Northern Rockies: Yellowstone Program
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Our Issues
Gateways to Yellowstone
The Gateways to Yellowstone program works to find common cause with Yellowstone’s gateway communities to build local support for Yellowstone. NPCA’s report; Gateways to Yellowstone: Protecting the Wild Heart of our Region’s Thriving Economy, establishes the connection between safeguarding Yellowstone National Park and the economic vitality of gateway communities and through this connection, has engaged community leaders in critical issues effecting Yellowstone.
National Park Funding (Yellowstone)
A lack of sufficient funding is the most critical issue facing national parks today, and with an annual budget shortfall of nearly $23 million, Yellowstone is no exception. Our program works to highlight the on the ground consequences of Yellowstone's funding shortfall, educates local communities, and encourages our congressional leaders to advocate for increased funding for Yellowstone an all our national parks.
Clean Air & Climate
The Yellowstone office's Clean Air & Climate program works to highlight the impacts of climate change and air pollution in Yellowstone and builds support for park and regional efforts to decrease and/or mitigate these impacts. In addition, we work on a local level to build support for Federal clean air and climate legislation. Read Unnatural Disaster, NPCA's report on global warming in our national parks.
Yellowstone's Pronghorn Antelope
At only 300 animals, wildlife managers suggest that Yellowstone’s northern pronghorn herd is in danger of extinction. We are working to improve pronghorn winter range and to make winter range outside Yellowstone more accessible to pronghorn, ensuring that future park visitors will have the opportunity to see pronghorn grazing alongside bison as they have for thousands of years. Read a summary of NPCA's report on conservation of the northern Yellowstone pronghorn.
Winter Use
The Yellowstone Program is working to protect Yellowstone’s wildlife and restore the Park's unique winter quiet and pristine air quality by phasing out noisy and polluting snowmobiles and moving toward a park-friendly snowcoach-only winter transportation system. Read NPCA's Press Release on this issue.
Bison
Yellowstone is the only remaining home for truly wild, genetically pure bison with an unbroken connection to their native habitat. When the buffalo slaughter of the late 1800s ended, only 23 bison remained in the wild, and Yellowstone was their sanctuary. Numbering 4,700 today, Yellowstone’s herd has irreplaceable biological, cultural, spiritual and historic value. Sadly, today we are experiencing a second bison slaughter in America. Just two winters ago, over 900 migrating bison were stopped at the park’s border and shipped to slaughter. This is a national travesty and an embarrassment to the National Park System. NPCA is working to end the annual slaughter through increasing the amount of winter habitat available to them outside Yellowstone. Read NPCA's Congressional Testimony.
Wireless Communications in Yellowstone
Yellowstone is writing one of the first park-wide plans that will determine if, and where, additional wireless communication infrastructure, including cell phone towers, will be placed within the park. This plan will serve as a model for the rest of the national park system. NPCA is working to shape the Wireless Communications Plan to assure park resources and visitor experience is protected.
Bioprospecting
Despite being America’s oldest national park, many aspects of Yellowstone are still undiscovered. For example, over 99% of the heat-loving microbes found in the park's thermal pools and geysers have yet to be studied or even named. Should researchers who make groundbreaking discoveries in national parks be required to share the benefits from those discoveries with the parks? The National Park Service is crafting a plan to guide 'benefits sharing', and the Yellowstone Program is leading the effort to ensure that careful research in our national parks moves forward while protecting park resources and visitor experience.
