, which included a keynote address from Al Gore and a special concert from Sheryl Crow.

U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi opened the event and spoke to the crowd about the importance of leveraging green buildings to “improve lives, heal our planet, and ensure our future.” He introduced green building leaders from throughout the world—Australia, South Africa, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, India, Mexico, Taiwan, and Brazil—who all shared engaging stories of sustainable projects in their countries.

Former Vice President Al Gore arrived on stage to a standing ovation and delivered an engaging message focused on the imperative action needed to combat climate change. “This is a challenge to our system of democracy. We need to get active and engaged and do something about it.” He warned that the “alternative to failure in Copenhagen is unacceptable” and urged the crowd to ensure that our government takes action. “We need to change our light bulbs, but we also need to change our laws and policy.”

Sheryl Crow giving a special concert at Greenbuild (photo by Beth Pratt)Climate change transcends politics and party lines, he asserted: “We’re all in this together—we don’t need to be fighting about this.”  He quoted an African proverb: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Gore ended his address with a message of hope: “We can solve this crisis. We have the tools we need to solve three or four climate crises and we need to only solve one.” He urged the audience to take action so when future generations look back to this critical juncture, they’ll be able to consider us with admiration for finding the moral courage to solve the issue of climate change.

After his speech, Gore returned to the stage to welcome (and hug) singer and fellow environmentalist Sheryl Crow, who entertained the Greenbuild audience with an hour-long concert that included most of her popular songs. During “Are You Strong Enough to be My Man,” Crow ad-libbed to ask the crowd, “Are you strong enough to recycle? Are you strong enough to drive a Prius?” And to prove that even “tree huggers” can rock, she finished the show with an energetic cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” and the audience shouted every “been a long time, been a long time” right along with her.

For a photo slideshow of the opening celebration, see below:

 

The most magnificent place in the Sierra Nevada: an ode to the Dana Plateau

A view from the top of the Dana Plateau (photo by Beth Pratt)When naming spectacular places in the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite Valley or Mt. Whitney inevitably rise to the top of the list.  While the entire region is filled with remarkable scenery, my favorite place in the Sierra, if not the world, is the sublime, ancient landscape of the Dana Plateau.

When exploring the Dana Plateau, located just outside the eastern border of Yosemite National Park on Tioga Pass, your feet walk on a land with remnants of terrain 25 million years old. The rock-filled plateau resembles a Martian landscape and presents an ancient geologic wonderland—the high alpine basin remained untouched by recent glaciations, and as a result, offers a rare glimpse of a landscape millions of years old. According to King Huber in his The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park, “these upland surfaces have significance far beyond being unglaciated, because they are very ancient.”  

On the northern end of the plateau, you can wander through fantastic rock gardens that have grown over millions of years. The oddly shaped granite boulders that inhabit the area act as aged sentinels who have endured an eon of winds, rains, snows, and sun that have shaped their unique character. Some rocks display distinct “weatherpans,” shallow depressions formed by water and erosion over thousands of years.

Mount Dana and its glacier also stand watch over the plateau and the adjacent Glacier Canyon. The Dana Glacier, one of about 100 active glaciers in the Sierra Nevada, is clearly visible on the northern slope of Mt Dana. Formed sometime during the Little Ice age (1450 to 1850), the glacier has lost a third of its size since 1883 as the result of the changing climate. On clear days the deep cerulean blue waters of Dana Lake reflect the sky and the mighty peaks that surround it.

Each visit to the Dana Plateau transports me back to a prehistoric time—indeed, during my visits I would not have been surprised to observe a pterodactylus extending its enormous wings as it soared over the waters of Dana Lake. 

The magnificent landscape, although underscoring my insignificance in the greater scheme of things with its unavoidable reminder of the far-reaches of time, produces what I can only term a state of rapture.  Or as John Muir said with much more eloquence, “Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.” 

For a short video of the Dana Plateau and a photo slideshow, see below:

Greenbuild 2009 starts next week; Al Gore is keynote speaker

Former Vice President Al Gore opens Greenbuild 2009 (photo Tipper Gore from Our Choice/Rodale)Former Vice President Al Gore will provide the opening keynote address at Greenbuild 2009, which begins next week in Phoenix. His new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, was just released.

