Yellowstone National Park

President Obama wants to add 55 million dollars to the National Park Service budget, including ten million dollars to get parks ready for their centennial celebration in 2016.   John Garder with the National Parks Conservation Association says the money is needed to address billions of dollars in maintenance.

A report by the National Park Service indicates that parks are major economic drivers for surrounding communities.

The report shows that park visitation generated more than $700 million in Wyoming in 2012 and supported thousands of jobs and local businesses. Nation-wide, tourists spent more than $26 billion when visiting parks.

The National Park Service does not wish to start using air guns to vaccinate Yellowstone bison for Brucellosis.

Brucellosis is a disease that can cause bison and other large animals to abort their calves. Currently, the park only vaccinates bison when they leave the park, and even then, only a few animals are vaccinated. But Park Spokesman Al Nash says after some legal disputes regarding bison management over a decade ago, Yellowstone agreed to look into new options.

Snowest Magazine has ranked the Continental Divide Snowmobile Trail the fifth best trail in the West.  Wyoming State Trails Program’s Ron McKinney says the reason the Continental Divide Trail is so popular is that it offers 490 miles of very diverse mountain riding.  The trail starts at South Pass and ends at West Yellowstone. 

The National Park Service has released Yellowstone National Park’s winter use rule. After 15 years of gathering public feedback and scientific data, the new rule will govern how many over-snow vehicles will be allowed in the park.

Instead of capping traffic with a specific number, the new rule will allow 110 “transportation events” a day, broken down up to 60 snow coach excursions, and 50 snowmobile groups.

Now that the government shutdown is over, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks have re-opened, and local communities are hoping business will pick up again.

Scott Balyo with the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce says the area saw a 25 to 30 percent drop in business while the parks were closed.

“The first couple of days of the shutdown, we probably saw a slight increase in business, because people were hopeful that it would be short lived,” Balyo said. “So we had people who were willing to stay in the area and wait and see if the park would reopen.”

Trespassing citations have been issued to several people attempting to enter Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks since the federal government shutdown closed the parks.

 Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash says that the park is running on minimal staff, with hundreds of employees furloughed due to the shutdown.

 “We have just over a hundred national park service employees on duty on any given day during this shutdown” explains Nash “Across 2.2 million acres mind you, and hundreds of miles of road.”

Yellowstone National Park has begun a series of renovations on the Albright Visitor Center and Museum at Mammoth Hot Springs, near the north entrance to the park.

The building’s upgrades will include a steel frame to protect the building from the area’s seismic activity and accessibility improvements for disabled park visitors. The finished facility will also include new museum exhibits, a book store and a back-country permit office.

Park spokeswoman Amy Bartlett says that visitors will still be able to access all necessary help during construction.

A shortage of whitebark pine seeds could mean more human-bear interactions in western Wyoming this fall.


When whitebark pine seeds are plentiful, Yellowstone bears spend the fall gorging themselves on the fatty, protein-rich morsels, up in the high alpine. But not every year is good.


“It’s a boom-bust cycle, and there’s not always a high amount of pinecones available, so they just find other foods to eat,” says Wyoming Game and Fish Large Carnivore Supervisor Dan Thompson. 

Wildlife deaths from vehicle collisions are on the rise in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. That’s according to records obtained by the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

The group’s executive director, Jeff Ruch, says one of the reasons , at least in Yellowstone, could be road improvements.

“Yellowstone designs its road projects for basically commuting into the park,” says Ruch. “They’ve invested a lot of money in recent years into making roads wider and straighter.”

Yellowstone National Park has invited acclaimed geological experts from around the world to discuss Old Faithful’s geothermal system, and file a report on what is – and is not yet – known about it.

Park personnel will also speak about the needs of tourists, historic buildings and other infrastructure.

Park Geologist Hank Heasler says the goal is to create a report that will help park managers decide what to look at when considering future infrastructure management plans.

Wildlife interest groups and agencies in Wyoming and Idaho are working to increase the populations of trumpeter swans in the region. Loss of habitat has limited numbers within the species. The Teton Regional Land Trust is working with the Wyoming Wetland Society, local offices of US Fish and Wildlife Services, and the Idaho Fish and Game departments to build a nesting colony in Teton valley.

The Cody Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise 50 thousand dollars to be used to pay for snow plows to clear off the east entrance into Yellowstone National Park. 

Park officials have said they needed to delay the plowing due to federal budget cuts and that would likely mean delaying the opening of Yellowstone by two weeks.   Chamber Director Scott Balyo says it’s a serious issue for the Cody business community.

Gov. Matt Mead is telling communities in northwest Wyoming to go ahead and raise money to hire state snow plows to clear roads inside Yellowstone National Park.
 
     Spring plowing in Yellowstone is postponed due to federal budget cuts. Plowing was scheduled to begin March 4 but is delayed two weeks to save money.
 
     Business owners outside Yellowstone fret that Yellowstone won't fully open to automobiles until one to two weeks later than usual this May. Officials in Cody and Jackson have been discussing other options.
 

Gov. Matt Mead is telling communities in northwest Wyoming to go ahead and raise money to hire state snow plows to clear roads inside Yellowstone National Park.
 
     Spring plowing in Yellowstone is postponed due to federal budget cuts. Plowing was scheduled to begin March 4 but is delayed two weeks to save money.
 
     Business owners outside Yellowstone fret that Yellowstone won't fully open to automobiles until one to two weeks later than usual this May. Officials in Cody and Jackson have been discussing other options.
 

Winter visitors to Yellowstone National Park may soon get to explore the park on self-guided snowmobile tours, according to the new proposed Winter Use Plan released today.

The plan includes guidelines for how many visitors can enter the park on snowmobiles and snow coaches, and also allows for visitors to tour the park without a professional guide, which is currently required.

However, Park Superintendent Dan Wenk says that participants of non-commercially guided tours will still have to meet minimum standards.

Yellowstone National Park is now generating one third of its electricity from a hydroelectric facility.  Located near the Mammoth Hot Springs Headquarters, the plant’s engineers estimate that it will save the Park about $70,000 a year.   

Park spokesman, Dan Hottle, says that the hydroelectric plant will also be good for the environment.  

“This is one example,” Hottle says, “of a project where we were able to cut our greenhouse emissions by almost 800 metric tons every year.”

Yellowstone National Park officials are trotting out their latest proposed winter use plan for public comment this week.  The plan describes how park officials believe they can increase the number of snowmobiles per day into the Park, while reducing environmental impacts. 

     Yellowstone National Park officials have released the park’s latest winter use plan, which increases the number of snowmobiles that will be allowed in the park. 

The plan would allow 60 snow coaches, but increase the maximum number of snowmobiles from the current limit of 318 up to 480.  It’s the seventh time that Yellowstone has released an environmental document on what has become a controversial issue.  Environmental groups have called for the elimination of snowmobiles inside Yellowstone.