Levka#ClimateCrisis #YellowstoneNationalPark
"Pages devoted to climate change have disappeared from key Yellowstone guidebook
The latest Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook lacks climate change section for the first time in nearly two decades.
Yellowstone National Park visitors over the past few years have been asking park guide Leo Leckie why some Douglas-fir trees between Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower junction are turning red. Their change in color was clearly visible, but the cause wasn’t as apparent.
'You could see the rust-like color on the trees where you never saw that before,' said Leckie, who works for Gardiner-based tour company Yellowstone Wolf Tracker.
Leckie turned to the Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook, a compendium of Yellowstone information published annually by the National Park Service. He learned that bark beetles are attacking the trees, and that a warming climate is likely making their assaults more frequent and more severe. 'The resource handbook is always on hand, said Leckie, who has worked in the park since 2010. 'It is the tool that I refer to when clients inevitably ask a question that I can’t answer.'
Last year, the entry that linked beetle infestation to warmer, drier weather disappeared, along with the entire 13-page climate change section. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the handbook does not feature a single chapter dedicated to climate change. The omission occurred as the Trump administration has pressured national parks around the country to remove information on climate change, slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans."
