Last September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) approved a plan to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species List in Wyoming. This controversial delisting could someday allow state-run wolf hunting within the John D. Rockefeller Parkway, a 24,000-acre national park site that connects Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

National parks are created in part to serve as sanctuaries for wildlife. It would be very bad policy to allow hunters to kill animals fresh off the Endangered Species List within a national park boundaries. While authorities in the state have not yet permitted wolf hunting in the Rockefeller Parkway, it has claimed authority to do so, and they say they will review the option to permit such hunting annually.

FWS excluded Yellowstone from the allowable wolf hunting area, but the agency chose to keep the Rockefeller Parkway within the state’s “Trophy Game Management Area” (TGMA), which defines where wolves can be hunted. During the plan development, the Park Service formally requested that the Rockefeller Parkway be removed from the TGMA, but FWS ignored the request and the Park Service failed to take further action.

Not only has the state of Wyoming succeeded in keeping the parkway within the TGMA, but state officials have indicated that they will not rule out the possibility of a wolf hunt there—a bold assertion, given the fact that the Park Service is primarily responsible for wildlife on the lands it manages.

In response, this May, NPCA presented a formal petition to the Park Service requesting a rule prohibiting wolf hunting in the Rockefeller Parkway so that the issue can be put to rest before any wolves are ever hunted there. This rule would safeguard and protect wolves in the parkway and ensure that our national parks continue to provide sanctuary for this important animal, whose reintroduction has helped to restore ecological balance to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

According to its enabling legislation, the parkway—established in 1972—was intended to provide a “spiritual and physical connection” between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It also provides a critical link for park wildlife, including wolves, to safely move between these iconic parks.

While the Rockefeller Parkway’s enabling legislation does permit hunting, it clearly gives the National Park Service, not the state, the primary authority to manage wildlife there. In addition, the Park Service is required to evaluate the hunting of all species within the parkway boundaries and pass formal rules that either approve or reject hunting based on the health and integrity of the natural resources, as well as the safety and enjoyment of park visitors. Park Service officials have already stated that using these criteria, they cannot support wolf hunting in the parkway. NPCA’s petition simply asks that the Park Service move forward and use its authority to assure permanent sanctuary for wolves within this critical park site.

Learn more

• Read NPCA’s recent press release, “National Parks Group Acts to Safeguard Wolves Living Inside Wyoming National Park Unit“
• Get more on the history of the Wyoming wolf delisting in “Wolves under Fire in Wyoming“
• Learn more about NPCA’s work to protect wolves and bears

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.

Several years ago, I was driving along a snaking bend of State Highway 22 that bisects Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and encountered the body of massive bull elk hanging from a fence that paralleled the road, its back legs hamstrung by four unyielding strands of barbed wire. His antlers were partially buried in a deep, windswept trough of snow and his lifeless eyes fixed on some distant point on the horizon. I wondered how long he had been hanging there.

Since that time, I have become more aware of man’s heavy hand on the landscape, and a deep desire has grown in my heart to change things—really fix the problems, beyond the ebb and flow of politics. Last year, Nature Valley generously granted my wish.

In partnership with Nature Valley, Grand Teton National Park, the Pinto Ranch, and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, NPCA embarked on an ambitious fence-modification project to allow pronghorn, bison, and elk safe passage into the park. The eastern boundary of Grand Teton was historically used for cattle grazing since the late 1800s, and many of these fences still stand in various stages of disrepair and pose a serious hazard to migrating animals. Often, the park simply does not have the budget to remove them. That’s why NPCA works so hard to provide support to parks like Grand Teton, whose maintenance backlog is nearing $900 million, and why we also work literally on the ground with partners like Nature Valley to help preserve the large landscapes that sustain so many wildlife species.

