Theodore Roosevelt National Park is one of five parks that NPCA studied in-depth in our new report, National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing. Learn more about the effects of fracking on this and other parks on NPCA’s website and tell President Obama to protect our federal lands from the dangers of this controversial oil and gas extraction method.

Each month, NPCA puts together a slideshow exploring one of the 401 amazing sites in our National Park System. To get the featured park delivered to your inbox each month, sign up for Park Lines, NPCA’s newsletter, at www.npca.org/join.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

If you liked this story, you might also like

• On the Edge: Fracking and the Fate of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (June 19, 2012)
• National Parks Deserve to Be Protected from Oil and Gas Development (April 25, 2013)
• Energy Development on Public Lands: The Next Four Years (December 5, 2012)

Theodore Roosevelt was our greatest conservation president. President Roosevelt’s boundless vision and determination resulted in a system of national parks that is the envy of the world, and has been called “America’s Best Idea.” Ironically, his namesake national park, which includes his North Dakota homestead, is currently facing a threat that could permanently degrade a patch of land that was supposed to be protected in perpetuity.

Across the nation, an oil and gas boom is taking place, largely through the utilization of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations buried deep beneath the surface. Wells have sprouted up on the outskirts of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and many more are planned there and across the nation, including near other National Park Service-managed lands like Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. But with this rapid boom, the negative impacts of large scale oil and gas development on national parks has largely been ignored. That is why the National Parks Conservation Association has released a new report on how fracking for oil and gas near national parks is already impacting these treasured places, and how impacts could increase unless we act now.

National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing: Balancing Energy Needs, Nature, and America’s National Heritage is a comprehensive report on what large-scale oil and gas development adjacent to national parks does and could mean for these parks and the people who love and visit them. It details the known and suspected impacts of fracking on the environment, including harm to air, water, and wildlife—the things that make our national parks so special. It also provides five case studies that analyze national parks that are already in the middle of the oil and gas fracking boom: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River.

Tucked into the corners where the Utah and Colorado state lines meet is an exceptional landscape where the Old West stayed young. It is a land of open skies and plains, rugged canyons, and the vibrant Yampa and Green Rivers. And in the heart of it all is Dinosaur National Monument.

The monument was originally designated in 1915 to preserve its world-renowned Jurassic dinosaur fossils, and then expanded in 1938 to include the Yampa and Green Rivers, canyons, and viewsheds. But the pristine nature of this uniquely beautiful place is not assured. It takes work and advocacy to make sure it is not spoiled by inappropriate neighboring developments. While the park itself is protected from oil and gas production, these types of operations on adjacent property could have a major negative and permanent impact on Dinosaur National Monument.   

That is why late last year, when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced an upcoming oil and gas development lease sale for 5,000 acres of land adjacent to the monument, we knew we had to act to preserve the long-term integrity of this park—and help prevent a dangerous precedent for this type of incompatible land use near national parks. In December, NPCA and The Wilderness Society submitted a joint protest of the lease sale and asked the BLM to evaluate how development would impact the resources and values of Dinosaur National Monument before offering the land for lease.

Based on previous experience, we knew that oil and gas exploration and development adjacent to Dinosaur National Monument could cause air and water pollution, increased noise, loss of wildlife habitat, a decrease in visitors, and numerous environmental impacts from creating new roads to handle the increased traffic associated with drilling for oil and gas. We also requested that BLM fully consider and incorporate National Park Service concerns into the leasing process to ensure that the landscape values they hold in common are protected.

On Monday, January 14, 2013, Dinosaur National Monument and all who visit there scored a victory when BLM posted a notice that they have deferred the approximately 5,000 acres from their upcoming oil and gas lease sale in February. But, unfortunately, it is not clear whether this is a permanent victory. This is not the first time BLM has considered parcels near Dinosaur National Monument for lease, followed by protests, appeals, and deferral. NPCA and our partners will be meeting with the BLM and pressing them to make a broader commitment to managing oil and gas development near the monument and to specify what the deferral really means and how long it will last. We will also encourage the BLM to make a similar decision to defer other oil and gas lease parcels near the monument included in a proposed May 2013 oil and gas lease sale. 

With so many important resources to protect inside the monument boundaries, it is critical that adjacent land management is done thoughtfully and with full consideration of potential impacts to the monument. Dinosaur National Monument was created to protect this beautiful river corridor and its ancient dinosaur fossils while providing the highest-quality visitor experience for those traveling to western Colorado and northeastern Utah to see it. Those visitors should not be forced to share National Park Service roads with massive trucks or to see this special place degraded from inappropriate development just outside its boundaries.

