Greening Yellowstone

Keeping Yellowstone From Being Loved to Death

By Brooke Hewes, 8-06-06

	Mr. Bubbles, a backcountry geothermal pool in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Chris Lombardi.

More and more, I am discovering a population of self-proclaimed Yellowstone junkies -- that is, avid lovers of Yellowstone National Park. They are park employees, patrons, and among the 3 million that visit the park annually.

They are those who, even without glimpsing a grizzly or lynx or any of the other 59 resident mammal species, glean comfort just knowing that these critters exist somewhere amid Yellowstone’s 3,472 square miles -- somewhere in the first, one of the largest, and arguably the most biologically and geologically spectacular national park.

Yes, a lot of people actively love what has been referred to as the nucleus of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. And I am far from the first person to wonder, in light of the sometimes conflicting National Park System mandate to both protect and promote, if Yellowstone and its 466 miles of roads, nine visitor centers, nine hotels and lodges, 12 campgrounds and more than 1,500 buildings, is being loved to death.

Indeed, there is ample opportunity for such traffic to degrade the natural amenities that make Yellowstone so special. On the flip side, though, there is great opportunity for ingenuity in what Dr. Charles Preston, curator of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, terms "the region … in a position to showcase the development of a more robust conservation paradigm for the new millennium."

One could harp on the potential impacts of tourism and population increase in the 20 counties surrounding the park (which Preston says grew by 55 percent between 1997 and 2002) or what some deem as the chronic under funding of the national park service (the Natural Resource Defense Council in their 2005 report "The Burgeoning Backlog" reports that a third of park’s operational need go unfunded annually). But of interest in all of this is the mitigating forces -- Yellowstone and Xanterra’s, the park’s primary concessioner, initiatives to lessen what could be grave environmental impacts.

Taking stock of Yellowstone’s sustainability starts with two current construction projects: the Old Faithful and Canyon visitor centers -- both of which Yellowstone’s Public Information Officer Al Nash calls examples of the park’s commitment to environmental stewardship.

"In both [projects], we are keeping to the same footprint," says Nash. "We look for recycled materials as well as those that have high efficiency heating and cooling, and that reduce light pollution."

The center at Old Faithful, for which construction has not yet begun, will meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Design) certification as established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Features will include low-flow toilets and sinks, minimal light pollution, high efficiency and low energy lighting, solar panels, locally obtained building materials, certified wood, and a biodiesel refueling station. The Old Faithful area boasts another eco-friendly feature: the boardwalk. Three million plastic milk jugs were recycled into the promenade that now circles the area’s namesake geyser and that can accommodate 25,000 people queuing up for the dependable eruption. And while they are waiting, some may glimpse one of the park’s four Toyota Prius hybrids donned in wolf, bear, bison or Old Faithful decals cruising an adjacent parking lot.

Yellowstone recycles more than 200 tons of paper, 197 tons of aluminum, 97 tons of glass and 4,000 tires each year. Forty percent to the park’s solid waste is composted during the summer. And since last year, when the park started recycling propane canisters -- an estimated 3,000 spent and partially-used canisters are discarded in Yellowstone annually -- visitors can now toss their half-used canisters into recycling bins. A mobile recycling unit, which will also be used in Grand Teton National Park, extracts any used gas and reuses it to power itself. The canisters are then flattened and ground into scrap metal.

"Greening" that the park service cannot fund itself is supported by the Yellowstone Association -- a non-profit organization that has donated more than $12 million dollars to support park preservation since 1933 and that has some 18,000 members -- and the Yellowstone Park Foundation. The foundation is another outlet for Yellowstone "junkies" that has roughly 10,000 current donors, and has supported some $35 million worth of projects in the last decade.

"We recently raised just under $1 million for landscape restoration at Artist Point," says Michael S. Cary, the foundation’s executive director, of the scenic overlook at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which he calls an area that has been "loved to death." The donated funds will be used to improve visitor walkways, reroute traffic to maintain a larger buffer around the overlook and plant native vegetation.

