1. Why Create (and maintain) Yellowstone National Park? For the benefit and enjoyment of the people, Recreation Enjoyment Preservation Ecosystem Geology Conservation Ecosystem Geothermals

2. Pleasuring-Ground! In 1872, Congress reserved the Yellowstone country in the Wyoming and Montana territories "as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." With no state government there yet to receive and manage it, Yellowstone remained in the custody of the U.S. Depart of the Interior as a national park.

3. The National Path Service Organic Act (1916) Created the National Park Service (NPS) & defined its mission: "To conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Does this administrative mandate contain confusing or contradictory language?

4. Mission of NPS On the one hand, the NPS is obliged to manage the national parks so that their condition remains "unimpaired." On the other hand, the NPS is obliged to manage the national parks for the "enjoyment" of the people. How best to achieve these two conflicting goals has been the principal managerial challenge facing the NPS since its inception.

5. Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (the father of ecology), called for wilderness protection and an enduring land ethic. Wilderness preservation is fundamental to the idea of deep ecology – the philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs.

6. Aldo Leopold American ecologist, author, scientist, forester, and environmentalist. His work influenced the movement of wilderness conservation and modern environmentalist ethics. He was a founder of the science of the wildlife management.

7. Conservation vs Preservation Conservation seeks the “proper use of nature”. Regulation of human use. Preservation seeks “protection of nature from use”. Elimination of human impact altogether.

8. Externalities & Restrictions If national parks belong to the people, what the people do in their parks should also be up to them. Or so the arguments go. The major rifts have been over admission fees, transportation modes, questionable recreational uses, crowding and the impacts of varying park uses on the flora and fauna. The problems presented by snowmobiles reflect all these concerns.

9. An example of conservation vs. preservation: The back and forth legal blocking of snowmobile travel in YNP.

10. So, the obvious solution is…

11. Next Week Public Economics First short paper due – debate on purposes of National Parks, ie recreation, conservation, preservation. Then returning to the Bison Issue