Shiprock, a majestic rock formation of great religious and cultural importance to the Navajo, could once be seen from Mesa Verde National Park, 162 miles away. But now, thanks to air pollution, Shiprock’s visibility is often limited to just 20 miles. Losing sight of this spiritual symbol is just one unexpected way that coal-fired power plants have affected the Navajo and Hopi communities, on top of the more common health and air quality concerns like asthma and haze that affect people who live with constant airborne pollution.

NPCA’s eloquent new video, A Sacred Trust: Threatened National Parks and Native Lands, elevates the profile of native voices advocating for better air quality in the Southwest. 

Two remarkable women inspired the video when they realized that rural Navajo and Hopi families are sorely affected by pollution from coal-fired power plants, yet their concerns are not heard by decision-makers in their tribal capital or our nation’s capital.

One is Donna House, a member of the Navajo Nation, who joined a group of air activists NPCA organized last year in Washington, DC, to lobby on regional haze rule issues. Involved with a Navajo environmental group, Donna is especially concerned about the impact that coal-fired power plants have on the health of the Navajo people. Donna teamed up with NPCA’s clean air counsel, Stephanie Kodish, to interview and record people across the Navajo Nation and nearby Hopi Reservation who are impacted by pollution. Donna works with the community group Diné CARE whose members conducted the outreach and interviews for the video (Diné is the Navajo word for Navajo, and CARE stands for Citizens Against Ruining our Environment).

The video has been compiled from hundreds of hours of footage from committed Diné videographers and translators. Diné CARE also prepared a version designed with a Navajo audience in mind, to be distributed on the Nation. 

Videos and photos are a pale reflection of real-life experience on the Navajo Nation—the vast sky, the improbable rock formations, the endless driving across empty plains to get from here to there. The Nation is about half the size of New York State. Mostly high desert, the summers are hot and dry and the winters snowy and biting cold. The occasional storm or snowmelt makes travel on the many dirt roads problematic. Four beautiful, sacred peaks surround their homeland, as do many wonderful national parks. Four parks—Canyon de Chelly, Navajo Monument, Rainbow Bridge, and Hubble Trading Post—are entirely within the Nation.

The Navajo share a rich and complicated culture. Our work together, much like any cross-cultural effort, has required patience and a willingness to address differences so we can communicate beyond them.

One time, for instance, I met with a number of Navajo in an oversized hogan, a traditional dwelling, for an emotional community meeting.  Residents expressed anger about promises a local energy company had broken, like not getting electricity despite being close to a mine, and no road upkeep despite the needed bulldozers nearby. Some shared grief over relatives who suffered ailments they tie to the mine and power plant. At one point I was completely surprised when a speaker accused those of us visiting of not caring about what they said, because we weren’t recording or writing what the speakers were saying. We mistakenly assumed that writing notes would have been disrespectful!

Another time, Donna, Stephanie, and I were on a conference call to work out the budget for this video project, and Stephanie was curious why there was a line item called traditional food. Donna explained that it is expected when visiting someone, especially in a remote location, to bring along traditional food as a gift of good health and strength. I remembered this later when stopping at the Petrified Forest National Park gift shop before visiting a Navajo friend. I was able to purchase a 20 pound bag of Bluebird Flour, an essential ingredient in Navajo fry bread, and the gold standard of food gifts. My friend’s face lit up when she saw it, and she shared a long tale of the last time she got such a gift during an important ceremonial gathering at her home.

I hope you enjoy the video and share it with friends. We’ll feature it during campaigns to clean up this region’s air, such as early next year when we push for strong controls at the Navajo Generating Station. Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency recently announced stricter regulations on three power plants in Arizona. After you watch the video, you can thank the agency on our take action page.

On the eastern side of Glacier National Park, rugged peaks give way to high plains where the Glacier border meets Blackfeet tribal lands. On these lands next door to Glacier, oil and gas companies are in the early stages of exploration. There is little doubt that development on Blackfeet lands would be hugely beneficial to the mineral owners. Oil and gas development on this land, where grizzlies roam from tribal lands to national park lands without regard for lines drawn on a map, is an example of a larger conflict that is beginning to play out near national parks across the United States. Americans must decide now if we will develop oil and gas without consideration for our protected lands or if we will strike a balance and work to ensure Glacier and other parks offer the pristine beauty, protected wildlife, and historic value in 100 years as they do today.