This annual event, organized by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), focuses on sustainable building; the conference goal is to advance the conversation about “how we can build a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-effective, energy-efficient, water-saving green buildings.” The USGBC oversees the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification process for buildings.

Over twenty thousand attendees are expected to explore the array of offerings at Greenbuild 2009, which includes the world largest expo devoted to green building, a green building job fair, over 100 educational sessions, and LEED accredited workshops. 

Along with Al Gore, the impressive line-up of speakers features Discovery Channel explorer Josh Bernstein, Starbucks President of Global Development Arthur Rubinfeld, and Assistant to President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner. Singer Sheryl Crow opens the event with a special concert celebration.

Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Greenbuild 2009 beginning next week!

A Trip to Great Basin National Park

Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National ParkWhen I drive between my homes in Yellowstone and Yosemite, I always take a new route in order to visit a national park or wilderness area. Last spring I explored Craters of the Moon National Monument. On my drive this past week, I toured Great Basin National Park. Often overlooked because of its remote location, a visit to this park is well worth the drive and the off-the-beaten path roads provide some remarkable scenery.

Great Basin National Park, located on border of Nevada and Utah, is named for the geography it inhabits—the small park of 77,000 acres sits amidst the mighty Great Basin of our continent that encompasses over 200,000 miles and 160 mountain ranges in the states of Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho and Utah. Most commonly defined from a hydrographic perspective, all of the land within its borders drains inward and lacks an outlet to the sea.

A series of geologic events dating back almost 800 million years shaped the dramatic and diverse landscape of the park, from the sagebrush valley to the wondrous Lehman Caves, to the imposing summit of Wheeler Peak at 13,063 feet—an altitude change of almost 8,000 feet! Because of the abundance of mountain ranges in the larger Great Basin, and the drastic variation in altitude between the lowlands and the top of the ranges, each mountainous area acts as an island of habitat for a diverse number of plant and animal species.

Decorating the landscape in Great Basin National Park are an array of flora and fauna, including the ancient bristlecone pine, which can live almost 5,000 years. John Muir described the intrepid trees hisThe Mountains of California: “There are many variable arching forms, alone or in groups, with innumerable tassels dropping beneath the arches or radiant above them, and many lowly giants of no particular form that have braved the storms of a thousand years.”  

Great Basin also boasts a large variety of animal life such as pronghorn antelope, kangaroo rats, bald eagles, elk, bighorn sheep and desert horned lizard. Over 70% of all North American mammal species are found within Great Basin National Park; a park ranger at the visitor center observed to me that while the park is a mere 1/30 the size of Yellowstone, it possess only one fewer species of mammal. 

Lastly, don’t miss the excellent stargazing opportunities at Great Basin National Park. As one of the darkest places in the country, the stars adorn the sky like a million precious gemstones and on some evenings the soft glow of the Milky Way stretches overhead.

For more information on visiting Great Basin National Park visit the National Park Service website. For books and other information, check out the non-profit Western National Parks Association's excellent online store.

To view a photo slideshow, click on the image below.

Hauntings in the first National Park: Yellowstone Ghost Stories

Does a headless bride wander the balconies of the Old Faithful Inn? (Photo courtesy Xanterra Parks & Resorts)The things that go bump in the night in Yellowstone might not be just the resident wild creatures. The park’s historic hotels and mysterious landscapes have inspired countless ghost stories over its long history.

Last year, I visited the Old Faithful Inn on a winter’s night. Every fall the Inn is closed and shuttered for the season until it reopens the next spring. As I walked through the darkened hallways and listened to my lonely footfalls, thoughts of The Shining certainly entered my mind. Indeed, employees have a spooky tradition of gathering for showings of the film over the winter in one of Inn’s dark rooms. 

The Old Faithful Inn, over one hundred years old, has numerous ghost stories associated with it. One tells of a newlywed bride beheaded during her honeymoon at the Inn. Soon after the murder, guests began reporting a headless apparition that wandered through the hallways. Visitors and employees have also witnessed the specter of a small, intense-looking man walking through the lobby—he is thought to be the ghost of Robert Reamer, the architect of the Old Faithful Inn and many other historic buildings in Yellowstone. 

