Human Impact
With around 3 million visitors per year, tourism can interrupt Hayden Valley and Yellowstone’s overall balance. For example, roads built through Yellowstone and leading to Hayden Valley fragment the ecosystem to some degree, disrupting breeding patterns of bison, wolves, and other precious species. Noise pollution, mostly from automobiles, can disturb natural patterns of communication between individuals of species like wolves and elk. Litter from tourists also can hurt or even kill grizzly bears and other animals that try to eat this trash. As a tourist, be careful to clean up after yourself. To prevent unnecessary erosion in Hayden Valley, stick to trails that have been carved out for you. Avoid using snowmobiles in Yellowstone in the winter. Although they are popular, they directly contribute to air and noise pollution.
Many Yellowstone species have been and continue to be threatened species, mostly due to human activities. Grizzly bears are a threatened species, chiefly because of poaching. Moreover, there is the potential ongoing risk of acid rain in Yellowstone National Park due to human factories releasing sulfur and other toxic chemicals, which ultimately lowers pH in Hayden Valley’s lakes and ponds, disrupting aquatic life and the terrestrial life like grizzly bears that depend on its fishes. Humans have also influenced the park’s natural cycle of fires and secondary succession. Part of why the 1988 fire was so detrimental and large was that humans had engaged in previous efforts to prevent smaller forest fires that would have removed that dry underbrush (which served as fuel to the 1988 fire). Altering this regular, natural cycle of fire might mean that humans are limiting Yellowstone's species diversity, since fires can help provide new niches to species that are otherwise being dominated. |
Endangered Species: Gray Wolves
While many species in Yellowstone National Park are considered threatened, gray wolves are currently the only animal species listed on the endangered list. An endangered species is one at risk of becoming extinct. Government-funded predator control programs in the early 1900s promoted overhunting of gray wolves, and in 1926 the last of its Yellowstone individuals were killed, many by farmers trying to protect their cattle. In 1995, 41 gray wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park. Although they should be entirely protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, gray wolves are still the victims of hunting, and also habitat loss in areas besides Yellowstone. In 2011 the US Fish and Wildlife Service estimated there were 1,650 gray wolves in Northern/Central America, including in the Yellowstone area, where there were predicted to be less than 500. It is difficult to estimate a number for Hayden Valley specifically, as gray wolves are constantly moving. They continue to be endangered though, on the basis that their numbers are still vulnerable and extinction continues to be a prominent possibility. At a global scale, there are an estimate 200,000 gray wolves still alive, which is minimal compared to their historic estimates of around 2 million individuals.
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Additional Info on Gray Wolves
Gray wolves mostly eat large hooved-mammals like elk, which they often hunt down together in packs of 4-7. They also prey on smaller animals though, like beavers and rabbits. |
Hayden Valley's (and Yellowstone National Park's) Future
Hayden Valley, and Yellowstone as a whole, will probably be a better maintained ecosystem than the majority of ecosystems in the world. Yellowstone National Park participates in the Federal Recreations Land Enhancement Act. Thus it uses 80% of the fees it collects from tourists like you to help protect the park and monitor/improve visitor activities. Some of this income of about $4 million dollars yearly goes towards things like erosion control. In order to fish or camp in Hayden Valley, or anywhere else in Yellowstone National Park, you have to get a permit. All of these rules overall help Yellowstone to be protected, so that its ecosystems like Hayden Valley continue to thrive and be beautiful. In my opinion, when contrasted to the rest of the natural world, Yellowstone's future is bright. Irresponsible tourists do and will remain a problem, along with long term effects of acid rain and global warming, but when compared to the rest of the natural world, Yellowstone is a safe haven for species diversity.