The whitebark pine tree is receiving federal protection at same time states are pushing to remove grizzlies from imperiled list. A story about how fate of trees and bears is intertwined. by Laura Lundquist. Last August was hot, but not too hot for a backpacking trip on the 40-mile Teton...

Op-Ed: With one-third of herd gone, Jaedin Medicine Elk—Northern Cheyenne—calls out the slaughter of America's official national land mammal on Yellowstone's front doorstep. By Jaedin Medicine Elk. Wildlife advocate and co-founder of Roam Free Nation. On Saturday, March 18, Yellowstone National Park released the latest report of bison...

In this guest essay, Lance Olsen notes that our best hope of safeguarding America's first national park and its natural character rests with our species consuming less land. Can we tame our appetite?. A recent Financial Times review describes a new book as “an epic and spellbinding story,” and “an...

Protecting 107 acres of land may not seem like a big deal in the capacious panorama of the American West. But when preservation takes the form of two islands in the wild and free-flowing Yellowstone River, it’s something that warrants public attention—for it’s the public, a waterway and wildlife that benefit most.

Story Warren, in this personal essay for Writers on the Range, notes how an investigation shows 40 recent cattle deaths can't be pinned on lobos. The return of wolves to the West has always been contentious, and the deaths last fall of more than 40 cattle in western Colorado alarmed ranchers. But here’s the true story: Wolves did not kill those cattle found dead near Meeker.

As climate refugees flee severe weather in some U.S. regions, they’re relocating to wildfire-prone areas like the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Read Part 1 of MoJo's special report. On a snowy February night in Big Sky, Montana, the heat is cranking inside the Berg household. Mark Berg and his wife,...

Bears are coming of their dens in Greater Yellowstone and given the tough winter we've had there are a lot of carcasses awaiting them. Be aware and be careful. Winter slumber over, grizzlies in Greater Yellowstone are now emerging from hibernation. Beware. On March 7, Yellowstone officials said a field biologist conducting a radio telemetry overflight spotted the first grizzly of the year in the park.

Senior biologist with National Elk Refuge says Chronic Wasting Disease hasn't shown up there yet. But any sense of solace is probably short lived. On December 16, 2020, wildlife officials in Grand Teton National Park received word of something they had been dreading, and for years respected disease experts said was inevitable: confirmation that an elk taken by a hunter in the park had tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.

Award-winning writer and longtime Forest Service veteran Susan Marsh writes a parable for our time that underscores how we must take action to save our fragile ecosystem. Four days of excellent presentations during the recent Yellowstone Summit closed with Todd Wilkinson’s new book “Ripple Effects.” The talk, and the book on which it was based, can’t help but leave one with great worry about the expanding human footprint in the Greater Yellowstone region. Towns expand into cities, ranchlands are gobbled up for subdivisions, and wildlands become increasingly fragmented. We all see the ripples expanding and wonder what, if anything, can be done about it.

Let me begin by divulging a personal bias: I am a fan of Bozeman Mayor Cyndy Andrus. Recently, I spent a Sunday afternoon giving two entire listens to Andrus’s 15-minute-long “State of the City” speech for 2023 and I took careful notes. God knows running for, and...

As often is the case, the passage of time brings a warm diaphanous gloam to the way we remember the past—or at least the way we think it used to be when it was better. In the fading rear-view window, better means places that were uncongested, when the countryside didn't resemble a human anthill, when floating a river didn't feel like you were on a golf cart passing down a suburban fairway lined by trophy homes on either side, when you waved to rural folk passing them by along a dirt road, and when wildness still seemed tangible.

Will Grand Targhee Resort expansion put Teton Valley, Idaho on course to become a doppelgänger of Big Sky? A county commissioner voices her concerns. EDITOR'S NOTE: Greater Yellowstone is being rapidly inundated by development and many see the proposed expansion of Grand Targhee Resort as a flashpoint for dramatic changes that could transform Teton Valley, Idaho located along the west side of the Tetons. Among the many looming questions: is the US Forest Service obligated to help a private ski company expand its operations on public land so that it can notch more profit? Is it fair for the ski company to externalize its costs of doing business on the public? Is the county commission of Teton County, Wyoming being a good neighbor by greenlighting the resort’s growth knowing that much of the fiscal, social and environmental costs will be foisted on the citizens of Teton County, Idaho? In this guest essay below, Cindy Riegel, chair of the Teton County, Idaho Board of Commissioners, speaks of concerns she has an elected leader. Having lived earlier in her life in Jackson Hole on the other side of Teton Pass, Riegel is well aware of what happens when a major ski destination—the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort—expands to mimic the kind of industrial strength infrastructure found at Colorado resorts. Recently, it was revealed that Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has been in secret meetings with officials from the Bridger-Teton National Forest seeking to expand its skiing terrain into places that provide vital habitat for a remnant bighorn sheep herd. —Mountain Journal.

