Natural Resources and Energy Paper
9-2012
SCI/256

Natural Resources and Energy Paper
The first national park in the United States was Yellowstone National Park, which was created in 1872. At this time, the concept of a national park was new for people; however, it was a great thing because it allowed the people the ability to preserve and protect the best of what they had for the benefit and enjoyment of all future generations. Yellowstone National Park is located in a rugged region where the states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana come together. This rugged region is made up of alpine and sub-alpine forests, as well as, mountains of high elevation. Recognized for its ecological value, Yellowstone national park was designated as a Biosphere Reserve in 1976; a biosphere reserve is an environmental area which is highly sensitive that has protected status, which is managed primarily to preserve natural ecological conditions. This paper on Yellowstone national park will be discussing the impacts associated with agriculture, the effects that a growing human population can have on the resources of an ecosystem, a management practice to help with sustainability, the risks and benefits for extracting renewable and nonrenewable energy resource for the ecosystem, and management practices for sustainability and conservation of natural resources and energy.
The Yellowstone National Park is home to many large animals such as bison, elk, grizzle bear, and wolf. The enactment of legislation designed to protect game resources called upon Yellowstone National Park to supply elk to other ranges that were not suitable for agriculture. Yellowstone National Park is a prime location to use for trapping and restocking purposes because elks are not like cattle and cannot be herded for capture (United States Department of the Interior, 2004). During the winter months is the only time elk be captured because the winter snow drives the elk to lower elevations with limited forage (United States Department of the Interior, 2004).
When the human population grows, it affects the ecosystem’s resources. Science has proven that human population growth has been a part of global warming. At Yellowstone National Park, the population of Blotched Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum melanostictum) has suffered from the effects of global warming (McMenamin & Hadly, 2012). McMenamin and Hadly’s study used “ancient and modern mitochondrial haplotype diversity to model the effective size of this amphibian population through recent geological time and to assess past responses to climatic changes in the region.” (McMenamin & Hadly, 2012, para. ). They used subfossils in northern Yellowstone National Park collected from Cave Lamar to analyze almost 700 “base pairs of mitochondrial sequence” (McMenamin & Hadly, 2012, para. ). Through their simulations they found that” regional mitochondrial diversity has remained relatively constant even through climatic fluctuations of recent millennia”. According to McMenamin, Hadly, and Wright (2008) climate warming causes decrease in effective moisture which in turn causes changes in development and phenology, loss of pond habitat and increased risk of disease which ultimately causes the loss of amphibian populations. In addition, impacts on the environment which include habitat degradation are continuing to be affected by global warming (McMenamin, Hadly, & Wright, 2008). Since the early 1990’s “the number of salamander populations has fallen by nearly half”, “thus, it is crucial that we elucidate the ways in which climatic change and ensuing habitat change already have impacted amphibian species” (McMenamin, Hadly, & Wright, 2008, para. ). If we do nothing to save the habitat of the Blotched Tiger Salamanders we will eventually cause them to die out at Yellowstone National Park because of the pollution we did to cause global warming.
Since its establishment in 1872 as a national park, and now as a biosphere reserve and a World Heritage Site; Yellowstone has been and still remains to be an example of excellence in environmental management. In order to preserve our resources for our current and future generations, Yellowstone national park continues to strive to demonstrate exemplary leadership for sustainability and climate change mitigation by managing operations and adapting facilities in a sustainable manner. Under the Organic Act of 1916, the National Park service was established and directed to promote and regulate the use of the National Parks to conserve the scenery, the natural historic objects, and the wild life and to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Yellowstone's purpose and significance is rooted in the intent of its enabling legislation, subsequent legislation and current knowledge of its natural, cultural, and scenic resources. Yellowstone preserves geologic wonders including the world's most extraordinary collection of geysers, hot springs and abundant and diverse wildlife, in one of the largest remaining intact temperate ecosystems on earth. Commitment to sustainability is made more important with a changing climate and increasing impacts to natural resources, locally and globally. Recent executive orders and acts require the Federal Government to protect resources through sustainable operations and facility adaptation. The National Park Service Green Parks Plan provides further direction for environmental stewardship, and has led to a firm commitment and support for Yellowstone's continued leadership in Environmental Stewardship (Commitment to Sustainability, 2012).
