Wyoming will be celebrating 150 years of one of its most iconic natural wonders, Yellowstone National Park in May of 2022.
The Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Wyoming College of Law have joined to organize a symposium dedicated to the national park located at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY on May 19-20.
The symposium will focus on the history of Yellowstone as well as its impacts on environmental conservation.
The anniversary was originally set to be commemorated with only a special edition of the Wyoming Law Review. However, third-year law student Jake Vogt and others felt the milestone was more important.
“We needed to do something more, we needed to do something to commemorate this,” Vogt said. “We needed to claim Yellowstone as this Wyoming entity, and it was our role to celebrate that.”
Second-year law student Madi Barber said that Yellowstone was especially important to her as someone who grew up in Wyoming.
“It’s just been a huge part of my upbringing; it’s been a huge part of who I am today and I just love it,” Barber said. “It was exciting for me to have an opportunity to showcase that as an in-state kid.”
“Unlike many issues of today, most people can agree that Yellowstone should be protected,” Haub School senior Christian Moncrief said. “It brings people together from different backgrounds for a common purpose.”
Moncrief also said the symposium was an opportunity to continue inspiring people to be involved in policymaking and environmental conservation.
95% of Yellowstone is within Wyoming and tourism revenues are a large source of income for the state.
According to Vogt, the national park is interesting to look at in terms of both the policies and impacts surrounding it.
One example Vogt talked about is the conflict between the predators protected by the park and the surrounding communities.
“It’s kind of a unique situation because you have this wildlife refuge where all these animals are protected and just outside is Wyoming, Montana and Idaho,” Vogt said. “These are three states that also rely a lot on hunting and tax dollars from that industry.”
One of the topics discussed in the Yellowstone Symposium edition of the Law Review will focus on the relationship between predators like grizzly bears and their impact on tourism, livestock and the people living in the surrounding areas.
Additional topics will include the historical relationship of the park with Indigenous peoples and the separate judicial system within the park.
Park Superintendent Cam Sholly will also write an introduction for the Law Review.
According to Barber, one of the biggest challenges to the park today is dealing with increased visitors. Yellowstone is one of Wyoming’s biggest attractions with more than 3.5 million visitors each year.
“There has to be a little bit more protection, there has to be a little bit more knowledge surrounding the park and how untouched it is and how we can keep it that way,” Barber said.
Vogt says that celebrating Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary is a chance to reflect on lessons learned from the park in terms of natural resource and ecosystem conservation.
“We can see how we met those goals and how we also missed those goals and what we need to do to change to reflect the purpose of the park,” Vogt said.
“In the future, I think that Yellowstone can be an example of how conservation and tourism and human activity should interact,” Moncrief said.
The symposium will include a variety of different panelists and speakers such as those from Indigenous speakers, climate change presenters, and Superintendent Sholly.
“We’re going to have a lot of important local people that get to come together and celebrate such an awesome aspect of the state of Wyoming,” Barber said.
The symposium is still in the planning stage but continues to involve a variety of different people and groups from around the state.
