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Saving The National Parks From Climate Change, And The Backlog, Too

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Lovingly restored, one of Yellowstone's original yellow buses from the 1930s here commemorates the centennial of Old Faithful Inn (1904-2004). The restorers are Bruce Austin, driving, and John Mueller, black tuxedo, standing. Passenger doors are on the right side, separating visitors from moving traffic/Xanterra Parks and Resorts

A dairy farmer with a pithy vocabulary, my maternal grandfather had a favorite phrase: “Put up or shut up.” When mother used it on me I knew she was getting serious. Like grandfather, she expected me to take action rather than just complain.

Had she lived to see me debating climate change I am sure she would still be quoting grandfather, who in 1925, on purchasing his first car, predicted that the automobile would destroy America. A lover of horses (trained in the German cavalry), he retired his horse-drawn wagon only because cars had made the roads too dangerous.

Today, everything he produced locally is just as likely to come from another state or country. Pockmarked with houses, his once lush fields south of Binghamton, New York, are now part of its suburban fringe.

The point is that if we were serious about climate change—again, put-up-or-shut-up serious—we would never have allowed grandfather’s prediction to come true.

Never—not even in the 1960s—did environmentalists seriously take on the car. Its pollution and fossil fuels, yes, but its very presence on the landscape barely. And now? No need to worry where your tomato comes from so long as it arrives in a “greener” truck.

As superintendent of Yellowstone (1919-1929), then Park Service director (1929-1933), Horace M. Albright officially courted railroad visitors with this annual publication. Ensuring full coverage of the park, sample tours urged patrons to enter and leave by different gates and railroads/Runte collection

Multiplied by the millions, and around the world the hundreds of millions, similar stories changed the face of the Earth. Abetted by the internal combustion engine, Americans took a rural country and made it into an urban country, tripling its population along the way. Today, population worldwide is 7.5 billion.

In other words, it’s a bit late to start worrying about climate change. Why do big corporations and special interests insist we worry? Because they want the next Big Thing.

There, Winston Churchill had it nailed when he defined American culture. Pursuing the Big Thing we often start with the Wrong Thing, until finally, all of our experiments having crumbled, we go back to what would have worked all along.

A Depression-era train between Chicago and Seattle, the Yellowstone Comet was a joint operation of the Northern Pacific and Burlington railroads. Splitting at Billings, Montana, the train offered access to the park via either Gardiner or Cody, Wyoming/Runte collection

In 1925, a slower, less consumptive pace of life still worked for America. Then came the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Political leaders, to say nothing of corporate leaders, told Americans to respond by thinking big—big dams, big power projects, corporate farming, and of course bigger and faster roads.

Suddenly, the land was just background noise. What many defined as progress no longer respected modesty, as in a simpler way of doing things, with the emphasis on preserving the opportunity.

The National Parks

In grandfather’s day, the national parks were themselves exhibits of cultural modesty. Take Yellowstone. The patient traveler went there on one of five different railroads, two with branch lines directly to the park.

On arrival, railroad passengers switched to a motor coach. Buses loaded and unloaded in less than a minute, three or four people sharing a separate door and seat.

Most buses, carrying between 11 and 14 people, easily carried their luggage, too. The driver, often a college student, gave commentary along the way.

Still throughout the 1930s the system thrived, eventually to include 325 buses meeting the trains at Gardiner, West Yellowstone, Gallatin Gateway, Red Lodge, Cody, and Victor, Idaho. Not until the 1950s was the system in decline, ultimately to disappear with the falloff in rail passenger service leading to the creation of Amtrak in 1971.

By then, environmentalists themselves had totally forgotten all that railroads had done for the parks—and the American land. And no wonder: By 1971, American culture had awarded the country to the automobile. Most in Congress, to say nothing of railroad executives, expected Amtrak to be gone within five years.

What saved Amtrak? Immediately, the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Maybe (and perish the thought!) America would run out of gas for cars.

Comes now the National Park Service to warn the public about the consequences of climate change. In that case, what is the Park Service proposing we do about it? Another ban on plastic straws?

Agreed, more shuttles for the parks make sense. However, if boarding takes place at the boundary, sorry, but it’s a novelty. Our environmental impact remains the trip itself.

In Europe, the point is not to need a car in the first place. In America, to say we left our car at home likely means we flew and rented one at the airport. Either way, we then expect, on arriving at the park, not to be inconvenienced by our choice.