One type of non-renewable energy resource that is found throughout the Yellowstone National Park, are the hot springs. These hot springs are fueled by magmatic systems found underneath the Earth’s surface, where the hot magma of the volcano lies (National Park Service, 2012). As super-heated water rises to the top, the water is cooled down and drops back down to the bottom of the hot spring. The cold water, when reaching the bottom of the hot spring, is heated up again and rises back up to the surface. Great examples of these hot springs found in the Yellowstone National Park are Morning Glory, Grand Prismatic, Abyss, Emerald, and Sapphire. These hot springs offer thermophillic bacteria, algae mats, predators, and other extractions that may be used to remove toxic wastes safely and naturally. Those natural resources from the hot springs may also help with the production and extraction of energy fuel, bio-mining, and the development of new surfactants and fermentation processes (National Park Service, 2012). The Lake Cutthroat Trout is also a non-renewable resource that can be found within the Yellowstone National Park. The Lake Cutthroat Trout can be found as food to many of the species of animals that make the Yellowstone National Park their home. Animals such as the grizzly bears, bald eagles, and the river otters rely on the Lake Cutthroat Trout as their food for every day survival. However, as an effect from the release of a non-native species of trout into the waters of the Yellowstone National Park, the Lake Trout has been over-populating the native Lake Cutthroat Trout. If the Lake Cutthroat Trout is to be taken out by the Lake Trout, the waters of the Yellowstone National Park may face danger. The Lake Trout eats many of the native species of fish that are found in the Yellowstone National Park waters, including the native Lake Cutthroat Trout. If the population of the Lake Trout fish continues to rise up, there may be very little species of water animals left. That may cause harm to the land species that depend on the species of fish for food and survival. Afar from non-renewable resources from the Yellowstone National Park, there are the renewable resources. One of the renewable resources that can be found in the Yellowstone National Park is the production of geothermal electricity. Geothermal electricity is produced in steam plants that take the steam from the hot underground and convert it to electricity. Hot springs and geysers located in the Yellowstone National Park are often the main spots that are used to attain the heat and steam to generate geothermal electricity. If these hot springs and geysers continue to stay the way that they have been in the past and the present, the production of geothermal electricity will continue to provide electricity without a lot of pollution and fuel burning. Without burning fuel and coal to produce electricity, the planet Earth may be able to reduce the effects of global warming. However, if these geysers and hot springs are lost, electricity may have to be produced continually with fuel burning and coal burning, which will worsen the effects of global warming.
One of Yellowstone National Parks biggest challenges is the pollution control that affects the conservation of the parks natural resources. With more than two million visitors annually over a span of 2.2 million acres the management of pollution to the environment is a serious concern. In 2006 the park implemented the Yellowstone National Park Recycling Program to maximize the parks environmental sustainability (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2006). The goal of the program was to divert 90% of the parks solid waste from going into the landfills by 2008. The program was started by the Environmental Management System in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Wyoming and Montana Departments of Environmental Quality, Xanterra Parks and Resorts, park concessionaires, Delaware North Park Services and the parks managers (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2006). The recycle containers are specially designed with steel to keep out grizzly bears. The program was a success after collaboration with neighboring communities to collect enough recyclables to keep the hauling costs affordable and with constant education to the parks visitors and the large availability of these bins they successfully have been able to maintain the program.
The Yellowstone National Park in 2009 dedicated itself to updating its current Pelton water wheel that was used to generate power with the existing water supply at Mammoth Hot Springs (Department of the Interior, 2009). This system was no longer functioning and dated back to 1911, to uphold the parks tradition of using clean energy a new micro-hydropower system would be installed (Department of the Interior, 2009).
The park continues its efforts to maintain the sustainability and preservation of the environment by maintaining is building is a responsible manner, educate its employees and visitors of the importance of not polluting, and staying involved in programs that will reduce water and material consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy (National Park Service, 2012).

References
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