Yellowstone hit by global warming, increased visitation: report

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

ENVIRONMENT SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 / 10:28 PM / UPDATED 11 HOURS AGO

Yellowstone hit by global warming, increased visitation: report

Laura Zuckerman
3 MIN READ

PINEDALE, Wyo. (Reuters) - Hotter, drier conditions have led to more severe wildfires in Yellowstone National Park, while growing numbers of visitors have harmed everything from prized hydrothermal features to its famed grizzly bears, the park said in a report on Monday.

Average temperatures in Yellowstone, which has been designated as both World Heritage and Biosphere Reserve sites by a United Nations panel, are exceeding historical norms even as climate change is blamed for a string of fires that have increased in size and which last longer, according to the study.

The 60-page “The state of Yellowstone vital signs and select park resources, 2017” report is one of just four compiled in the past decade. They are designed to track one of the largest, nearly intact temperate ecosystems in the world.

Yellowstone is celebrated for geothermal areas that contain about half the world’s active geysers, as well as forests, mountains, meadows, rivers and lakes considered a crucial sanctuary for the largest concentration of diverse wildlife in the Lower 48 states. The report shows it has seen warmer summers with less moisture and shorter winters in recent years.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yellowstone-climate/yellowstone-hit-by-global-warming-increased-visitation-report-idUSKCN1LR04P

[CrispyQ]

1. 7 billion miracles is enough.

I had that bumper sticker back when it was 6 billion. We cull other species to manage their numbers but we never manage our own. We pride ourselves on our big brain & think it will get us out of this mess, when it's our big brain that got us in this mess, with it's rationalization that we can live outside of nature, that we "create our own reality," as Karl Rove once said. Many of these places were never meant to handle the number of tourists they get.

~Call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.

[defacto7]

2. I Rec your comment. So true.

[hunter]

3. I sometimes muse we should build large Disneyland scale parking structures...

... at the boundaries of our national parks, no private automobiles allowed inside the parks.

Walk or take the shuttle, with generous accommodations for handicapped visitors, of course.

I've had the good fortune of visiting Yosemite when it's snowed in, the roads closed. Without automobiles it's even more a magical place.

If you've ever stopped along the river on the highway from El Portal up to Yosemite Valley, you cant help but notice the stink of exhaust fumes and burning brakes.