Peak Railroad Access to Yellowstone, late 1920s through 1930s 3. Victor, Idaho, Yellowstone via Jackson Hole, Union Pacific Railroad (UP) 4, West Yellowstone, Montana, UP 5. Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Milwaukee Road 6. Gardiner, Montana, Northern Pacific Railway (NP) 7. Red Lodge, Montana, Yellowstone via Beartooth Highway, NP 8. Cody, Wyoming, Yellowstone via Cody Road, Burlington Route 9. Lander, Wyoming, Yellowstone via Jackson Hole, Chicago & North Western Railway

Yellowstone 2027

If the national parks seem besieged, blame our demand for convenience, not climate change. There again, only America would accept the idea of surrounding the national parks with parking lots as a solution for too many cars.

What will Yellowstone look like ten years from now? Probably little different from today. Pursuing true reform, the National Park Service would need the authority to modify cultural behavior, starting with the right to insist that every visitor pay for his actual impact on the park.

Might the Park Service legitimately, i.e., effectively, do something to avert climate change? Again, only if it had the authority to influence our behavior as citizens. By the time we become visitors it’s too late.

"No, you can’t bring a 50-foot mobile home inside a national park," the entrance gate ranger says. "It requires too many burdens on the infrastructure that the park (and the world) can ill afford."

It’s so much easier banning plastic straws. The point is that even in the National Park Service, growth—the next Big Thing—is everywhere assumed and coddled. That’s what culture means.

Train time at Gardiner, Montana, circa June 1940. 300 arriving college students board waiting Yellowstone buses for transport to their summer jobs/Runte collection

For the sake of argument, say we have assumed a different culture. We have gone to Congress and suggested the following: For taking back their passenger trains, Congress will assure the railroads a reasonable profit. During World War II, the formula in most defense industries was cost plus 7 percent. Use that here. We’ve spent billions on wind farms and solar power plants. We need to invest again in good trains.

Miraculously, Congress gets the railroads to agree. With that, the National Park Service reacquires the cultural authority to pick up where the country left off in 1940. For the first time in nearly a century, visitors arriving at Yellowstone National Park are encouraged to come by train, once more to be met by classic, side-boarding yellow buses for transport within the park itself.

Naturally, someone tries to substitute corporate buses—single isles and single doors. Climb the steps while everyone else waits in line. But the Park Service stands its ground. The classic buses are more people-friendly. What’s more, they load and unload in a flash. Just ask the good folks at Glacier.

In Yellowstone, restoring the system to full operation today would of course require a fleet well above the 325 buses present in the 1930s. The point remains not to change the design. As in Glacier, the buses, while remaining classic, would include the latest updates and safety features. Everyone rides in absolute comfort. They just no longer ride alone.

And so, by 2027, the fee schedule in Yellowstone might look something like this. Although private vehicles are still allowed, the shift is noticeably to full accountability for their impact on the park.

Welcome to Yellowstone National Park

Seven-Day Fee Schedule (includes Grand Teton National Park)

Annual Passes (365 days) good in any national park

Yellow Bus Pass, Good for Seven Days: Individual $100; Family (up to five) $200.

Annual Yellow Bus Pass: $500 individual, $1,000 family. As applicable, includes transportation to and from all trains.

Bicycles: Free

Motorcycles (muffled only): $150, good for seven days. Annual pass: $1,000

Private cars and light trucks: $300, good for seven days. Annual pass: $1,500

SUVs and trucks over 14 feet: $350, good for seven days. Annual pass: $2,000

Trailers, including towing vehicle: $15 per foot, good for seven days. Annual pass: $3,000

Mobile homes, including any trailing vehicle: $15 per foot, good for seven days. Annual pass: $3,000

Commercial buses: $125 per passenger. Annual pass: $10,000

Senior discount, Yellow Bus pass only: 25 percent

Warning: Yellow buses set the pace

Passing a stopped or moving Yellow Bus: $1,000 fine

Granted, all of us could object to this fee schedule. But what in fact would we be objecting to? Likely the price, and not the necessity of getting tough on motor vehicles, which we Americans refuse to acknowledge.

Up through World War II, here for the season of 1925, Union Pacific service to West Yellowstone included two daily trains/Runte collection

There our ability to manipulate the argument has been extremely well rehearsed. It’s not that we’re opposed to paying more for parks; we are rather thinking about the poor. Oh, sure we are.

In that case, we should absolutely love trains and Yellow Buses. Think who might work in the parks again without needing to have a car. Meanwhile, those seeking greater privacy and/or luxury should expect to pay for the privilege, just as they do at the opera house or the ballpark.

97 Percent

It’s still not what we want to hear, is it? And so we muddle the issue with statistics allowing still more delay. Take those 97 percent of scientists who allegedly agree on climate change. Still the more important statistic is the 97 percent of Americans tied to their cars like an umbilical cord.

