Thursday, May 17, 2012

Delaware vs. Yellowstone: A Tale of the Tape

http://www.hotelcasperwyoming.com/yellowstone_national_park.html


Why do I want to experience Yellowstone National Park and all it has to offer?  Let's compare Delaware to Yellowstone...

Area of land: Delaware covers 2,491 square miles; Yellowstone 3,468 square miles (YNP is 1.4 times the size of the entire state of Delaware

Highest Point

Delaware, Ebright Azimuth 448 feet
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=2893

Yellowstone, Eagle Peak 11,358 feet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eagle_Peak_Yellowstone_National_Park.jpg





Geothermal Features

Delaware

Yellowstone over 10,000
http://exogenerian.tumblr.com/post/12824713955/onceuponawildflower-yellowstone-thermal-pool


Geysers

Delaware
Yellowstone over 300
http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/geyser/Interesting
Animals

Delaware
http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/StaffReport/archives/2011/12/26/chicken-poop-power

Yellowstone


http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/wildlife/moose.php
http://www.imagesbyslwalker.com/portfolio.html

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/mammals/mountaingoat/Page.htm
http://www.examiner.com/article/yellowstone-s-grizzly-bears-and-other-wildlife-at-risk-from-climate-change

http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/wildlife/mountain_lions.php


Scenic Vistas

Delaware 
http://www.worleyparsons.com/Projects/Pages/DelawareCityRefineryRepoweringProject.aspx

Yellowstone

http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/blogs/?pubcontentid=4819&reporttype=full


Trout

Delaware

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/fish/image_gallery/details.php?image_id=719

Yellowstone

http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wsc.htm


In summary, why is it important to keep Yellowstone's fish and wildlife populations intact and healthy?  Because people have a tendency to screw up everything we touch, it's in our nature.  Yellowstone is one of the last nearly untouched and intact ecosystems left on the Earth.  It's a  wonderland with over half of the world's geothermal features located within its boundaries.  The three hundred geysers found in the park?  Yeah, they account for over 2/3 of all the geysers on Earth!  Where else are you going to go to see grizzly bears, elk, moose, mountain goats, pronghorns, mountain lions, big horn sheep, and on and on?  Where can you go and fish for the native arctic grayling, westslope cutthroat trout, Yellowstone cutthroat trout, and the non-native brook trout, rainbow trout, brown trout, lake trout?  Certainly not in Delaware.

Humans try to make things better.  We can't help it.  Nature has it figured out pretty well though.  

I've dreamed of visiting this hallowed ground and fishing in one of the last, nearly intact, natural ecosystems on the Earth.  I want to experience animals living as closely as they can to being unaltered by humans and their impacts.  I would love to see and hear elk off bugling in the distance, grizzly bears foraging for food (from a safe distance), bison traveling across the grasslands in a huge herd.  I look forward to hearing coyotes howl at the moon after a long day hiking through the park and fishing streams we cross.  Most importantly, I really, really want to fish in the park.  I want to catch cut throats, I want to catch rainbows, I want to catch browns.  I want to stand in the middle of a giant blanket hatch on the Madison river while trout rise all around me and I search frantically in my fly box for the one fly I haven't tried yet since all the others have been refused.  I want to splash big foam hoppers close to the bank as non-discriminating cutties rise with reckless abandon to completely hoover my offering.  I want to embark on a hike at daylight to reach some distant lake that few anglers see each year.  I want to take in all the beauty that is Yellowstone National Park.  And I want to photograph and maintain notes so that when I return I can share it all with you.

Disclaimer:  “This is my submission for the Trout Unlimited, Simms, the Yellowstone Park Foundation and the Outdoor Blogger Network – Blogger Tour 2012 contest.” 

4 comments:

  1. "Because people have a tendency to screw up everything we touch, it's in our nature". Well said. Even with the best of intentions our efforts are generally folly. It's often too late to do anything that even seems positive. That's why this Laker problem in Yellowstone seems right -- it doesn't feel too late. It feels like it's late in the game, but we still have a shot at winning.

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  2. Steve,
    Exactly. Browns, rainbows and brook trout while non-native are not having quite the impact the lake trout are. Squash the biggest issues first, then more on from there.

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  3. Hey watch out on putting my state down. I would like to point out that Delaware does have mountain lions.

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    1. Lee,
      I like living in Delaware. In terms of outdoor opportunities, while there are nice things to do in Delaware, I would imagine that it does not compare to Yellowstone.

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