In 2016, the National Park Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary. As President Obama decides where and how much oil and gas development to allow on federal lands during the next four years, NPCA hopes he will consider what legacy he wants to leave as the parks embark on their second century. Without sound regulation and planning, national parks could be worse off four years from now than they are today:

• Oil and gas development adjacent to parks could block traditional migratory wildlife corridors, impacting park animal populations.
• Ozone and other airborne pollution from oil and gas wells could harm plants, fish, wildlife, and even the health of park employees and visitors.
• Park fishing could be degraded because of pollution and decreased water levels.
• Flaring natural gas wells could outshine the stars and mar scenic views.
• Industrial noise from drilling operations located too close to park boundaries could drown out birdsongs, howling wolves, and other natural sounds.

Requiring careful planning and common-sense regulations on federal lands adjacent to national parks could stop these impacts today and protect the parks in the future. The president will have significant opportunities over the next four years to ensure that the National Park System is protected from adjacent oil and gas development. His first opportunity relates to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages the 750 million acres of mineral resources underlying BLM, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Native American lands, including land adjacent to many national parks. BLM is in the process of finalizing a new rule regulating how oil and gas are drilled on some public lands. BLM’s proposal focuses on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Fracking is a drilling process where a combination of water, chemicals, and other materials are injected into the ground at extremely high pressure to fracture shale to release oil and natural gas. If the president requires BLM to implement strong regulations governing fracking on federal lands, NPCA believes that parks adjacent to oil and gas development on other federal lands could be better protected. Specifically, we recommend:

1. BLM should inform the public and, when drilling in national park watersheds, the National Park Service, about what chemicals are being used in fracking operations before drilling begins (currently BLM proposes disclosure 30 days after drilling).
2. BLM should require all post-drilling liquids to be contained in closed leak-proof containers. Currently, many drilling operators store these liquids in open pits near well sites that can leak and impact national parks’ air and water quality.
3. BLM should limit the impact that fracking has on air quality. National parks near large concentrations of oil and gas development are seeing a significant increase in bad air quality days. This threatens park visitor health, decreases visibility from scenic park vistas, and can impact park resources. Specifically, BLM should work with the National Park Service to develop and implement air pollution mitigation strategies, such as limits on flaring and capture of fugitive gas, in order to protect national park air quality.
4. BLM should formally collaborate with National Park Service staff to assure that large-scale oil and gas field development is protective of wildlife habitat and migration.
5. BLM should fully and formally engage National Park Service staff when permitting oil and gas wells adjacent to national parks. This will allow BLM and the Park Service to work together to assure America’s national parks are protected.

Protecting America’s most treasured natural resources has been a presidential priority throughout the history of our nation. In spite of a raging Civil War, President Lincoln made preservation of what is now Yosemite National Park a priority. President Theodore Roosevelt, whose namesake national park is now threatened by the impacts of oil and gas development in North Dakota, set aside five national parks and 18 national monuments during his tenure. More recently, President George W. Bush created the world’s largest marine sanctuary in 2009. NPCA hopes President Obama and his administration will responsibly balance energy production with the protection of our natural heritage during the next four years, and by so doing, create an enduring legacy for the next century of the national parks.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• On the Edge: Fracking and the Fate of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (June 19, 2012)
• Walking to Protect Glacier’s Water (September 13, 2012)
• NPCA Celebrates the Preservation of the Hoback Basin (October 16, 2012)

By Sharon Mader, Senior Program Manager, Grand Teton

Just south of Grand Teton National Park, a Houston-based company had proposed to develop 136 natural gas wells on U.S. Forest Service lands that would surely have destroyed the Hoback Basin, an area cherished by Wyomingites for its spectacular scenery, recreational opportunities, and wildlife. Thanks to the work of Wyoming communities, conservation groups, and concerned citizens, these 58,000 acres will now be protected in perpetuity. 

The Hoback Basin is just 30 miles south of Grand Teton National Park and home to elk, moose, deer, pronghorn antelope, native trout, Canada Lynx, and the headwaters of the wild and scenic Hoback River. The energy development corporation, Plains Exploration and Production Corporation (PXP), could have significantly impacted the park’s blue skies and pristine air quality with its development leases. The people of Wyoming made their voices heard and the mantra was that this area was “too special to drill.” This message resonated loud and clear and resulted in overwhelming support for a buyout of the company’s leases; and the company finally agreed. In October, PXP opted to sell their leases based on a provision in the 2009 Wyoming Range Legacy Act that allows leases to be sold and retired given a willing seller and willing conservation buyer.