Put up or shut up. Again, what should be our plan? And if the car—green, driverless, or rudderless-- isn’t at the center of it, how will our plan ever work?

After all, the car itself is but the tip of the iceberg. Since I was a kid, every park road my family traveled in 1959 has been liberally widened and straightened. No park should change for the visitor. Rather, visitors should change for the parks.

The beauty of arriving by train was to make the parks everyone’s first priority. If you will, the train filtered out the indifferent traveler, for whom even a park was just another place.

Added benefits of restoring that system would include:

  • 1. Good jobs. Ideally, most bus drivers would be seasonal interpreters, now with a real opportunity for Park Service employment. No tipping allowed, of course.
  • 2. An American renaissance rebuilding our railroads to accommodate modern passenger trains. More good jobs.
  • 3. A less consumptive, frantic, and more inviting atmosphere inside the parks—and country. Animal deaths (and human ones) should dramatically drop, as well. Pass a yellow bus? Pay a $1,000 fine. It’s a school zone, folks, not a race track. But thank you for contributing to the backlog.
  • 4. A legitimate response, as opposed to a faux response, proving our commitment to the environment.

Fine Tuning

  • 1. Agreed, no one should have to wait in line. In peak season, this would undoubtedly require several thousand buses, but again, think of the cars they would displace.
  • 2. Buses meeting the trains would go straight to the hotels and campgrounds; all other buses would do a circuit. Stop, see a feature, return to the next bus and resume your tour.
  • 3. As the season in one park begins winding down, buses (and trains) migrate to other parks as needed, for example, from Yellowstone to Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Mojave Preserve, and Mojave Trails National Monument (Historic Route 66).

Can’t work? But that’s just the point—it did, and beautifully. Perhaps, but there were fewer people in the 1930s, and most coming to the parks were well-to-do. It could not possibly work today!

It remains Winston Churchill’s point. Lest we Americans be saddled with a proven idea, we would prefer ripping it to shreds. Numbers don’t tie our hands. Culture ties our hands. We Americans just don’t like being told what to do.

No doubt, the system described above was accidental—part necessity and part good luck. Because railroads needed to follow natural contours they taught Americans to respect the land. Because the automobile had yet to overwhelm the land, another modest technology, the Yellow Bus, was itself able to complement the railroads inside the national parks.

The automobile finally sent discipline packing, inviting terms like cul-de-sac, strip mall, and sprawl. Can we rescue the car? Perhaps. But think if by succeeding all we do is perpetuate our cultural penchant for sprawl.

What then? The wind turbine? The solar panel? Europe is filled with electric trains. Unfortunately, they again are not our model. America’s argument for renewable energy remains development. We are not in a war against carbon, but rather against the fear of having to do without. Every Big Thing in America starts with our right to grow.

Were it really about carbon, growth would cease. The national parks especially would be the benefactors of what protects and does not destroy.

Grandfather rests his case. 

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Comments

I disagree, and your argument does not make sense.  Of course people like to drive, I never said they didn't.  It was just that there was no good clean options at the time.  Now there is.  That is the difference.


"Of course people like to drive."

Agreed. And those "people" include environmentalists. As for "options," Europe preserved them all--railroads included. Why didn't the United States? Now environmentalists are forced to "accept" only what the culture offers. Now environmentalists are forced to sound like everyone else--What is, is. If the national parks are overcrowded, we have to solve the problem with what "is." And so we build another parking lot, protesting we have no other choice.

Better said, the choice we need is the one we don't like--giving up our cars. And so we made sure our trains looked "hopeless," running them Soviet-style, aka, Amtrak. Switzerland? Germany? Austria? Spain? England? Italy? France? Not "relevant" to us, we say. They're small countries, and we're a huge one. Funny that no one in the United States protests how long it takes to cross the country by car.

Five days is the fastest I've done it. Even Amtrak can do it in three. The point is: We don't want any other option, except the airplane. The "difference" is a lack of cultural maturity. We could save the parks, but why bother? So a reservation system it will be. Like the promise now of "driverless" cars, we will do anything not to give up our privacy (selfishness?), which remains the "option" we prefer.


Again, Runte starts with, and focuses on, Yellowstone while ignoring Yosemite because it doesn't fit his narrative.

As for buses, he falls short in not talking about hybrid-drive buses, which already existed in 2017 (Allison, a GM subdivision, a huge manufacturer of them), let alone electric-only one. Per Rebecca, running smaller buses more frequently is the answer.


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