How Do We Prevent Wild Greater Yellowstone from Unraveling?

04 Feb 23 142 0 0

How Do We Prevent Wild Greater Yellowstone from Unraveling?

Cool Story - How Do We Prevent Wild Greater Yellowstone from Unraveling?

According to experts, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is at serious risk of losing its robust, top-notch wildlife populations if things continue as they are, with a rapidly growing human development footprint being cemented on private land, soaring outdoor recreation pressure on public land, and deepening negative effects from climate change.

The main offenders are the interruption of wildlife movement pathways and the degradation of safe habitats caused by an overabundance of human presence. In addition, climate change is changing the region's hydrology and creating favorable circumstances for invading species and exotic weeds to proliferate, which further threatens the ability of the land to support local animals and plants.

Mountain Journal has often noted the difficulties in its reporting. Readers have then inquired as to what proactive measures may be implemented right away to stop Greater Yellowstone from adopting the same trends that led to the extinction of species or population-level decreases elsewhere. Many of the simple things, such as placing total faith in the ability of the free market and the absence of regulations to produce enough wildlife protection, have either failed or shown to be catastrophically insufficient in the face of the repercussions of exponential expansion.

Here are a few ambitious, but not impossible, concepts that could be pursued.

Greater Yellowstone stands out as the birthplace of American wildlife conservation because of the wildlife, not because of the potential for outdoor pleasure or resource extraction. The loss of native species is unavoidable in the absence of a protection strategy.

The Lower 48 sole environment, Greater Yellowstone, still supports all of the native species that existed in 1491, including sizable populations of mammals, predators, and prey that may still travel freely across unbroken landscapes. The good news is that public concern for wildlife is pervasive and serves as a potent unifying force.

But there is no shared vision for the future that unites everyone in terms of goals and aspirations for America's most famous wildlife environment. A regional conservation strategy is urgently needed to maintain Greater Yellowstone's ecological health and stop it from following the Colorado Rockies, Wasatch Mountains of Utah, Sierra and other ranges in California, and the Florida Everglades.

A cohesive plan that places a high priority on safeguarding wildlife, the environment it requires, and crucial migration corridors that are found nowhere else at the same scale would be the superstructure of cross-boundary thinking in the twenty-first century. Such a strategy would prioritize wildlife protection and bring together elected leaders from towns and 20 counties who have power over the development patterns on 6 million acres of private land with federal and state land management organizations that manage 18 million acres of public land.

Representatives of the conservation, agriculture, economic, and recreational groups who support a game plan for the three-state region are also important advocates. Without a plan, it is unlikely that the current, disjointed, uncoordinated decision-making can preserve enough essential lands to maintain Greater Yellowstone's magnificent ecosystem.

Opportunities to enhance conservation are dwindling every day. Lack of funding is frequently cited by government representatives and environmentalists as a barrier to imaginative thinking. But what draws investment is vision.

A. Introduce a real estate transfer tax.

B. Implement a national "backpack tax" on all outdoor equipment

C. Charge commercial bus tour operators and passengers at GYE airports a reasonable enplanement price

D. Increase impact costs for developers, especially for environmentally destructive projects

E. Permit the transfer of development rights and use them in more inventive ways

F. Permit local governments and residents to pass a sales tax

Make reduced agricultural tax rates and subsidies available only to farmers and ranchers in high-growth areas if they agree to protect their land.

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