Yellowstone Fights to Survive

Y E L L O W S T O N E  N A T I O N A L  P A R K, Wyo., Aug. 5, 2002 -- Every morning and then again at noon and sunset, thousands of tourists gather around the base of Old Faithful to watch the famous geyser put on a show.

Joella Vitek and her sister Ann, who live in San Diego, marvel at the spectacle.

"You have to be grateful to the people who started the park system," said Ann Vitek. "It is a treasure for us and for our children. Yellowstone's a place where you don't have to spend a lot of money and you see things you can't see anywhere else in the world."

This summer, a lot of vacationers agree. In fact, attendance records may be broken: More than 3 million people are expected to visit the park by the end of the season.

John Siple, a policeman from Chicago, brought his family to "get closer to nature." As he and his wife took pictures of their children near a bison grazing in an open field, he couldn't believe his luck. "I never thought we'd ever get this close to the animals," he said. "It's a fantastic place to be."

Yellowstone is the world's first national park, created in 1872, and one of the biggest. It stretches across volcanic plateaus in northwest Wyoming and into southern Montana and Idaho, and contains more than 2 million acres of geysers, lakes, waterfalls, forests, bison, bears — and tourists.

And this year, due to many Americans' lingering fear of terrorism and desire to stay closer to home, visitors are showing up bumper-to-bumper. On one recent day, motorists driving through the park's Hayden Valley found themselves caught in a 2 ½-mile traffic jam. Actually, it was a "buffalo jam" — created by two buffaloes that decided to stop in the middle of the highway.

"Wildlife at its best," said a woman from California as she leaned out of her SUV and snapped a photograph.

Staffing in Short Supply

The staff at Yellowstone is pleased by the number of visitors but distressed by the lack of staffing.

"We're having a very busy summer — in West Yellowstone our arrivals are up nearly 20 percent," said Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis. "But we may have to curtail the season by stopping some services before the visitor season ends."

A shortfall of personnel is one of the key reasons. While Yellowstone has approximately 100 to 115 rangers on staff, they can sometimes be redeployed to other projects that are vital to the Department of Interior.

"We have 18 to 20 people out of the park right now," said Chief Ranger Rick Obernesser. "Typically, we're losing personnel who have fire management skills and also some of our law enforcement rangers who are out on security assignments."

Diane Chalfant, who is in charge of interpreting the park experience through educational programs, says some schoolchildren will lose out.

"It's very frustrating," she said. "We want to offer educational activities but without the ranger staff and without the facilities to do that, we essentially say 'no' more often than 'yes.'"

She said 50,000 visitors in September "won't have the opportunity to attend ranger-led interpretive programs, go to campfire programs, or meet a ranger because of the shortfall of personnel."

And it's not just staffing that's in short supply. Yellowstone needs to repair its highways, address sewage spills, improve employee housing, and replace 50-year-old visitor centers.

In all, it's estimated the park requires $700 million in repairs and renovations and its operating budget is only $27 million for this year.

"We're more than 20 years away from resolving our road issues," said John Sacklin, who is in charge of planning at Yellowstone. "And when we're done, when that 20 years is over, we'll start all over again."

Lacking Public Funding

Yellowstone is not alone. Nationwide, the Bush administration says there is a $4.9 billion shortfall in park funding. The Grand Canyon needs to finish its light-rail transit system. Pollution is a problem at Sequoia National Park in California, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina, and Big Bend National Park in Texas. Staffing is an issue from Valley Forge, Pa., to Canyon De Shelly, Ariz., to Yosemite in California.

But other more pressing issues seem to have crowded the parks out of the way.

"I just cannot believe that politicians do not take on the parks as poster children," said Lisa Diekmann, the executive director of the Yellowstone Park Foundation. "I mean, everybody loves national parks."

Back at Old Faithful, the Vitek sisters agree.

"This is extremely frustrating," said Joella Vitek. "I don't think the president or Congress are too concerned about our parks."

"Once it's gone," chimed in her sister, "a lot of these treasures are gone forever. We're not going to get them back. So the money has to be put in the parks today to save them for later."

At that very moment, Old Faithful begins to erupt. All of a sudden, no one is talking. Everyone is quietly captivated.