In this opinion essay, Jonathan Schechter, a member of the Jackson town council, explains why he voted against an affordable housing projectddd. EDITOR'S NOTE: In the guest opinion piece, below, Jackson, Wyoming Town Council member Jonathan Schechter writes about why he voted against a development promoted as a free-market attempt to address Jackson Hole's notorious affordable housing crisis. The issues Schechter raises in his piece can be applied to many towns in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and mountain communities up and down the Rockies. Can affordable housing issues really be overcome without major investment of public tax dollars and more generosity from developers? Further, what if elected officials set out to solve for affordable housing by reducing land use regulations in order to accommodate clammer from the buildings, trades and real estate industries, yet those actions contribute to an accelerated loss of community character, exacerbate the costs of dealing with growth and sprawl, worsen other problems like traffic congestion and result in the destruction of critical habitat in towns famous for their wildlife? If you have thoughts you'd like to share, send them along by clicking here. We may publish them below. Keep your thoughts on point and address Schechter's central contention—that we need better ways to protect the special nature of places we love. Schechter's thoughts are his own and do not represent the Jackson Town Council. —Mountain Journal.

Against the odds, on foot, horseback and using an 11-foot-long boat, an 1871 expedition led to the first geological map of Yellowstone. EDITOR'S NOTE: Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Michael Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of the YVO.

Will Utahns take action to rescue their famous lake or will it be sacrificed to a false notion of prosperity? Stephen Trimble weighs in for Writers on the Range. EDITOR'S NOTE: When many of us gaze upon natural landmarks, we see changeless fixtures rather than visions of impermanence. The mountain ranges rising above our towns hover that way. But in the arid West, decades of over-appropriating water in order to "green the desert" and fuel boundless population growth and development has brought a sobering moment of truth. On the outskirts of Salt Lake City, its once vast namesake tarn is shrinking and in its wake, besides serious ecological effects, there are concerns about toxic dust particles left behind on the dry lakebed going airborne and reaching peoples' lungs during windstorms. In the following essay for Writers on the Range, Stephen Trimble, a friend of Mountain Journal and fine nature writer, looks at the consequences. And he reminds that it's time to check our hubris at the door when it comes to wishful premises about our ability to bio-engineer nature and instead heed the hard lessons being handed to us. The plight of the Great Salt Lake is a test and a harbinger, he says, that we ignore at our own peril. —Mountain Journal.

MoJo columnist Lori Ryker reminds how our "human footprint" is exacting huge consequences for wild denizens of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. EDITOR'S NOTE: Within a wildland ecosystem, few decisions are more consequential than deciding where—and how—a new development, residential subdivision or even individual home are sited in a rural landscape. The way that human presence ripples does not end at the outer walls of a structure. What represents a dream dwelling for us can have huge impacts for wildlife that inhabited or moved through the space prior to our arrival. In the following column from designer Lori Ryker, she raises important questions. They are queries we believe ought to be part of the conscious thought process with architects, realtors, and clients. Ryker is founder of Remote Studio, an initiative of her non-profit Artemis Institute that submersed young architecture students in natural landscapes and forced them to think of how they could minimize the footprint of the built environment. This piece originally appeared in a special issue of Mountain Outlaw Magazine devoted to thinking about conservation that was part of a collaboration with Mountain Journal. —Todd Wilkinson.

SNO panel discussion preview, Part 3: Q&A with Taylor Middleton, Big Sky Resort president and COO. EDITOR’S NOTE: Big Sky SNO (Sustainability Network Organization) is launching its Big Sky Community Climate Action Plan at The Independent theater on Thursday Feb. 16. The event, which starts at 7 p.m., features short films, a panel discussion with four leading experts in their respective fields moderated by MoJo Managing Editor Joseph T. O’Connor, and a keynote address by world-renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Big Sky SNO (Sustainability Network Organization) is launching its Big Sky Community Climate Action Plan at The Independent theater on Thursday Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. The event features short films, a panel discussion with four leading experts in their respective fields moderated by MoJo Managing Editor Joseph T. O’Connor, and a keynote address by world-renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker.

Panel discussion preview, Part 1: Lill Erickson, Western Sustainability Exchange. EDITOR’S NOTE: Big Sky SNO (Sustainability Network Organization) is launching its Big Sky Community Climate Action Plan at The Independent theater on Thursday Feb. 16. The event features short films, a panel discussion with four leading experts in their respective fields moderated by Mountain Journal Managing Editor Joseph T. O’Connor, and a keynote address by world-renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker.

Fact: you wouldn’t be reading these words if you don’t sometimes dream of going to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone ranks high on the wish list of nature preserves people want to see in their lifetimes. It is, as National Geographic magazine proclaimed in its 2016 special edition, “the beating heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.”