Grand Teton still permits some cattle grazing in the park—a grandfathered use from its historic ranching past. The fences in the North Elk Ranch allotment have been kept in good condition, but still block wildlife movement in the northern part of the park, where many species of animals migrate through. In the spring, we met with the manager of the Pinto Ranch to discuss how to make the fences in this area safer for wildlife, while still providing a reliable enclosure for his cows. We collectively agreed upon a modification of a five-mile fence that would raise the bottom wire to allow pronghorn to crawl under it, and then add a top rail to prevent wildlife from becoming ensnared as they jumped the fence.  In the fall, 25 dedicated volunteers headed out to the problem fence, armed with an arsenal of tools. Together we broke the hold of those tenacious hooked strands and restrung the fence, as bison and pronghorn grazed nearby. The bison, being the curious creatures that they are, couldn’t resist a closer look and came to survey the unusual activity on their range.

Our volunteers ranged from 20 to 70 years old, men and women alike, led by our fearless leaders Greg and Gretchen, whose vigilance and efficiency helped keep us moving forward. Volunteers flanked the fence and pulled hard to remove wire and retrieve staples from tenacious old wood posts. As I surveyed our group toiling under the blazing sun, we more closely resembled a chain gang than a bunch of environmental do-gooders. It struck me that these people weren’t policy makers or activists; they were just regular folks out there trying to do something—or, more accurately, fix something. We fixed a lot of fence that day, and as the sun waned, we stood admiring our handiwork: the same sturdy posts, but now, without the harmful bottom wire.

Just as we were ready to hang up our gloves for the day, hauling big unwieldy loops of barbed wire into the back of the pick-up, I noticed a single pronghorn buck approach to within fifteen feet of where I stood. He sauntered over to the fence, contemplating what had changed, and nervously paced back and forth. In one sudden movement, he ducked his graceful horns in the newly cleared space, slipped under the fence, and headed to the nearby irrigation ditch for a drink. It took this intelligent creature less than ten minutes to realize that the obstacle that had been in place for decades was now gone, and to take advantage of our work.

There are some things in life that go beyond words, and I took this as a thank you of the highest order.

Late last month, NPCA helped secure a significant down-to-the-wire victory for Grand Teton National Park. After years of pressure from NPCA, the federal government allotted $8 million toward a total of $16 million to purchase 86 acres along the Snake River from the state of Wyoming and incorporate these lands into the national park. The measure passed just in the nick of time, a few days before the congressional term ended. This land had been particularly attractive to developers; now, instead of becoming a building site for trophy homes or luxury hotels, it will be preserved for wildlife and the public.

The Snake is a major river in the Pacific Northwest, flowing for more than a thousand miles from its headwaters in the wilderness near Yellowstone National Park westward through the Teton Range into Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Native American tribes lived and fished for salmon along its banks more than 11,000 years ago; today, visitors still float, fish, hike, and view wildlife along the river, savoring its stunning scenery. These lands and waters of Grand Teton are critical to preserving important wildlife and fish habitat, and the integrity of the park’s natural resources.

This victory is particularly sweet given the contentious fiscal and political climate in Washington, D.C. Most of the money for the purchase came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a federal program specifically designed by Congress in 1965 for public land purchases.

A total of $900 million in funding is set aside for LWCF each year from offshore oil and gas drilling revenues—a fraction of the royalties collected—to invest in land and water conservation. Unfortunately, in recent years Congress has frequently diverted LWCF funds for other uses, shortchanging preservation efforts at national parks. In this case, the fund was used exactly as it was intended, to protect threatened land from development. (Another recent example was the purchase of the Doody Ranch, a historic building with a colorful history in Glacier National Park.)

This purchase represents an enduring gift to the American people who cherish Grand Teton’s scenic beauty and wildlife—but there is more to be done. This money will protect the first of three state-owned parcels within the park. The remaining 1,320 acres will require a significant appropriation of money prior to upcoming deadlines in 2014 and 2015.  NPCA and the National Park Service are committed to protecting all the threatened state lands within the park, and are working collaboratively to find creative and innovative funding and legislative solutions that will permanently protect these lands that should rightfully be part of Grand Teton.