Our colleagues at The Trust for Public Land played a significant role negotiating the $8.75 million buyout. To date, $4.5 million has been raised towards the completion of the sale. Kudos to PXP for their decision to sell their leases, preserving this special area. 

Wyomingites understand the need for natural gas and energy production, but they also understand that some places aren’t appropriate for industrial development. This outcome is truly a win-win for both PXP and the people of Wyoming. The efforts and persistence of local citizens, including park advocates, hunters, anglers, river users, and conservationists, were instrumental in making this agreement a reality. Several times over the past year, we asked our members locally and across the country to weigh in to oppose development of this area and thousands responded. NPCA members joined forces with state and local conservation organizations and sportsmen’s groups to ask the Forest Service to consider stricter environmental regulations in this sensitive area and urged PXP to step back from their development plans. These comments made a tremendous difference in protecting the Hoback and Grand Teton National Park.

This Wyoming-based solution demonstrates how people from all walks of life can work together for a common vision to achieve one of the most significant oil and gas lease buyouts in American history. Examples such as this are an inspiration for the future and pave the road for community involvement and responsible corporate decision-making that respects the values and traditions of local communities and preserves irreplaceable natural assets. 

Thank you to NPCA members and activists whose concern and outreach on behalf of the Hoback Range has saved this amazing piece of the Wyoming landscape.

We did it! NPCA supporters and thousands of others convinced Old Dominion Electric Company (ODEC) to suspend their plans to build a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Surry County, Virginia! NPCA has been fighting this plant for several years. As designed, the Cypress Creek power plant would have been three times larger than the average coal-fired power plant currently in operation. Its pollution would have increased asthma and heart-related illness in Virginia while contributing to hazy skies over our national parks and mercury in park headwaters. Throughout the process, ODEC could not show that demand even existed in Virginia for a coal plant of this magnitude.

More than 9,000 comments were submitted against the plant and many town and city councils passed resolutions against it. In August 2012, ODEC asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cease the permitting process necessary for the proposed Cypress Creek plant to proceed. NPCA is heartened by this news but will remain vigilant, as ODEC still owns the land and could decide to revive this plant in the future. Thank you for working alongside us to protect clean air, pristine water, and all the treasures of our national parks for our children and grandchildren.

Why is protecting air quality in Virginia’s national parks important?

The pollution from this plant would have threatened protected historic sites such as Petersburg and Richmond National Battlefields, and contributed to unhealthy air many days of the year at Colonial National Historical Park, each established to honor and remember our nation’s heritage. Air pollution harms local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. The pollutants have significant impacts locally, and also can travel on the wind for many miles, thereby affecting a large ecological area. Power plant pollution contributes to smoggy haze that reduces scenic views, and the enjoyment of hikers or anyone active outdoors, as well as threatening human health, plants, and animals. Virginia’s tourism and agricultural economies depend on clean air.

What was the threat?

According to ODEC’s own air pollution control permit application, by stopping this plant in its tracks, we’ve stopped these estimated emissions from entering the atmosphere each year:

• 3,000 tons of nitrogen oxides
• 2,100+ tons of particulate matter
• 3,600+ tons of sulfur dioxide
• 44 pounds of mercury
• 1,000 pounds of lead
• 12 million tons of carbon dioxide

Learn more

You can learn more about NPCA’s Clean Air work on our website, and more about the ODEC plant in this recent story by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation: “A Coal Plant’s Drain on Health and Wealth.” Be sure to sign up for NPCA’s email list for more opportunities to take action on issues affecting national parks.

Pauline Matt dreamed that the water was dying and that she had the power to stop it. Her dream was not far from the truth, with fracking arriving on the Blackfeet Indian Nation and adjacent to Glacier National Park in Montana. Instead of allowing the dream to paralyze her, she kept herself moving—literally—by organizing the six-day, 80-mile Chief Mountain Water Walk to help focus the eyes of the nation on this corner of Montana.

Eighty miles doesn’t necessarily sound like a particularly long distance; on I-90 in Montana, it would take only about an hour to drive. But when you’re on foot—and you factor in vehicles flying by at 70 m.p.h., August temperatures pushing three digits, baking pavement, and the fact that Pauline has long qualified for AARP membership—80 miles begins to feel like a very long way indeed.