Less intuitive, perhaps, than what the park service is doing is what and how the concessioner is doing. Xanterra, a Denver-based hospitality company, manages and staffs all the lodging and restaurants in the park. Each year some 3,300 people travel to Yellowstone not to vacation but to drive buses and boats, prep food, sort laundry, and, among many other mostly seasonal jobs, clean rooms. In fact, once one starts looking around, it is astounding how prolific Xanterra employees are in Yellowstone. It’s like its own little city with 24 employee dorms, a couple recreation halls and at least one pub. And this on top of all the guests they are there to service: the guests who eat some 1.7 million meals annually at any one of 31 food outlets in the park; who stay in any of the 2,248 guest rooms; who charter boats at the Yellowstone Lake marina; and who saddle up at one of three Xanterra-run corrals. Again, the potential for negative environmental impacts is great; again, though, the potential for good is great, too.

In 2005, three years after hiring a director of environmental affairs for each of the nine national parks and monuments, and eight state parks where Xanterra runs the concessions, the company published a sustainability report. Both on- and off-site resources consumed and waste generated were recorded from 2000 to 2004. Carbon dioxide, one of six air emissions measured, was reduced by 4.75 percent by, among other things, switching to propane from heating oil and using energy efficient appliances. Like the park service, Xanterra has switched from two-stroke-engine to four-stroke-engine snowmobiles. By 2015 (relative to 2000 baseline data), the company expects to decrease fossil fuel usage by 30 percent, increase renewable energy usage to 7 percent of total, decrease carbon dioxide -- the primary greenhouse gas blamed for global warming -- by 30 percent, have "sustainable cuisine" account for half of all food, eliminate all hazardous waste and decrease water use by 25 percent from 2003 levels.

In Yellowstone, Xanterra is "greening" enough to be recognized by the EPA as a 2006 Performance Track Corporate Leader for being "at the forefront of innovation and environmental stewardship, fundamentally strengthening the relationship between business and government," according to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. In the same May 2006 press release, Region 8 EPA Administrator Robert E. Roberts recognized the company’s ability to piggyback eco-friendliness on sound financial decisions: "Doing the right thing for our planet makes good green sense, it makes successful business sense, too." Indeed, Xanterra is not non-profit -- they are the largest national park and resort management company in the country. Their bottom line isn’t an after thought.

"We are a corporation that is run by accountants," said Rick Hoeninghausen, Xanterra’s director of sales and marketing in Yellowstone. Still, he says, much of the greening, especially in terms of increasing fuel efficiency, makes the bean counters happy, too. Plus, the company must consider their clientele -- people come to Yellowstone because of Yellowstone. It doesn’t make much sense, business or otherwise, to degrade their selling point.

"Xanterra is very proactive," says Jim Evanoff, Yellowstone’s environmental manager. "It is in their best interest as a corporation, but they also [do it] because they know it is the right thing."

And also because they have to. According to Jim McCaleb, Xanterra’s general manager in Yellowstone, 30 percent of the company’s bid to run the concessions is based on environmental initiatives. Above and beyond these requirements, though, says Evanoff, Xanterra wins the contract because of their progressive ideas and strong environmental track record.

"We never have to waive their contract in front of their face," Evanoff says.

Still, says Tim Stevens of the National Parks Conservation Association, a watchdog organization in D.C., Xanterra has some work to do, like increasing sustainable options for mass transportation within the park -- the concepts of which could then be parlayed to neighboring communities. Nevertheless, he says, the company is off to "a great start."

A start describes Xanterra’s sustainable cuisine program. Sustainable cuisine, according to the company’s Executive Chef James Chapman, is "trying to be aware of the impact food choices have on the environment." Also, he adds, sustainable food choices ensure enough food for future generation; local food, he says, rather than organic, is prioritized.