NPCA is proud to have played a major role in rallying grassroots support and media attention around this issue and urging lawmakers for three years to allocate the necessary funding to expand protections at this iconic park. This great victory would also not have been possible without the vision and leadership of the Obama Administration, the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the Wyoming congressional delegation, the Wyoming Governor’s Office and State Land Board, Teton County state legislators, and the Teton County Commission.

She was graceful and photogenic. She was a good mother. She was widely admired for her strength and beauty. But earlier this month, a hunter killed one of Yellowstone’s most famous canines just 15 miles outside the park boundary in Wyoming—the gray wolf that led the Lamar Canyon Pack in the northeast region of the park.

Researchers dubbed the alpha female 832F, though her admirers commonly refer to her as “06” for the year she was born. And she had many admirers—from wildlife photographers to weekend tourists to the researchers who tracked her movements with a sophisticated $4,000 collar.

Gray wolves have had a complicated history in Yellowstone. People eradicated them from the area in the 1920s and they were gone from the landscape for decades until the Park Service successfully reintroduced them in 1995. In the 17 years since, research in Yellowstone has shown the positive impact that wolves have had on the park’s plants and wildlife. But with the success of the wolf reintroduction, these iconic creatures have just recently been removed from the endangered species list and hunting has ensued in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Although hunters cannot shoot the animals within Yellowstone’s boundaries, the wolves themselves do not recognize lines on a map and frequently roam outside the park.

It has been just two years since state officials removed gray wolves from the endangered list in Montana, and only two and a half months since the animals were delisted in Wyoming, but already this year’s hunting season has taken a significant toll on the wolf populations in national parks. To date, hunters have killed five wolves in Yellowstone that were wearing expensive scientific research collars to help researchers study their behavior. Hunters killed at least two other collared wolves at Grand Teton as well.

The loss of these “research wolves” takes a significant toll on ongoing Park Service efforts to monitor and study the wolf population in both Montana and Wyoming. In response, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission voted 4-1 to put certain areas around Yellowstone off-limits to wolf hunts in an effort to protect park wolves. While this is a temporary measure, we believe that the state commission should set in place a permanent area adjacent to Yellowstone and Grand Teton that will protect park wolves that occasionally leave the park’s boundaries.

We applaud the commissioners for this action. Wolves are a well-established part of the economic engine of Yellowstone, a place that draws millions of visitors each year who spend money in our towns and want to see a wide variety of wildlife, including the gray wolf. We also urge Wyoming, which opened up hunting to gray wolves just this past October, to exercise caution in hunting these animals.

Wyoming officials should use Montana’s situation as a lesson and create appropriate space around the park that is off-limits to hunting. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has the ability and duty to establish protected regions around parks in Wyoming and greatly limit the toll on wolves to ensure that both Grand Teton and Yellowstone wolf packs are better protected.

As for the rest of the Lamar Canyon Pack, their future is uncertain. The pack may end up splitting into smaller packs or breaking up altogether—though the animals’ behavior is difficult to predict. What’s certain is that NPCA and other wildlife enthusiasts and park lovers around the country will be watching and advocating for the safety of these iconic creatures.

In conservation, it is easy to get wrapped up in wonky policy debates or overcome by process. Fortunately, my Nature Valley-sponsored “Path of the Pronghorn” hikes each fall are a poignant reminder of the beauty and natural order that exist in Yellowstone National Park and why we work so hard to protect it.

This season, I led five trips with a total of 35 individuals across Mount Everts, a prominent peak in the park’s northern range. Starting at the pronghorns’ high-altitude summer habitat of the Blacktail Deer Plateau, following ancient migration paths across a forgotten landscape for more than ten miles, we drop several thousand feet in elevation to arrive at the animals’ wintering grounds near Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance of Yellowstone.

