Recent comments

Whether you admit to it or not, you two (the editors) are already a resource to a vast audience. There are many people nationally who have a varied degree of interest in the topics presented in this forum, but lack the resources, intellect, or motivation to sift through the mountains of reports, articles, interviews, etc. of their own vocation. However, when given a "Reader's Digest" version of events that directly or even indirectly effect the park facilites network, readers have access to data otherwise not found through the daily course of their life's events. The knowledge base that is provided within this arena is powerful, enabling and empowering. And the open exchange of views should make for a well rounded interpretation of the scope of events and their possible effect on the public land system.

In other words, it's about damn time you guys fulfilled your obligation to the public and opened up your library of information to the masses! Now, if we only knew the best way to handle the new influx of information...... slowly is best, I guess. I sincerely hope more than just the "usual suspects" are driven to investigate the new database. We need more inquiring minds contributing and debating these issues. Of course, a little intellect would be nice, too!

After seeing the picture of all those snowmobiles, I certainly wouldn't want to be anywhere after the first one.

They need to hand out oxygen masks from the looks of things.

It's a mystery to me too DRD. The good news is thanks to the fantastic media coverage of this hunt, there are literally thousands and thousands of people banding together to get this hunt moved out of GMU 9C region of the Preserve. There are many forums out there with people fighting to get this hunt stopped. Now we have the National Press Photographer Association getting involved as attempts to have rules changed to keep photographers, vidiographers and the press out of National Parks during events like the Katmai brown bear hunt. For anyone who would like information on what things can and are being done around the world to stop the Katmai bear hunt please email me www.bobdjphoto@gmail.com

I think the Park Rangers need to try the birth control first, befire killing the Elk. The Elk is what brings people to Estes is to see the Elk, in the park and around in town. you start shooting them, and you wont hardly see as many in the Park or in town . They will be gun shy.

Selfishness. Greed. Consider that these might be exactly the words to use here. They are human dispositions, and for some they are the most powerful driving force in life. Me! Me! Me! Me! More! More! More! More! You have thousands of miles of miles of groomed snowmobile trails that you can use on private property and in the national forests and the state parks. But you must ALSO be able to use your snowmobile on groomed trails atop the Yellowstone National Park loop road. There are hundreds of thousands of miles of roads in the national forests and BLM lands that you are welcome to use for your four-wheeling and off-roading. But you ALSO must be able to take your ATV and your SUV into the backcountry of America's most precious and sacred places -- the places that Congress (meaning the American people) have consecrated and pledged to defend from all who would degrade them to their own ends. When those of us who don't share your rapacious view of the world voice our objections, you insist that it's high time we turned the national parks over to the private sector so they can be run "properly" (meaning with your personal best interests in mind). Ya, right. We should have a corporation in charge of Yosemite National Park. An entity with no soul to save and no ass to kick is just what we need for managing the most precious, fragile, and irreplaceable of America's resources. Best darn idea I've heard in a long time.

That's exactly what I love about Okracoke Island -- not a lot of people, cold showers at best, and not much else but sand, beach grass, and the incessantly pounding surf. how can you "improve" on something like that?

Commercial Services -- BAH HUMBUG!

I'm glad here that we are talking about the history of the parks - and Yellowstone, in particular - in terms of the harsh reality behind their birth and their present. Capitalism created the national park system that we know; without it, we wouldn't have the national parks that we know, we wouldn't have the need for the parks that we have, and we wouldn't be having the discussion about snowmobiles in Yellowstone. The same force that destroyed a continent was the same force that worked to protect Yellowstone for the profit of some and is the same force that is cannibalizing itself now.

You've put it so well, Kurt.

The question I have is whether we really need to live like this, whether this force can be resisted. Is it a force of nature, or is it an imposition of some humans on others and on the land itself?

It's also funny that people who resist against capitalists are often labeled socialists or communists; Marx taught that socialism arose out of capitalism, suggesting that capitalism is a force of nature that gives rise to socialism. I sure hope not; what a bleak worldview, where the places we love are reduced to machines. If it is true, then snowmobiles or the mechanisms behind geysers might as well be the same thing. Let's hope that there is nothing natural in capitalism, in the forces that have given rise to destruction, to parcels of preservation, and more destruction.

In the choice of buffalo wandering on the trails or along groomed roads, wandering with intentions we shouldn't worry about fully understanding, we too can find the magic and romanticism because we come to terms with a harsh reality. In the harshness of Yellowstone, in the bitter cold, the volcanism, the food chain, and the noise and pollution of those who think they are entitled to the land, there is still such potent beauty. In seeing both, in recognizing things for what they are, we cannot but be in awe of these places and this place among all, which coaxes us to do better. Let's do better; we too can erupt. I think it's about time.

Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World

It's a terrible thing when humans loose respect for life. The hunt in Katmai is completely unethical and should be stopped immediately. Afterall, there is no hunt there, only murder.

Aldo Leopold was a hippie socialist.
What "Bush slant" did he use?

Wyoming is a damn big state -- there's plenty of snow to snowmobile elsewhere without abusing the National Parks. Lots of National Forests and lots of BLM land in Wyoming and surrounding states, and Wyoming is the least populous state per square mile, so there's room to rumble just about anywhere they are. The National Park belongs to the entire country, not just Wyomingites.

More of the greed factor -- just say "no" to every park's "Made in China" souvenir outlets. The amount of junk sold in the larger parks is way out of control. And how many national parks need that same revolving rack of stuffed birds that tweet when you push the button? My kids and I laugh every time we see them at EVERY park we visit. Look there's the cardinal and the robin again -- they don't even have cardinals or robins in this park!

http://www.storyofstuff.com

The abundant extractive resources that exist in these parks are already off-limits to the American people (yes, the corporations are the American people via the fact that most of us own mutual funds in mining, oil, & timber companies). But that's O.K....we want to see them pristine...to a common-sense point.
Nothing humans can do short of mining, pumping or cutting (although I have always felt that many of the larger parks could self-sustain thru timber on a few set-aside acres in limited watersheds) can damage the parks...the 60's-spawned junk-science "holistic" enviro movement thinks that one footprint in a meadow will...OH MY!...not allow any flora to exist there ever again! Oh, the humanity!
Good science says that deer, bear and other critters also trample the meadows and therefore we know that that one visitor who steps in the meadow for a good angle for a picture is O.K., just don't do a dance out there, O.K?
Likewise, snowmobiles, jet-skis all have their place and should be allowed and monitored. No harrasing wildlife, and in the case of sleds, make sure there is enough snowpack to not cause damage to flora.
I keep repeating, if the American people cannot have varied use of the parks, then they need not exist; sell them off for development. 60's era junk science (some would say it's a pagan religion) cannot be allowed to reign in the parks...spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money for a friggin EIS to fix a road washout is unacceptable. Here common sense vs junk science is epitomized: Adding dirt fill, some of which may go in the river and "damage the fishery" is way less than THE WASHOUT ITSELF! Duh!
All said, I hope to go to Yellowstone myself soon and both ski and snowmobile.