The Greater Yellowstone Coalition is widely regarded as the most influential and GYE-focused conservation group in the Yellowstone region. We have a long history—spanning 26 years—of conservation success and activism protecting the vast, unmarred landscape of Greater Yellowstone. Below is a brief snapshot of just a few of our accomplishments over the years:
Demanding the
protections grizzlies deserve: GYC was founded in 1983 essentially to save
the struggling Greater Yellowstone grizzly, and we have been fighting on behalf
of the great bear ever since. In September 2009, our lawsuit to restore
Endangered Species Act protections for this Yellowstone
icon prevailed when a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service failed to acknowledge such threats to the grizzly’s future as global
warming, the decline of food sources and habitat fragmentation.
Protecting the Snake headwaters: What began as ideas scratched onto restaurant napkins came to fruition in the spring of 2009 when President Obama signed into law the Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act, which protects 387 miles of the Snake River and its tributaries from development. It is the first time an entire watershed has been protected under the federal Wild & Scenic Rivers System.
Giving bison room to roam: Bison are the only wild creature in the U.S. largely confined by the boundaries of a national park, thanks to archaic rules orchestrated by stockgrowers. The result: In 2007-08, more than 1,500 bison – about one-third of one of the last genetically pure herds in the U.S. -- were rounded up and sent to slaughter after leaving Yellowstone. Though our work is far from done in the protection of these iconic species, GYC and our conservation partners in 2008 brokered a historic deal allowing for bison to roam nine miles north of the park along the Yellowstone River to suitable public lands. In the future, GYC will seek to end this senseless slaughter once and for all by working to have bison sent to suitable habitat elsewhere around the West.
Saving grizzly bear habitat: Once teetering on extinction in Greater Yellowstone, the grizzly bear has made a remarkable comeback, thanks largely to GYC-led efforts in 1992 to halt the logging of prime habitat on Idaho’s Targhee National Forest west of Yellowstone. In 1995, a court further ruled on GYC’s behalf that the forest’s grizzly bear recovery plan – required in a 1993 ruling -- was based on faulty science and did not comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Further habitat was thus protected and roads closed. Grizzly numbers have doubled since then, but alarming mortality rates and other factors have led to GYC fighting the bear’s removal from the ESA.
Preserving the Wyoming Range legacy: “Some places oughta just be left the hell alone!” That was Rock Springs miner Mike Burd’s assessment of the Wyoming Range, which was threatened by oil and gas development until the GYC-backed Citizens Protecting the Wyoming Range stepped in. This diverse, grassroots group of outdoor enthusiasts prevailed when the 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act was passed, withdrawing 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range from oil and gas development and preserving a Wyoming legacy of hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor recreation.
Stopping the New World Mine: When a Canadian company wanted to mine for gold less than three miles from Yellowstone’s northeast boundary, GYC and other groups used public pressure to help broker a deal halting the mine. The New World Mine would have sent toxic runoff into the park via Soda Butte Creek as well as the Wild & Scenic Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River. The victory was climaxed in 1996 with a visit by President Clinton, who proclaimed that “Yellowstone truly is more precious than gold.” Today, the New World Mine is site of one of the West’s most challenging and successful reclamation projects.
Keeping the peace in Yellowstone: When air pollution from snowmobiles at Yellowstone’s West Entrance was so bad that rangers had to wear gas masks, it was clear that enough was enough. Since the mid-1990s, GYC has elicited broad public and legal support for the phase out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone in favor of cleaner, quieter, less-intrusive snowcoaches. GYC has based its work on the Park Service’s own scientists, who say that the number of snowmobiles allowed by the park – 720 in 2008-09, 318 in 2009-2010 and 540 before that – isn’t healthy for wildlife or other valued resources. In 2010, another scoping effort will again evaluate snowmobile use in Yellowstone.
Checking the checkerboards: The West is notorious for its checkerboard pattern of land ownership, thanks to deals made more than a century ago with railroads. Many of these square plots are in the middle of national forests in prime wildlife habitat. GYC has helped orchestrate a number of land swaps and other consolidations that protect sensitive areas from development, including 100,000 acres on the Gallatin National Forest in the 1990s. These lands, just north of Yellowstone, are no longer under the threat of development.
Catching a break for wildlife: One way to mitigate conflicts between livestock and wildlife is to compensate willing stockgrowers for their public-lands grazing allotments. GYC has participated in a number of buyouts, most notably in the Wyoming Range (67,500 acres), Blackrock/Slick Creek (70,000) and Bacon Creek/Fish Creek (178,000). This tool was also used to allow bison to roam nine miles north of Yellowstone across private land where cattle formerly grazed.
Trusting in wildlife: In 2005, GYC worked with Wyoming sportsmen and women, conservation allies, labor union members and elected officials to pass legislation establishing the $200 million Wyoming Wildlife & Natural Resources Trust. The trust enhances and conserves wildlife habitat and natural resources throughout the state.
Keeping it wild: One year after GYC was born in 1983, the small and scrappy group worked with agencies and the government to help secure more than 1 million acres of wilderness in western Wyoming, providing a critical buffer for the parks and their migrating wildlife. These vital lands on the west slope of the Tetons, east side of Yellowstone and in the Gros Ventre Mountains east of Grand Teton provide critical habitat for wolves, grizzly bears and elk.