During the course of this cross-country jaunt, I explain the biological and natural history of the Yellowstone pronghorn while observing them in the backcountry, unaffected by roads or other development. The importance of our Nature Valley habitat improvement project becomes all the more obvious after seeing pronghorn unfettered by fences. Much of the time when I’m working with volunteers to improve pronghorn habitat, we are removing or adapting fences to help the animals migrate safely and find adequate snow-free winter habitat. These hikes, however, are about enjoying the many surprises the backcountry has to offer.

Hiking during the fall rutting season, we often get to witness the famous elk bugle, so close you can almost feel their breath. It’s also not uncommon to wander up on a lone bison bull standing motionless under a scratching pine—more than once we had to alter our route to avoid these iconic and stately sentinels of Yellowstone. Last year, a large group of us were even fortunate enough to witness the entire Blacktail wolf pack—16 animals—trot right in front of us, and we were able to follow and observe them hunting elk.

Over the past three seasons guiding more than 100 people, I’ve yet to take the same path twice. Every trip has had its own special sightings and experiences.

On September 30, our hike started out as so many have in the frosty first hours of dawn near the still and reflective Blacktail Ponds. After a few hours we arrived at the first of the many unnamed kettle ponds that dot the plateau of Mt. Everts. Normally, this is right in the middle of the elk activity, but despite hearing them bugle in Gardiner and Mammoth on the drive up, we were not hearing nor seeing anything. When a skittish bison took off running at the sight of us almost a half mile away, I realized wolves had been back since my last hike. With all the prey animals chased out of the area, we were not expecting to see much the rest of the day. I decided to take a detour to a slight saddle to the west, figuring if there were elk anywhere they would be there, so we should at least take a look. Plus, I knew of a rare moose horn to show folks along the way.

Just as we arrived on a hill before the pass, I stopped to spot the horn with my binoculars. What I saw instead was a large collared wolf appearing over the horizon. Black as a new moon and totally uninterested in us, we watched this magnificent animal continue into the draw below us. Excited and stunned, we all stood there basking in our good fortune.

Should we continue toward where the wolf had just been? As we considered what to do next, I looked up and saw we had more company.

We froze as a second wolf, this one large and gray-colored, came over the same hill, snorting and sniffing the ground as it went, only interested in the black wolf’s scent. It headed toward a small kettle pond and was bounding through the tall reeds around it when we saw the black wolf’s head pop up. The gray wolf disappeared while the black wolf jumped toward it. This hide-and-seek went back and forth for a number of minutes until the black wolf moved south and we lost sight of it.

The gray wolf then sat on the hill above the pond for more than 15 minutes while we sat eating our lunch. Just looking around cool and calm as can be, it could have been mistaken for a pet dog on a porch. Finally, it howled mournfully for a full fifteen minutes across the hillsides with only the five of us and the rest of the wildlife there to enjoy the moving sound. When visitors see wolves along the roads of Yellowstone, they typically share the experience with dozens of others. To experience wildlife like this, alone in the backcountry, is as unparalleled as it is unforgettable. Finally, the gray wolf got a response (the black wolf?) and disappeared over the hill.

Sharing this seemingly inaccessible corner of the park and experiencing the landscape and wildlife as they are meant to be goes far beyond any typical sense of workplace satisfaction. Mount Everts is a profound source of pleasure and renewal, and a reminder of the responsibility we have when we live in the shadow of Yellowstone to protect its endless wonders and surprises.

With the recent release of Skyfall, the new James Bond adventure, I’m reminded of how my love of the secret agent’s adventures and my passion for national parks led to writing a Bond-style thriller, set in Yellowstone National Park. Unleashing Colter’s Hell tells the story of a single park ranger’s race to prevent an attack that could destroy the United States.

Let me back up a few years.

