Yellowstone Drama

This year Yellowstone National Park has been in the news a lot and not to tell everyone how fantastic the park is. I think I have found a topic that I can express a little more emotion in as well as provide you all with the knowledge of current issues. It is overdue that I talk about what is going on in the world's first national park. Ever since I went to Yellowstone this past spring the park has had a special place in my heart and if you have read any of my previous blogs on issues in the park you could see that. If you don't know what has been going on in Yellowstone in the last few months then allow me to update you, bear with me there is a lot and I am only covering a few of the more popular news stories,

First we should start with some background. This summer Yellowstone will more than likely see another year of record attendance. The busy season has started early this year. Usually the majority of visitors don't start showing until mid-May, but this year there have been more people coming to the park earlier than usually. There is a dramatic increase in the number of people that have visited the park this year when compared to the last few years. Some attribute this to low gas prices allowing more people to road-trip and increased international visitors. Yellowstone National Park and the other national parks will be seeing another year of high attendance and this is hard for rangers to handle.

Let's start with the most recent as of this posting (who knows what could happen in the next months). A young man from Oregon fell into a hot spring earlier this week. He had walked off the boardwalk and went over 600 feet from the trail with  his sister. Rangers spent several days looking for his remains but had to call off the search when they determined that there would be nothing to be found. The man fell in near Porkchop Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin. The Norris Geyser Basin is the oldest and hottest of the thermal features in the park. It has temperatures underground that have reached up to 459 degrees. There have been similar stories that have also happened since the start of the year. Three days prior to the young man falling into the spring a father and son both fell into a hot spring. These two also ventured off of the boardwalk near the Upper Geyser Basin at Old Faithful. The boy had burns around his ankle and the father had burns from helping his son. The father is receiving two citations: one for disorderly conduct and creating a dangerous situation, and another for leaving the park's boardwalk. A third related story is when a group of four young, Canadian men walked out onto Grand Prismatic Spring. These four men are a group called High on Life, a group who makes a living on creating videos about landscapes and travel. They had videotaped themselves and another visitor caught them on video as well. The group faces charges of leaving the path, creating a hazardous condition, and filming without a license. The group has pledged to donate $5,000 to Yellowstone. Many believe that they are donating the money to try and get out of the citations. They should be charged no matter what. All three of these situations, and many more like them, are all due to people who do not respect the regulations the park has set forth. It is unfortunate that someone has died at Yellowstone, the first death due to a thermal feature since 2000, and hopefully this will help others realize that when the park says not to leave the boardwalk they have a good reason.



Another category of recent news stories involves people who decide they need a selfie with the an animal or a picture on their phone or camera with a terrible zoom. There is no good starting place for this category so I will just pick one incident and start there. At the end of last month a woman who decided she needed a selfie with a mother elk who had just given birth. The lady walked closer and closer to the animal with her camera phone out in front. Then the mother elk charged her. The lady was not hurt but I bet she was surprised. The lady had been warned by a guide that she was too close, but refused to listen. Another time late last month a tourist got out of her car and approached a mother black bear with two cubs. Yes the cubs are adorable, but mother bears can be very protective. As the bears came down the hillside many cars stopped and there were a lot of people there creating a bear jam. All of these cars would have stressed the mother bear out. This woman was lucky she did not get mauled by a black bear. Also last month a Texas woman was hit by a car as she crossed the road to watch and take pictures of an eagle. The NPS notes that pedestrian fatalities don't happen very often. While only the one person had gotten hurt or worse this year (that I know of) due to picture taking, I found a story from almost exactly a year ago about a 62 year-old Australian man who was taking pictures of a bison and came within five feet of it. The bison charged him and tossed him into the air. A few weeks prior to that a 16 year-old Taiwanese exchange student was gored by a bison while posing for a picture. I know how amazing taking photos in Yellowstone is I bought a 300 dollar camera to do just that, but when my friends and I wanted to take pictures of an animal we were never closer than what the park recommended. The park recommend that you are 25 yards from elk, deer, pronghorn, bison, and all other wildlife and 100 yards away from bears and wolves. These restrictions are in place for safety reasons and can be enforced through citations. People need to understand that a selfie is not worth possibly dying or invading an animals space. If you want to take pictures of animals and landscapes in Yellowstone go buy a nice camera and do it from a safe and respective distance.

The third and final category that we will cover today is on people physically interacting with the animals. You all have probably heard about the Canadian father and son who put a bison calf in the back of their car because they thought it was cold. You probably also know that the NPS had to euthanize the calf. The tourists received a citation. The rangers attempted to re-release the calf to the wild but the herd did not accept it back. It had been witnessed days before by a photographer that the calf was alone and it was accepted that the mother had died or abandoned it. The calf got a bad deal that was made worse when people intervened. The calf should have been left alone and let nature take its course and let something eat it. The NPS could not have released the calf and just let it go without receiving a lot of bad press. It also would have needed testing for diseases during months of quarantine, which they do not have the facilities for. That is why they had to euthanize it. People need to understand that a calf dying is nature and needs to be left alone. In a national park nature is the law of the land, unlike the rest of the United States where people take injured or abandoned animals to rehab places all the time. Another incident that happened this past April was when a lady tried to pet a bison. She got right up next to it and may have petted it. She was extremely lucky the bison did not get upset and charge her. People just don't understand what wild animals means. They are not your dog or cat and they can kill you,



People have been making stupid decisions at Yellowstone. This is unfortunate and I hope it does not ruin the park for so many other people. It needs to be understood that the park is not their for your entertainment; it is there for education and preservation. People need to respect the park and the animals. This is not the news we should be focusing on coming out of Yellowstone; we should be about the possibility of removing bears from the Endangered Species List, the killing of the famous bear Scarface, or some of the great local cuisine (because I love food and game meat). There is a lot of great research coming out about the ecosystem in and around the park. There is plenty of interesting information coming from Yellowstone that we should be reading instead of how stupid people are. Things need to change and I think the NPS needs to crack down on people and manage tourism to the park in a way that does not hurt the parks' reputations. Personally I know that I will not ever (probably) be going to Yellowstone in any month that May through September. Those months are tourist season and I want no part in that. I prefer to go back in the late winter or early fall when it is still cold and there are less people. The park is gorgeous at all times of the year you just have to be determined and willing to get a little cold. Whatever you do don't do anything like what these people did, be safe, and respect the park.

Articles

Yellowstone Visitor Dies After Falling Into Hot Spring

Father and son burned by Yellowstone hot spring

High On Members Charged For Walking on Grand Prismatic Spring

After Elk Charge Woman Taking Selfie, National Park Officials Warn of Danger

Woman shooting photos gets too close to Yellowstone mama bear

Woman dies after being hit by vehicle in Yellowstone

Second Yellowstone visitor injured in bison encounter

Yellowstone Bison Calf is Euthanized After Riding in Tourists' SUV

Woman tries to pet bison in Yellowstone

Scarface Illegally Shot Dead

Beyond Bison Burgers

Sad Tale of Photographing in Yellowstone

Pictures

Sign

Prismatic Hot Spring

Elk Charges Woman

Calf in Trunk

Waterfall

Winter Scene