Pauline knew all of these things before she laced her walking shoes. She also knew how walking that far will make your feet hurt and your calves burn, give you blisters the size of golf balls, and, ultimately, connect you to the landscape in a way you never realized was possible. Perhaps most importantly, Pauline knew that walking from Chief Mountain to Heart Butte, two sacred sites of her Blackfeet Indian Nation, would forever change the way she and her fellow walkers look at the earth. Hers was a journey to connect to a sacred landscape, and to reconnect an entire culture, one deliberate step at a time.

Carrying a rawhide bag of water from a spring at Heart Butte, Pauline and her fellow walkers greeted each morning by burning sweetgrass and offering prayers to the dawn. The days felt much the same—an unremitting rhythm of feet on sun-scorched pavement that unfolded at a ceaseless 3 m.p.h. Osprey, bears, bald eagles, moose, elk, and other creatures appeared along the way, and the ever-shifting views were always awe-inspiring.

Such is this place where mountains and prairies collide, whose snow-capped peaks are the water tower for our nation, where Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation share a sublime border marked for millennia by water, mountains, and life. All of that, however, is changing at a speed that far exceeds the measured pace of Pauline’s “water walkers.”

On today’s Blackfeet Reservation, 1 million acres of land are under lease for oil and gas drilling, including the Tribe’s western boundary, which serves as the eastern doorstep to Glacier National Park. This is a place where grizzly bears still roam the prairies, where wetlands host beaver and moose, and where crystal-clear waters from Glacier’s alpine heights flow through the Blackfeet Reservation and on into Canada, before spilling back into the United States to join the Missouri River. Along this park borderland, developers anticipate drilling more than 80 wells using hydraulic fracturing technology, known as “fracking.”

What could industrial development adjacent to Glacier National Park mean? More dust, more traffic, more lights, more people, and more potential for a catastrophic spill or accident threatening one of the most intact ecosystems in the lower 48 states. It could mean a loss of dark skies to light pollution, the loss of native bull trout from the St. Mary River to water contamination, the loss of endangered grizzly bears to habitat fragmentation, the loss of community water supplies to industry’s unquenchable thirst, or even the simple loss of timeless, expansive views and profound silence.

These are prospects Pauline Matt and her fellow walkers refuse to accept. So for days, they walked and prayed and sang. Along the way, their footsteps sparked an important conversation on the Blackfeet Reservation about two very different futures for this ancient place: one in which oil and gas companies run roughshod over the land and its people, and another in which industry shows respect for the land, making special places off limits. Pauline envisions a future in which her people’s connection to the land provides an endless source of power, strength, hope, and prosperity—like the visionaries did who helped establish Glacier Park a century ago.

The walkers marched their 80 miles in six August days, but that week represents only the beginning of their journey. The ongoing debate over fracking is one that is playing out across the most cherished sites of our entire country. Their walk, ultimately, is about the future of our land, our water, our parks, and our people. We are fortunate to have brave women such as Pauline Matt to take these first steps on our behalf.

Location, location, location. These simple but wise words apply to homebuyers and business owners alike. They also apply to energy developers—some places just are not suitable for industrial-scale projects, including lands adjacent to our national parks.

In recent years, there has been a significant push to develop industrial-scale solar developments in the deserts of the Southwest. Abundant sunlight, large areas of relatively flat land, and vast public acreage make six southwestern states (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico) prime locations to generate clean solar energy. To guide future solar development, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has developed what is known as a “programmatic environmental impact statement” (PEIS)—basically, a guiding document for where developers can build these solar arrays—that includes three alternative management strategies. The agency will soon decide which of these three alternatives to pursue:

1. The no-action alternative allows development on 99 million acres of BLM land across this region.
2. The second alternative (and the one preferred by the BLM) encourages development in designated solar energy zones (285,000 acres), but also leaves an additional 19 million acres of BLM land open for solar development (these lands are known as “variance” lands).
3. The third alternative restricts future solar energy development to designated solar energy zones only.

BLM is ready to decide between these alternatives and seems poised to select the second alternative listed above, which would encourage development in solar energy zones but allow, under certain circumstances, development on variance lands. Solar development on some of these variance lands might lead to significant resource concerns for some of the 80 national park units in this region. The National Park Service has identified areas of land around 53 national parks and six national historic trails where, if industrial solar development were permitted to occur, significant conflicts with park resources and values would result (PDF, 4.5 MB). Some of the lands potentially available for solar development flank Death Valley National Park to the east and nearly abut Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park. In Nevada, BLM variance lands encircle Great Basin National Park and border Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Solar developments, under the second alternative above, could creep up to the border of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and crowd up against Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Location, location, location, indeed. NPCA believes that lands that abut, surround, and flank our national parks are not suitable for industrial-scale solar development. These developments would fragment habitat, impede wildlife movement, threaten rare and endangered species, and mar scenic views, potentially reducing the economic value and resource values associated with our most treasured national places. Other excellent alternatives exist: using brownfields and other disturbed public lands, continuing to develop rooftop solar resources on the existing built environment, and supporting projects of all sizes on suitable private lands.  