In 1997, I served as a seasonal ranger at Yellowstone’s West Thumb geyser basin. While at the park, I lived in a remote single-wide trailer without many modern conveniences like television. As such, I had countless hours for “bubblegum reading.” Some of my favorite novels were the James Bond spy thrillers. You could say thrillers are in my DNA, as my father named me after Sean Connery, the first actor to play the British spy. But the appeal of these stories runs deeper than my name; it’s their exotic locations, along with a compelling hero battling bad guys for the future of the world that captured my imagination. 

Perhaps it was the isolation of the Wyoming wilderness or the lack of distractions, but as I read these books, a question occurred to me: Why wasn’t there an American equivalent to these master spy novels? America doesn’t lack exotic locations. I grew up traveling to nearly every state in the Union and visiting hundreds of the national park sites. I’d boated through the saw grass wetlands of the Everglades, tramped under the otherworldly stone arcs of Arches, and ridden horses through the wilds of Glacier. The United States in general and our national parks in particular have enough interesting locations for thousands of stories.

I wondered, who could serve in the place of James Bond? James Bond was a “jack of all trades.” His job required him to fly planes, rappel off of steep mountain slopes, drive high-performance vehicles, and even know exactly how a martini should be made: shaken, not stirred, naturally. In addition, Bond works for the well-known MI-6, Great Britain’s counterpart to the CIA. Bond was equally comfortable in the field and in the halls of power. 

Who in the federal government could hold a candle to the super spy? It couldn’t be someone in the FBI or CIA. Those archetypes have been explored before and even show up in several James Bond novels. No, it occurred to me I was looking for a park ranger. On any given day, park visitors could want to know the name of countless plants and animals, the thinking behind the park service’s wildfire management, or even a recommendation for the best nearby restaurant. A ranger has to know it all. But rangers also have to do it all. Rangers can be found tracking down dangerous fugitives on one day, while the next, they are helping to save endangered species such as grizzly bears or gray wolves. Like Bond, rangers fly planes, rappel off of mountains, and drive high-performance cars all in a day’s work. Some can even make an excellent martini. 

Yes, a park ranger could make an excellent American version of the British agent. Now all that was needed was a story. James Bond battles international conspiracies and attempts at world domination. Obviously, national park rangers don’t face these types of dangers … or do they? Yellowstone is home to the world’s largest super volcano. Past eruptions have buried much of the eastern two-thirds of the country in dozens of feet of ash. If the volcano blew today, it could well be curtains for the country and world.  What if someone or some organization could trigger a volcanic eruption? Voila! I had my location, hero, and a compelling threat, a great story idea.

In 2009, with the gentle prodding of my writing coach, I began working on the novel. Over the next three years, I wrote more than 70,000 words, produced several drafts and rewrites, and finally published the thriller in August of this year: Unleashing Colter’s Hell. (Shameless plug: You can find it here on Paperback or Kindle.)

Thankfully, the Yellowstone attack in my novel is pure fiction. But if it weren’t, I know America’s park rangers would be up to the challenge.

In July 2011, I received an unexpected email from someone named Lisong Ni. I’m glad I did.

Lisong is part of a small group of people working to create a new national park in China’s Qinghai Province. He contacted me because of my experience in Wyoming and Montana, including Yellowstone National Park, an area similar geographically and geologically to China’s Qinghai Province. After a year of corresponding and a site visit to Montana and Yellowstone from the working group in 2011, I was invited to China in September to help assess the area’s natural, historic, and cultural resources, and to discuss management options for the soon-to-be-created Kunlun National Park.

When I stepped off the plane in Xining, China, it was clear I was in a different world.

The Qinghai Province is China’s most diverse–Tibetan, Mongolian, and Muslim people all call the region home. The area is similar to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, except that 19,000-foot mountain peaks, high plains, sheep herders, wild yaks, camels, temples, monks, and small farms dot the landscape. 

The Qinghai Province is the least-populated of all Chinese provinces. The region contains vast reserves of oil and gas, rare minerals, and tremendous energy potential. China sees Kunlun National Park as a way to make great contributions to the global economy, protect natural resources, provide environmental education, and increase the living standards for people in the region.