The lunch menu at Old Faithful, and the dinner, lunch and breakfast menus at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel all had wild Alaskan salmon. There was no Chilean sea bass, nor was there swordfish. The beef tenderloin was from Montana, the farmed trout was from Idaho, and the goat cheese was from a local farm. Two of the 66 wines offered were organic. But that was it -- the greens, grains and condiments were neither organic nor local. None of the cereal, dairy or beer bore organic labels either. And none of the employee dinning halls, or at least according to several members of the dining staff, offered organic food (which may seem nominal, even logical considering the $300 fee for employee room and board, but figuring three meals a day all summer for each of the 3,300 employees, some 831,600 "conventional" rather than organic meals is significant). Also, at a "sustainability dinner" catered by Chapman, water was served in plastic cups and coke in cans rather than pitchers (to Xanterra’s credit, though, the paper cups beside the shade grown organic coffee at breakfast had replaced Styrofoam ones).

The "baby stepping" as Xanterra personnel call it is attributed to finances and guest expectations. That organic is more expensive is fair enough. It is also true that finding a local supplier for meat and produce in the quantities Xanterra needs is difficult, if not impossible. That guests’ comfort hinges on plastic cups and individually wrapped butter, however, is less plausible. In fact, according to Al Nash tourists are increasingly more interested supporting eco-friendly initiatives in the park.

"Especially in the last 20 to 25 years, we’ve seen a shift in what visitors expect … People are more sensitive to their impact," said Nash.

According to "Losing Ground" -- a report released this month by the Natural Resource Defense Council and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization -- visitors should look critically at the size of their footprint: Yellowstone, it says, is one of the top 12 national parks most threatened by global climate change. Prolonged drought, higher temperatures, more severe wildfires and less annual snowfall, the report says, will eventually rob the first national park of native wildlife and vegetation, as well as recreation opportunities such as skiing and fishing. In addition to meeting an increasing demand for more earth-friendly services, the report emphasizes the National Park Service’s inherent conservation responsibilities. Each park, the report says, should identify specific vulnerabilities, re-shaped boarders if and when necessary to create wildlife corridors and vegetation buffers, and collaborate with private and public entities to craft innovative, on-the-ground solutions.

And set an example, which Amy McNamara of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in Bozeman says Yellowstone does.

"Yellowstone has pioneered some creative solutions to help minimize the pollution that causes global warming," McNamara says, citing their use of four hybrid cars as a great way to both educate and engage the public in sustainable transportation.

Additionally, McNamara says, all gasoline sold within Yellowstone contains ethanol (E-10), and all park and Xanterra diesel-powered vehicles use a 20 percent blend of canola-derived biodiesel and petroleum. The park is also working with neighbors in the Greater Yellowstone and Teton Clean Cities Coalition, a U.S. Department of Energy program designed to engage local residents and businesses in reducing fossil fuel consumption, on alternative transportation solutions, she says.

The National Parks Conservation Association’s Tim Stevens agrees that Yellowstone sets and follows laudable environmental standards. The next step, he says, is for the park to proactively export its "green" initiatives elsewhere. Steven Sanders, who works with the Natural Resources Defense Council and who co-authored "Losing Ground," also cites communication between Yellowstone and other parks and communities nationwide critical.

"The Park Service’s mission is to protect the parks, and part of that is to speak out more forcibly about the importance of reducing global warming," says Sanders. Each park, he says, should use the specific impacts (many of which are listed in the recent report) of climate change as springboards for enacting practical yet pervasive solutions.

So while preventing global warming from snatching those natural amenities (grizzlies, wild rivers, snowy winters) that brand Yellowstone junkies "junkies" in the first place may not be in the purview of Yellowstone or Xanterra, "comprehensive action," says the NRDC report, is not only helpful but necessary. Individuals, federal agencies and corporations must all do their part. Luckily, those who work for Yellowstone -- both for the park service and Xanterra -- also live in Yellowstone. Many, in fact, are junkies themselves, and are there to help others love, not hurt, Yellowstone. Loving the park, then, can mean loving it to life, not death.

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