“They seem to be happening more and more frequently,” he said, estimating that at least 10,000 people were visiting when the evacuations began. Sholly described the floods and mudslides driven by four days of record rains and melting snow as a “1,000-year event, whatever that means these days.” But the entrances to the northern section of Yellowstone, near Livingston and smaller tourist-dependent towns, will likely remain inaccessible until around Halloween. The entire park will remain closed for a week or so while authorities deal with damaged roads and collapsed bridges, Cam Sholly, the park’s superintendent, said at a news conference late Tuesday. In Yellowstone, researchers say they expect to see an increase in fires, dying forests, expanding grasslands, more invasive plants and shallower, warmer waterways.īy Wednesday morning, the dark skies had cleared in Livingston, Montana, a town of some 8,000 people that serves as the main northern gateway to Yellowstone. “They regard them as the lifeblood of our democracy, as places that they have set aside for the commons - for us, for our kids, for our grandkids - to enjoy.” “People have memories built on visiting these places,” she said. Urge their local representatives to move the country away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. Kodish said polling by the National Parks Conservation Association shows strong bipartisan support to protect the park system, which she described as “American as apple pie.”Īmericans, she said, could change their everyday decisions to combat climate change and protect parks: Dry laundry on a clothesline instead of a dryer. In Yosemite, rangers are thinning forests to reduce the risk of wildfire. Other efforts include Glacier National Park biologists relocating bull trout to lower-temperature waters and staff members in Joshua Tree National Park clearing brush and invasive species from cooler or wetter areas that are more likely to sustain Joshua trees. A federal infrastructure bill passed last year has $1.7 billion for national parks, which includes money for climate mitigation projects like relocating trails from flood zones. The National Park Service is experimenting with ways of adapting to the changing climate. Wildfires over the past two years also killed thousands of giant sequoias in nearby Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. Park rangers have also been confronted by freak weather events that they had never before witnessed: In January 2021, gusts tore through a grove of giant sequoias and brought down 15 mature trees, wrecking recently constructed visitor facilities. For the past several years, visitors to the popular park in California have driven through vast landscapes of charred stumps. ![]() Wildfires are a constant threat during summer months in and around Yosemite National Park, the gem of the Sierra Nevada. “We are literally making a choice to wipe out these things that are gems of our world, that are gifts for us to pass down,” she said.ĭamage linked to climate change is occurring from Florida to Alaska.Īt Everglades National Park, the vast wetlands southwest of Miami, rising sea levels are causing the salinization of groundwater, threatening tropical orchids and other endangered wildlife. ![]() ![]() Kodish said the culprit of the extreme weather was in most cases clear: Human-caused temperature rises are destroying the very places that Americans saw as the pristine escapes from the traffic-clogged and built-up landscapes of their daily lives.
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