Solar energy is an important component in our national energy portfolio. But many public lands are simply unacceptable places to build solar energy facilities due to the negative consequences to our national parks. The Department of Interior has been entrusted with the responsibility of guarding our most sensitive lands, waters, and species for future generations—it needs to make the safekeeping of these protected lands its top priority.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• NPCA’s new report on responsible solar development
• David Lamfrom’s May 2012 blog story on problematic solar development in Ivanpah Valley
• NPCA’s new slideshow on Mojave National Preserve, sharing problems with poorly located solar development

Craning my neck through the car window, my first impressions of Theodore Roosevelt National Park were hills, extending for miles under a stretch of blue skies and distant clouds. The heat was overwhelming, but the enigmatic new landscape had sparked my 11-year-old curiosity, and I stuck my nose to the window in eager anticipation.

We reached a lookout point, and my siblings and I tumbled out of the car, restless after the long drive and willing to brave the stifling air for a chance to stretch our legs. I was entranced: there was no fence to separate me from the vast expanse of dusty color that rose in all directions.

I walked to the edge of the hills and looked down, scuffing my shoes on the ground. In the small exhale of dust, pebbles cascaded from my feet into the chasm below. Below the precipice lay a substantial drop, and I imagined myself tumbling over the edge to an unknown fate.

Now, at age 20, I still have vivid memories of the park. Horseback riding in the woods, running with my brothers up the hiking trails with our parents in tow. Watching as the sunset seeped into the park grounds, shadows engulfing the natural landscape and saturating the terrain with burnished hues. There was a harvest moon one night: I couldn’t believe the size and color, a deep blood orange that sank below the hills and took the daylight with it.

Now, however, one of today’s most controversial environmental issues threatens to irrevocably damage this park and many others: fracking.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park lies squarely within the Bakken Formation, a stretch of shale rock rich in oil. There are currently more than 6,200 oil wells in western North Dakota and 205 active drilling rigs pumping a steady stream of oil from this formation, with most of the development north of the park. With predictions for up to 45,000 wells in the next two decades, however, the struggle is just beginning. Heavy machinery, drilling, and gas flaring have already seriously impacted scenic views and created noise pollution within the park. Employees of Theodore Roosevelt and surrounding sites are experiencing heavy traffic and a lack of affordable housing brought on by the influx of a modern-day gold rush.

Although the proposed fracking sites do not extend onto park land, the drilling process and disposal of wastewater may wreak unknown adverse effects on the park’s flora and fauna. Many of these lands are migration corridors for animals. Wildlife could be devastated if their water supply were contaminated with fracking fluids from improper disposal. The air pollution brought on by an increase of machinery and methane emissions into the atmosphere may damage the fragile ecosystems of many of the parks located on shale formations.

Selfishly, however, I can’t help but think of how this will affect me and, someday, my children. The real losers are the kids who won’t get to visit these parks on a family vacation, those who won’t get to see a bear or hike through forests or see the sun set on a 360-degree view without a single manmade structure in sight. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that has not been exhaustively reviewed for environmental effects, and its irreversible damages have the potential to destroy these national landmarks for future generations.

Perhaps the next time I travel to Theodore Roosevelt National Park the images from my childhood memories will have changed. Will there be less wildlife due to accidental fluid spills? More dust pollution from trucks driving heavy machinery? Hazy outlines of newly constructed roads in the distance? How will I explain to my own kids why the previous generation failed to protect these precious resources?

We’re on the edge of the precipice, scuffing our shoes and watching pebbles fall into the chasm below. What happens next?

NPCA is currently researching the effects of fracking on national parks around the country, including Theodore Roosevelt National Park, to help make informed policy recommendations that will protect these national resources from irreversible damage. NPCA’s Center for Park Research will release a comprehensive report in early 2013 with more information on what legislators and citizens can do to make a difference.

Ann is spending the summer at NPCA’s Center for Park Research as a part of the Nicholas School of the Environment Stanback Internship Program of Duke University.