Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler's Companion to the National Park, Review By Melody Schubert

Janet Chapple, author of Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler's Companion to the National Park -- which has become the quintessential guide to Yellowstone -- strongly disagrees with the decision to remove the wolves from the Endangered Species list. In addition to the tourist bonus of wolves in the park, she sees their presence as a long-term good. "The whole ecosystem of the park is changing," Chapple writes. "From the grizzlies and cougars to the coyotes and ravens, they all profit directly from a strong wolf population."

Janet Chapple's association with Yellowstone goes back to early childhood days when her parents worked in Old Faithful Inn. She traces her love of Yellowstone Park to memories of waiting for geysers to erupt, visiting with rangers, attending slide shows and sing-alongs in the amphitheater, playing hide-and-seek in the inn, and watching as her father assigned passengers to the big yellow tour buses.

Janet is not the only one concerned about the wolves. The issue of wolves in Yellowstone dates back more than a hundred years and is still not solved. For many decades, it was government policy to eliminate them completely. Then, after years of weighing the pros presented by ecologists and the cons argued by ranchers, animal managers released over thirty wolves into Yellowstone beginning in 1995. The wolves immediately prospered, primarily thriving on their major prey, the huge elk population. But, in 1999, 2004, and 2008, their numbers fell. In 2008, for example, 124 wolves were counted, down from 171 the year before. Distemper was the primary killer, but mange and killing by rival wolves were other culprits. For this and other reasons, delisting wolves in the northern Rockies is premature. Chapple believes that there must continue to be compensation to ranchers who lose livestock to wolf predation, and that hunting of wolves must be carefully controlled.

Another controversy facing Yellowstone is the issue of transporting loaded firearms in the park. The long-standing regulation concerning firearms in Yellowstone has been that they must be unloaded and placed somewhere that is not easily accessible, such as in a car trunk. Regulating guns in the park goes back a long way. Yellowstone was designated a national park in 1872. As early as 1875, people were concerned about hunters possibly decimating all the large game in a very short time, since there were no regulations against hunting or carrying firearms in those years. As a result of this concern for the animals, from about 1889 on all firearms were sealed, or the guns were held for their owners until they left the park.

Janet Chapple offers traveler's visiting Yellowstone more than just a guide. Janet inspires us to make a difference and preserve nature and her children in the wild!

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