Yellowtone Park Analysis

On April 29, 1910, the largest forest fire in American history occurred. Some would come to know it as the Big Burn, or the Big Blowup. Later others called it the (the one that says it saved American landscape.) This travesty took more than 100 men. The impact it had on Americans was monumental. Timothy Egan’s The Big Burn, he writes about the many people who perished during this disaster. Stories of people who were engulfed by the flames at Bitterroot Mountain who had little chance of escaping their devastating fate. Even though this is still seen as a travesty, some look at it in a different way. Due to how large the fire was and how far it stretched, it made people aware of the importance to protect Americas forests and natural resources. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, reform was occurring. The United States population was on a rise which had an effect on economic growth. This caused expansion in the consumer market and made way for an enormous amount of advancement in technology. Due to all of this, the demand for natural resources vastly increased. Inventions such as cars and trains consumed massive amounts of fossil fuels. Wood was stripped away from forests to make comfort items such as chairs, tables and other items for the large number of families now setting in the United States from foreign countries. People did not seem to pay much attentions to the effects these changes were having on the land. However, President Theodor Roosevelt had

1. Karl Jacoby book brings the remarkable accounting of the negative aspects of conservation movement to the sunlight. Jacoby uses the early years of Adirondack Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Canyon Forest Preserve to demonstrate his theme of the locals’ reactions to the creation of the park and the actions from the conservationists. And the fantasies the early conservationists’ promulgated of the locals of being satanic rapists of the environment are dispelled (193).

Yellowstone National Park is one of the largest and oldest national parks in American history. Yellowstone was the first park to be protected by private investment on March 1, 1872, and the first to be put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1918, no doubt due to its unique and inspiring landscape and geothermal features. In fact, Yellowstone National Park is home to half of the world’s total hydrothermal features. These awesome attractions draw an incredible amount of visitors, an average of two to three million each year, to Yellowstone’s immense landscape. The park has a total size of 28,125 square miles, is found in three distinct states, and is considered to be one of the largest

So far it has become evident that humans do not have a positive impact on the overall ecosystem of Yellowstone we have seen bear’s feeding patterns skewed, as well as elk populations devastated. There is yet another animal within yellowstone that has been impacted in a negative way by humans. John P. Beckmann is a conservation scientist who conducted research with several other scientists on the harvesting of energy and natural resources near or in yellowstone. When conducting his research he noticed that the harvesting of energy resources near yellowstone was affecting the pronghorn population. A subclaim that I can derive from my research on this topic is that the harvesting of energy and natural resources makes it tough to keep humans out of the way of

Climate change will have a direct impact in the future of the park. Summer heat levels will become a norm that could be damaging to the Yellowstone environment. “All of natuires resources can be leveled with the astronomical amount of heat that will be produced based on climate change. the first evaluation of how climate change will affect the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, is a joint project of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a nonprofit that advocates for carbon emission reductions by drawing attention to the likely consequences of climate change, and the Greater

"There was no damn horse fast enough in the country to keep ahead of that fire.” (546). In 1910, the US Forestry Service was in its infancy. Teddy Roosevelt had put Gifford Pinchot in charge of the foundling agency. For instance during the Presidency of William Taft, his term in office he denied the service and the manpower and resources needed to actually protect the growing quantity of land held in public trust. Then, without notice a drought-parched lands of eastern Washington, western Montana and northern Idaho, the greatest forest fire in U.S. history sparked a major change in public consciousness. This is the Big Burn of 1910.

Senator Alan Simpson speaks out on wildfire. In Chapter 29, he mentioned that even though the Park Service authorities knew the area was dangerous, they continued with the let it burn policy. Simpson also said that the result of the let it burn policy is that Yellowstone has been hurt by the people whose job was to protect it (Chapter 29). Simpson says it is no longer safe to continue with that type of policy and people should act on an active stewardship to prevent further disasters.

The fire had destroyed the grasslands and trees that grew along the canyons of the

In contrast, Yellowstone was formed when a hotspot moved under it and over millions of years has caused eruptions which have shaped present day Yellowstone.

First, the reading states that Yellowstone fires caused tremendous damage to the park's trees and other vegetation. The professor opposes this point by saying that scorch, that is produced from fires, is a good place for colonizing new plants. That can create plants diversity, especially for plants that need a high amount of heat.The professor adds that smaller plants that need open and unshaded areas can grow after the fire.

The authors eventually discuss the Yellowstone experiment and share their research results. They focus on the northern winter range which is a large mountain terrain that mostly occurs within the northeastern area of Yellowstone National Park. Here, the authors took into consideration annual precipitation and even the average depth of snowpacks. After looking to historical data for the northern range of Yellowstone, Ripple and Beschta evaluated recruitment on aspen and cottonwood over the last two centuries and found that the extirpation of wolves allowed elk to browse unimpeded during winter months. After going over data from Yellowstone after wolf

The article states that the three kinds of damage caused by the yellow stone fire, and provides three reasons of support. However, the professor explains that the fire would not only damage the ecosystem, however, it helps to create an ecosystem, and refutes each of the author’s reasons.

Once the wolves were reintroduced to the ecosystem, forest increased in distribution and density as more grass and trees began to grow, and the elk population was controlled. Another impact the wolves had on the ecosystem involved waterways; “wolves give life to many others” and here is why. After the regulation of the deer population and the reintroduction of the wolves, the behavior of the deer also changed as deer began to avoid certain areas in Yellowstone. The deer’s behavioral response to predation allowed places of vegetation to be regenerated. Due to such change, bare valley sides quickly became forests of aspen and willow, which introduced beavers as they feed on such source.

First of all, the author of the reading passage suggests that the forest fire imposed huge damage on the trees in Yellowstone park since many land had been fired and scorched. In contrast, the professor in the lecture argues that the fire makes the plant become more diverse. For instance, some big trees were replaced by small trees, and some certain species which needs high level of heat could

Humans have been changing the Western forests' fire system since the settlement by the Europeans and now we are experiencing the consequences of those changes. During the summer of 2002, 6.9 million acres of forests was burnt up in the West (Wildland Fires, 1). This figure is two times the ten year annual average, and it does not look like next summer will be any better (Wildfire Season, 1).