Other well-known landmarks in Yellowstone also possess spooky stories. Visitors have reported hearing the whispers of the drowned on Yellowstone Lake and a little, lost boy is said to appear among the onlookers watching the Old Faithful Geyser. 

Even the wildlife of Yellowstone are represented in the ghost world. In her book Yellowstone Ghost Stories, Shellie Larios relates the story of Wahb, a lonely, silver-tipped grizzly. This ursine apparition had a tragic life—his family was destroyed by gunfire in his youth—and after his apparent suicide at Death Gulch, he now haunts the forests of Yellowstone.

Fall wildlife watching in Yellowstone: the bighorn sheep rut

Sighting one of the nimble and graceful bighorn sheep performing a gravity-defying ballet on a rocky cliff is one of the chief delights for visitors to Yellowstone. About 300 bighorn live within the park, with most inhabiting the northern range.  Mt. Washburn and the Gardner Canyon (between Mammoth and the North Entrance) are good areas for frequent viewings of the bighorn sheep. 

While leaping from ridge to ridge, the bighorn sheep—especially the rams—carry a heavy load. An adult ram’s horns can weigh up to forty pounds and account for 8-12 percent of its body weight. Horns also denote social status in males, with the general rule being the bigger the horn the higher the ranking.

In November the bighorn sheep rut begins and as far as clashes go, the bighorn are pretty civilized. The rams “huddle” in a group showing off their horns and sizing each other up. If a subordinate does not concede, a dominant ram may assume the “low stretch” stance that indicates power. Then suddenly, the two rams may surge toward each other and clash in a dramatic crashing of heads and horns. Yet the incident ends very quickly and the rams may resume grazing or resting next to each other immediately after the fight

Last year I was lucky enough to observe a large bighorn herd during the rut. My favorite stance was the lip curl, a bighorn “funny face” made after a ram smells an ewe in order to determine her reproductive status. After the rams had fought for some time, the females moved near the huddle as if to say, “enough silly fighting!” Many of the eager males followed the ewes, strolling behind with their lips curled and heads lifted proudly in the air.

For all their abundance in Yellowstone, bighorn sheep in our country face many threats. Theodore Roosevelt is generally credited with bringing the sheep back from the brink of extinction in the early 1900s. Habitat erosion and climate change pose challenges for the bighorn. Exposure to livestock and even humans also put bighorns at the risk of contagious disease. A pink-eye epidemic in Yellowstone in 1982 decreased the park’s bighorn sheep population by almost 60%, but the animals have been slowly recovering at a rate of 7% growth since 1998.

Fall in Yellowstone: a photo slideshow

The snowy weather in Yellowstone National Park of the last two weeks has yielded to a burst of autumn, and the landscape proudly displays the vibrant colors of the season one last time before winter covers the park in white.

Your National Parks need you! Saving America's Best Idea from climate change

From my home in Yellowstone National Park, I’ve watched hundreds of vehicles entering the park under the famed Roosevelt Arch, and I have taken hundreds of photographs for strangers wanting a memento of themselves standing next to its impressive rock walls. Underneath its inscription, “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” I have witnessed the joy, happiness, inspiration, and awe visitors from all over the world experience as they enter Yellowstone.

In Yosemite, on an overlook at Glacier Point that provides incredible views of the incomparable Yosemite Valley, its roaring waterfalls, and the iconic Half Dome, I have seen people shed tears in utter happiness at the landscape before them. At Point Reyes National Seashore, I brought a group of inner-city school children on a field trip, and watched them come alive, delighted by their freedom from traffic and gray concrete, as they ran on the beach and watched whales breach in the ocean.

Our national parks and wildlands furnish us with peace and inspiration, and consistently evoke joy in those who visit.  The remarkable spiritual and healing capabilities of our parks cannot be understated. Indeed, these special places have provided, in the words of naturalist John Muir, something essential to our soul: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul.” Ken Burn’s recent documentary, "The National Parks," lovingly captured the deep connection we as a people share with the parklands, and the absolute essentialness of “America’s Best Idea” to our nation’s heritage.

