Quick: what comes to mind when you think of “Western art?”. How ironic that so much artistic subject matter being created today in this, the third decade of the 21st century, is focused on embellished imagery of the "Old West” that existed two centuries ago? And to which the artists making it had no direct contact.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Beth Pratt not so long ago worked for the concessioner, Xanterra, in Yellowstone National Park. For years, Pratt, now a senior conservationist with the National Wildlife Federation, has been a tireless advocate explaining the challenges of human-wildlife co-existence in places where people come to dominate landscapes. And there has been no better example than P-22, a cougar with a GPS tracking collar around its neck, who lived—and died recently by euthanization in Los Angeles. Millions of people became aware of P-22 and followed his movements—not unlike that of Greater Yellowstone's own famous carnivore, Jackson Hole Grizzly 399. But these iconic individuals have had very different obstacles to their survival. P-22 illustrated how difficult it is for a wide-ranging animal to dwell amid enormous human population pressure and landscape fragmentation. His story, in many ways, is a reminder of why maintaining ecological connectivity matters. His plight and that other cougars became a rallying cry to the campaign to bring a wildlife overpass to southern California. And P-22 represents a warning light and harbinger of why land managers, wildlife officials and conservationists in Greater Yellowstone need to up their game in addressing sprawl happening here. It is exponentially easier to safeguard critical habitat up front rather than try to restore it after its been destroyed. While we still have a lot more undeveloped real estate on private lands, the wildlife of Greater Yellowstone also has a lot more to lose. We thank Beth Pratt, who has connections to Yellowstone and Greater Yellowstone, for allowing us to re-publish her piece. —Mountain Journal.

Chronic Wasting Disease, the dreaded and always deadly modern wildlife plague, has been detected in a white-tailed deer buck killed by a hunter near Gallatin Gateway, Montana, just west of Bozeman, state wildlife officials announced Wednesday, Dec. 14. It is the first time a positive test for CWD has turned...

There’s a new initiative in Wyoming that’s changing the face of wildlife conservation funding, and it’s already seen huge success in its first year. It’s based on the state’s startling mountains, rivers filled with fish and forests where bears and wolves roam—everything that makes Wyoming unrivaled.

There’s something about the Tetons that inspires people to rise undaunted in defense of nature. A similar kind of benevolent instinct and pluck is present in many corners of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but perhaps it’s the intensity and jarring visual loom of these mountains that infuses something extra into people who intersect with Jackson Hole.

Greater Yellowstone stands apart for its large mammals and other species. Dorothy Bradley says only habitat protection will spare it. EDITOR'S NOTE: Why do so many of us take the marvel of biological diversity for granted? In Greater Yellowstone, we have the most complete, intact array of original native mammal species in the Lower 48. And all of them, from grizzlies to elk, pronghorn to mule deer, are still able to migrate long distances or move seasonally disperse. This ecoregion, which has Yellowstone National Park as its geographic center, holds every mammal and bird species that was here in 1491, the year before Europeans arrived on the continent. In the essay below from Dorothy Bradley, the veteran former state legislator and Montana gubernatorial candidate who lost a narrow race to Marc Racicot riffs on the trend of biodiversity loss that is now playing out around the globe. — Mountain Journal.

From the high prairie, poet Lois Red Elk looks toward the solstice and pays tribute to the deer people. From her home at Fort Peck near a place where the Missouri River turns into a massive lake on the northern US prairie, Lois notes that real winter has returned, like those of old, and along with it, she is on the mend after dealing with onset of illness. Her poem, below, titled "Winter Interval of Deer People," is both poignant in exploring duality and introducing a few new words, native to this continent and part of her Lakota/Dakota language. Join us in welcoming Lois back from her own kind of temporary creative hibernation. To all MoJo readers, she sends her warm and best regards. —Mountain Journal.

The longtime grizzly conservation activist argues in this opinion piece that fed, state actions are undermining their push to delist bears. Snow has returned to grizzly country, several feet at altitude, and most, but not all bears, have withdrawn to their winter dens. For those of us who care about the grizzly, this is indeed good news: The bears who go underground are usually safe for the winter while grizzlies who still roam the Greater Yellowstone region face the most dangerous time in the Great Bear’s long season. For grizzlies that stay out, late fall can be more lethal.

