Greater Yellowstone Coalition Annual Meeting

Gather to Celebrate the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

By Lucia Stewart, 6-06-07

Last year, over 2.8 million people visited Yellowstone National Park. But our nation’s crown jewel and first National Park cannot be defined as just the land within the park’s boundaries. There is an ecosystem that inhabits wildlife, waterways and the communities that together, make up the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 

This ecosystem is two times the size of Yellowstone National Park, equating to roughly 4.5 million acres located in Idaho, Northeast Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

Within this landscape, there is a diverse range of people invested in issues and challenges facing the region.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC), located in Bozeman, Montana, is hosting their annual gathering of these folks in Cody, Wyoming to discuss the growth, change and development impeding on the health of regional communities, water and land.

“Greater Yellowstone Coalition celebrates the unique relationship between wildlife, human and environment by discussing challenges and creates conversation for us to maintain the balance between those things, which is essential to have a healthy economy and environment,” said Jeff Gailus from the GYC.

This year, the gathering is taking place in Wyoming instead of Montana due to a new office and because Wyoming is such a large part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

A unique aspect about the GYC is their approach to conservation and advocacy. The organization, in its 24th year, works mainly at a local level to raise awareness, getting local communities to participate and to assist in implementing a vision that local stakeholders see as important to the future of their local and regional landscapes.

The annual meeting beings on Thursday, June 7th with a reception and opening remarks.

Then, Friday, June 8th focusing on workshops such as: “Skills you can use: effective community based conservation,” “Oil and Gas Issues…Park County an the Beartooth Front” and “Ranchland Conservation in Greater Yellowstone.”

On Saturday, June 9th, the beginning part of the day is focused on more workshops and ending with field trips, for how can discussion take place about such a uniquely beautiful landscape without visiting the place. A few of the field trips are: “how the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone was saved,” “Grizzly Bears p the North Fork” and “Wildfire Ecology and Policy.”

Saturday night is the keynote speaker, Peter Metcalf, the CEO of Black Diamond Equipment, who is focused on sustainable business practices and how to balance economic development, natural resource preservation and recreation.

Experts on the subject including environmentalists, ranchers and politicians host all of the workshops and field trips.

There is a range of speakers in order to have a conversation in order to come up with solutions that everyone can benefit from, said Jeff Gailus from GYC.

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