But imagine Glacier National Park without its namesake glaciers. Or Yellowstone without grizzly bears roaming through its forests. Or Joshua Tree bereft of its namesake feature.

These dire scenarios and others may unfortunately become a reality. A new report released jointly by the NRDC and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, “National Parks in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption,” details the significant impacts of climate change on the twenty-five parks most at risk. Co-author Stephen Saunders warns, “Climate disruption is the greatest threat ever to our national parks. We could lose entire national parks for the first time. To head this off, we need to reduce the heat-trapping gases that are already harming them, and begin managing the parks to protect resources at risk.”

Losing our national parks, our national heritage, this connection to nature, to our past, to our essential selves, would be a tragedy of the highest degree. Yet as Americans, we can act now to help preserve our parks by lobbying our elected officials to take action, supporting non-profit organizations working toward park preservation, and adopting sustainable practices in our lives. 

Stephen Saunders believes that by uniting as a nation we can save our parks: “The National Park Service will need support from the American people. We Americans deeply love our national parks and have always rallied around when they have been in peril. Now, more than ever, is such a time.”

Stephen Colbert attacks Yellowstone Grizzlies; bears fight back

On Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert launched yet another cowardly assault on grizzly bears, naming them the number one threat on his “Threatdown,” and encouraging viewers to shoot pine beetles in order to keep Yellowstone’s grizzly bears off the endangered species list.

 But this time the bears were prepared—and have launched an ongoing campaign against Colbert’s harassment. “He’s been persecuting us relentlessly for years,” said a bear spokesperson. “We taken our message to the people and feel confident they’ll see through his cowardice once they know the truth.”

 The bears recently staged a protest against Stephen Colbert and posted a video on YouTube that exposes his lies. “Thousands of visitors come to Yellowstone every day and for the most part coexist peacefully with the bears. Picnic baskets haven’t been stolen in decades.”

 The grizzly bears in Yellowstone face threats from climate change as warmer temperatures have allowed a beetle that destroys the whitebark pine tree to thrive. The whitebark pine provides a primary food source for grizzly bears because of its high nutritional value. NRDC senior wildlife advocate Louisa Wilcox states: “If these trees go, they could take Yellowstone’s grizzlies and a lot of America’s western forests with them.” 

The bears keep issuing a challenge to Colbert to visit Yellowstone and confront his unwarranted fears, but so far the news host has ignored their requests, which has made the bears critical of his alleged ‘manliness.’ “He claims to be a proud American, but we think he’s a coward and unpatriotic for not wanting to visit America’s first national park. President Obama was not afraid.”

Watch the bears' protest video below:

Fires burning in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

Bearpaw Bay Fire and Mount MoranVisitors at the historic Jackson Lake Lodge usually spend time on the back patio gazing at elk or moose wandering in the wide expansive fields surrounding the lake. The past couple of days, however, the spectacle of fire has overtaken the wildlife as the main attraction. A smoke plume from the Bearpaw Bay Fire, burning across the lodge near Jackson Lake, casts an almost mystical haze over Mount Moran and the surrounding peaks. At night the flames light the far shore in an orange glow. 

 The Bearpaw Bay Fire—likely started from a lightning strike—was reported on September 2 and had grown to over 130 acres by Friday afternoon. Park officials closed backcountry campsites at Bearpaw Bay, Trapper Lake, and the east shore of Leigh Lake as a result. At this time, the park is not actively suppressing the fire, but instead letting it burn to benefit the resource.

 In Yellowstone National Park, the Arnica Fire surged to life on late Friday afternoon when it grew to 1,200 acres in size and prompted a temporary closure of the Grand Loop Road from West Thumb to Bridge Bay. Although the road reopened on Friday evening, park officials caution that further road closures may be necessary over the weekend as the active burn area increases. Fire teams continue to monitor the fire from the air, ground and the Mt Washburn Fire Lookout and are actively managing it to protect people and property, and the area’s natural resources. The fire can be viewed online from the Mt. Washburn Fire Lookout Webcam.

Visitors can access updated road information for Yellowstone National Park by calling 307-344-2117 or by visiting the NPS website.

