Editorial: In the face of climate change, US NPs need more investments in science
The rough, white texture of the bark was still bright in the fading glow of sunset. I turned my head and gazed out over the valley to enjoy the last few moments of it bathed in golden light. Some of the greatest feats of humankind had been achieved since this wood had been stacked together...electricity, the automobile, telephones, antibiotics, the internet and landing on the moon to name a few. I closed my eyes and imagined this place as it must have been back when a Crow Indian warrior used it as a scouting point. At least that is what this teepee-like structure of large wooden branches and logs is thought to have been, a scouting post for Crow warriors watching over the valley for any enemy war parties. What anthropologists do know is it pre-dates 1872, a very special year. That year, President Ulysses S Grant, in a document roughly 26 lines long, founded the country's first National Park...Yellowstone, or as it was originally called The National Park of the Headwaters of the Yellowstone River.
The structure I was standing on was one of several dozen scattered throughout the park that are off the beaten path and rarely seen by tourists. I had come here for four days with Discovery Education to lead a group of youth leaders on an experience exploring this majestic place. Now I was standing at dusk in a wild meadow overlooking the valley at the main entrance of Yellowstone where the Roosevelt Arch stands proudly declaring to all visitors that the Park was "For the Benefit of Enjoyment of the People." President Theodore Roosevelt laid the first cornerstone of the Arch in 1903 and 13 years later Congress created the National Park Service which today presides over 392 federally protected areas of which 58 are designated as National Parks.