Environment in the West

Yellowstone Celebrates 15 Years of Trash…and Progress

By Public News Service|Courson, Guest Writer, 3-15-10

	photo courtesy Yellowstone National Park

Educating more than one million people a year about being “good stewards” is part of the job at Yellowstone National Park - and it has been that way for the last 15 years. The anniversary of the park’s “Greening of Yellowstone” effort is being observed at a event Tuesday, when the successes and challenges of the project will be discussed in Bozeman.

Jim Evanoff is an environmental protection specialist with Yellowstone National Park. He has been with the park since almost the beginning of the campaign and points out that it has taken some time, but one of the park’s biggest victories is all about trash.

“Eighty percent of all the garbage we produce in the park is not going into a hole in the ground. It’s either being recycled or composted or not generated to begin with.”

For comparison, the average city diverts only about 20 percent of its trash.

Garbage management is important to Yellowstone not just for environmental reasons, but because it can be a big problem for the park’s bears. Evanoff says once bears get a taste of garbage, they hang too close to people and get into trouble.

In a new park project this year, the power of water will be harnessed without building a dam. As Evanoff describes it, a water pipe with a 1000-foot drop is being fitted with an internal turbine.

“We’re taking advantage of that falling water in a pipe to turn a turbine that will produce an amount of electricity that equates to providing power for over 100 homes.”

Another green benchmark for the park: The entire fleet of Yellowstone vehicles uses renewable fuel blends.

“Sustaining Yellowstone National Park: A 138 Year Journey” takes place Tuesday, 7 p.m., at the Baxter Hotel, 2nd floor ballroom, Bozeman. The event is free and open to the public.

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