For a photo slideshow of the fires see below.

Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan's best idea: The National Parks

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National ParkOne of the most prized volumes on my bookshelf is a tattered hardcover entitled National Parks of the U.S.A. Inside the pages is a list written in faded ballpoint pen naming five western parks:Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, and Glacier. I wrote that list as a young girl and I can still remember gazing endlessly at the photographs of granite peaks, roaring waterfalls, and magnificent wildlife, and daydreaming about wandering in those landscapes. I would think, someday, someday…

The west captured my childhood imagination—even in our settled and civilized world—as fiercely as it did any adventurer contemplating the wide-open expanses of America in the 1800s. Yet my urge wasn’t simply to “go west.” The idea of National Parks, of islands of untouched and preserved wilderness inspired me. I wanted to see those places so badly! And in the age before the internet, webcams, blogs and YouTube, my only window into that magical world was through my treasured picture books.

National Parks have been an integral part of my life—from my father taking me to see whales onCape Cod National Seashore, to spending college summers hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, to providing inspiration for my writing, space for my joyful wanderings, and my career as an environmental leader. The tranquility I experience while hiking in places like the Dana Plateau, Tuolumne Meadows, or Hayden Valley feeds my soul with sustenance as essential to my existence as food or water.

In their new documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan have captured the connection that I—along with millions of other people across the world—share with our National Parks. The connection originates from a reverence for not only what these special places contain, but also what they elicit from us.

Beth with Ken Burns in YellowstoneThis past winter, I was lucky enough to meet Ken and Dayton in Yellowstone, and I recently attended a special reception and screening of this soon-to-be released documentary. Through Ken Burn’s brilliant filmmaking and Dayton Duncan’s poignant writing, the segments I watched translated to the screen the ongoing wonderment and lasting legacy inherent in our parks. Even on film, the sight of Old Faithful charging into the blue sky inspires awe. Yet the ‘stories behind the scenery’ of the people who shaped our parks proves just as enduring as the sublime landscape.

While watching the clips, I remembered myself at ten urgently gazing at a picture of Yosemite, and realized the emotions superimposed themselves in time; three decades later my fascination with the parks has not lessened. My thanks to Ken and Dayton for giving the parks such a splendid and inspirational biography. I imagine many children experiencing the same awe I did when exposed to Yosemite Falls or Old Faithful through this vibrant picture book on film.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea premieres on PBS on September 27.

National Park Service honors Yellowstone concessioner with environmental award

Xanterra received an award from the National Park Service for designing a system to burn used cooking oil in the historic Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park.The National Park Service honored Xanterra Parks & Resorts with four of its prestigious Environmental Achievement Awards, recognizing the company’s environmental initiatives at Yellowstone, Zion, Grand Canyon South Rim, and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Daniel N. Wenk, acting director of the National Park Service, presented the award. He said this year’s winners were “setting an example by protecting not only NPS sites but also the land and environment beyond their borders.”

The Yellowstone operation received the award for its development of a new green energy source in the park. An employee team designed and implemented an innovative system that directly burns used cooking oil collected from area kitchens in hotel boilers, providing heat to the guest rooms. This project achieves significant environmental gains, most notably by reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 200,000 pounds a year and eliminating the fossil fuels needed to transport the material offsite for recycling. The project represents just one of the many green initiativesspearheaded by Xanterra’s team at Yellowstone.

“Our employee ‘green teams’ and environmental affairs directors deserve a considerable amount of credit for developing and implementing successful environmental initiatives that truly make a difference in each location,” said Chris Lane, vice president of environmental affairs for Xanterra Parks & Resorts. “In remote national park locations, it is especially challenging to preserve and protect our natural resources and minimize our environmental footprint. To be recognized for our efforts by the National Park Service is a significant honor, and we are dedicated to continuing and enhancing these and other industry-leading environmental practices. We feel a strong sense of duty that comes with our stewardship of our country’s great national resources. All of us take this responsibility very seriously.”

For more information on the cooking oil to fuel project in Yellowstone and a photo slide show, you can read: From french fries to fuel: Yellowstone's new green energy.