The park would also protect wildlife and wildlife habitat. Similar to Yellowstone’s northern pronghorn, Tibetan antelope experienced a population decline in the early 1900s. Millions of these animals once roamed the high Tibetan plateau; now herd numbers are in the thousands.

One reason for the population decline is illegal poaching. Another is fencing. When Tibetan sheep herders corral their animals, the fencing keeps sheep in, but does not allow wildlife to move easily across the landscape.

For the past eight years, I’ve worked with landowners, ranchers, land management agencies, and volunteers throughout southwestern Montana, altering and removing fences like this. As China changes and evolves, I am hopeful their fencing practices will too.

My experiences in the Kunlun Mountains and in the valleys of the Qinghai province were life-changing. I met people on their land, listened, and communicated without speaking a word of Mandarin. I learned that despite our so-called differences, most people want the same things: to share the natural world with curious souls and protect wildlife’s place on the landscape.

The people working to create Kunlun National Park believe in honoring the culture, history, and natural wonders of the Qinghai Province, improving lives for people who call this region home, and setting aside big areas of wild country for wildlife to thrive in and for people to enjoy. I believe in the Kunlun National Park project and look forward to seeing how this project unfolds.

This month has been a sad one for Wyoming’s wolves. On October 1, the federal government removed wolves from the protection of the Endangered Species Act, allowing the state to permit hunting of these animals, despite glaring deficiencies in Wyoming’s wolf management plan. Even worse, the state included national park lands (namely, the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway and Grand Teton National Park) in a designated hunting area. Although no wolves will be hunted this year in national parks, the inclusion of park lands within a state hunting zone sets the stage for a future challenge to the Park Service’s authority over wildlife.

Wolves have just reached their minimum recovery goals, and an aggressive hunt is no way to manage for a future population of wolves. There are only approximately 250 wolves in the state, not including those living in Yellowstone National Park. Wolves were eradicated from the area in the 1920s and are just recently on the road to recovery thanks to a successful reintroduction effort in 1995. Despite this, Wyoming is aggressively targeting a quota to kill 52 wolves this year in hunt areas outside of Grand Teton and Yellowstone, seeking to ultimately reduce the population to as few as 100 wolves outside of Yellowstone within the next few years.

NPCA feels this is no way to manage a recovering species. These actions will have a direct, negative impact on wolf packs living inside Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, since these animals are wide-ranging and regularly move across park boundaries on to lands where they will be hunted. 

The John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway contains a 24,000-acre tract of land managed by the Park Service that connects Yellowstone to Grand Teton. Although NPCA believes that the Park Service has ultimate authority over all lands within the parkway, the state is challenging this authority by refusing to remove national park lands from the hunting zone. The Park Service will need to act decisively and pass special rules to prohibit the hunting of wolves in Wyoming’s national parks or else they will jeopardize their ability to deny wolf hunting in the future.

Why protect wolves? If you are not moved by the beauty and significance of the animals themselves, consider their relationship with the rest of the region. The loss of predators such as wolves has a ripple effect that throws the entire ecosystem out of balance, affecting not just other wildlife, but plant populations, too. Recent research has shown that the loss of wolves and bears creates an overpopulation of game animals such as deer and elk, which in turn reduces plant life and diminishes biodiversity. Hunting by humans simply does not offer the benefits that natural predators do in the wild.

More than 54,000 NPCA supporters have already voiced concerns to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking for clear protection of wolves in Wyoming’s national parks–but both agencies have thus far failed to do so. In just 22 days a total of 26 animals have already been killed across the state. NPCA will continue to urge the Park Service to clearly prohibit the hunting of wolves on all of Wyoming’s national park lands.

You can stay up to date on this and other issues concerning national parks by signing up for NPCA’s action alerts at www.npca.org/join.