Members of Save Holland Lake praise the Forest Service for denying Utah developer's plan to bring industrial tourism to shores of lake set in important wildlife habitat. Also, as background, read this op-ed by MoJo's Gus O'Keefe, published in October, for a closer look at the expansion and what it means for locals and fans of this pristine lake and its surroundings. If you have comments you'd like to share about this piece, please send them to us and we may republish them at the end of the essay below. Be civil, respectful and base them on fact. - Mountain Journal.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In a recent critique of the new four-part docuseries, Yellowstone: One-Fifty, appearing on the cable channel Fox Nation and featuring actor Kevin Costner as host, author Megan Kate Nelson sharply challenges the veracity of Yellowstone National Park's backstory. "As a historian, I have come to expect that shady...

In the piece below, writer Dave Marston tells us he's back in the West after years away, and he knows what he's grateful for: public land. If the love of wide-open spaces defines a Westerner, Marston writes, then our region gives us lots to love. As we struggle to figure out how to adapt to the West's changing climate, he reminds us to be forever grateful to the spaces that gives us room to breathe.

Special report: What can be done to save the Yellowstone ecosystem? If we're serious and want to have a reason for hope, here are several big ideas for how to do it. On its present trajectory, with a rapidly expanding human development footprint being cemented on private land, soaring outdoor recreation pressure on public land, and deepening negative effects from climate change, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, experts say, is at high risk of losing its healthy, world-class wildlife populations.

During his 1805 explorations into the newly acquired American West with William Clark, Meriwether Lewis encountered an animal near current-day Great Falls, Montana, that he first mistook as a small wolf and later concluded was “of the tiger kind.” Based on Lewis’ written reports, the National Park Service believes that he encountered not a wolf nor a tiger, but rather a wolverine.

You probably haven’t heard much about the bi-partisan legislation known as the America’s Outdoor Recreation Act, a bill sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat, and John Barrasso of Wyoming, a Republican. But you might want to keep it in mind if you care about the future of wildlands in the West.

Dorothy Bradley devoted her career to protecting Montana's sense of place. Now, in her twilight years, she says the conquering of nature has got to stop. I was jogging on a high bench road this autumn marveling at the glorious results of a slow three day rain and the dry land taking a deep drink. Then I heard the distinctive chorus of sandhill cranes. Maybe 50 were flying high overhead in circles, gathering the strays and preparing for their migration south.

Never miss a John Potter nature cartoon and other Mountain Journal stories when you sign up for our free newsletter. Just click here. MoJo cartoonist John Potter, creator of "It's All Relative," is, in his usual day job, a fine artist known for his paintings of western landscapes and wildlife. Raised on and off the Lac du Flambeau (Ojibwe) Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, Potter has art degrees from Utah State University and won awards for his illustration, including being a cartoonist for The Billings Gazette. To see more of Potter's paintings, go to John Potter Studio.

It’s a common story: Candace McNatt of Durango, in southern Colorado, kept losing bidding wars to buy a house. She finally settled on a tiny home of just 350 square feet. McNatt works as an operating room nurse and is a single mother of two teenagers, one about to go to college. Though she landed on the home ownership ladder at one of its lower rungs, she’s relieved. “But this is not how I saw myself approaching the age of 40,” she muses.

And so it reasons that Duncan, himself a prolific award-winning author and film producer, would bet on the same hand in his latest effort with acclaimed director Ken Burns on a film about what Duncan calls “one of the most profound tragedies of American history,” yet one also full of hope and possibility.

The National Park Service is calling on the public to engage in the process of updating its bison management plan for Yellowstone National Park, a significant milestone in one of the nation’s most revered stories of conservation. Per a recent extension, interested parties have until Oct. 10 to comment...

Utah outdoor adventure company, known for running ski resorts, seeks Forest Service permission to dramatically expand human footprint on Holland Lake. A few nights ago, my mom and dad attended a couple of packed public meetings. Hundreds of people turned out to send the US Forest Service a resolute message: don’t make a bad decision that would bring industrial-strength commercial eco-tourism to the shores of one of their favorite lakes in the region.