The UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is a collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme, the world’s foremost intergovernmental organization, and WCMC 2000, a UK-based charity.
Introduction
Yellowstone National Park (44°08′ - 45°07′N, 109°10′ - 111°10′W) is a World Heritage Site in Wyoming, United States. It was established in 1872 and covers 9,000 square kilometers (km2) of a vast natural forest of the southern Rocky Mountains in the North American west. It boasts an impressive array of geothermal phenomena, with more than 3,000 geysers, lava formations, fumaroles, hot springs and waterfalls, lakes and canyons. It is equally known for its wildlife: grizzly bears, bison, wolves and wapiti, North American elk.
Threats to the site
The Park was placed on the List of the World Heritage in Danger in 1995, because proposed adjacent mining for gold, silver and copper threatened the ecology and wildlife of the Yellowstone River. Ongoing contamination includes leaking sewage and waste, illegally introduced non-native lake trout which compete with the endemic Yellowstone cut-throat trout, road construction and year-round visitor pressures including the use of air-polluting snowmobiles in winter. Hundreds of bison were slaughtered in 1997 to eradicate brucellosis, a disease seen to endanger surrounding cattle. The authorities undertook to analyze thoroughly any measures taken to mitigate negative impacts.
The mine proposed in 1990 4 kilometers (km) from the northeast boundary would have stored toxic waste in the headwater area of major rivers. But in 1996 the President announced the removal of the threat through a US$65 million land-trade, which included clearing up local mine contamination. Other progress reported to the World Heritage Committee were the repair of sewer lines, the removal of exotic trout in 2001 and the planned control of brucellosis by the Interim Bison Management Plan of the Greater Yellowstone Brucellosis Committee which included state and federal agencies and local cattle ranchers concerned with the potential spread of the disease. As a result of these measures the World Heritage Committee took the Park off the list of endangered sites in 2003.
Geographical location
In the southern third of the northern Rocky Mountains, in northwestern Wyoming state, with small adjacent areas of Montana to the north and Idaho to the west. The eastern boundary is largely topographically defined; other boundaries are largely geometric. 44°08′ - 45°07′N, 109°10′ - 111°10′W.
Date and history of establishment
1872: Designated by the U.S. Congress, as the world’s first National Park. Protection was provided by several congressional acts, initially under civilian then army administration
1915: U.S. National Park Service (NPS) created and assumed management
1976: The geothermal site was recognized as a Biosphere Reserve under the UNESCO MAB program
Area
The park spans 898,700 hectares (ha) over three states: (Wyoming: 824,263 ha, Montana: 61,144 ha, Idaho: 12,743 ha). The park is surrounded by the wilderness and wildlands of six national forests, two national wildlife refuges and Grand Teton National Park to the south. This Greater Yellowstone area is four times the size of the park itself and is considered the largest intact ecosystem in the temperate zone. The Biosphere Reserve is 898,349 ha.
Image from Daniel Mayer