People are drawn to water, and there's so much water in Yellowstoneâeven though
we are kind of in a high desert environmentâit is everywhere. So, rivers,
lakes, hundreds of waterfalls, and then the big things that people really come
to see: geysers and hot springs.
It could be solid or gas. It can flow very quietly and slowly. It can be loud
and roaring and raging and fast.
And then you have Yellowstone Lake, which is like an ocean in the middle of our continent.
The variety of water we have here, I think it really makes Yellowstone pretty special.
Fishing is obviously a really, really popular thing in Yellowstone, and people
come and fish these riversâboth because they're beautiful rivers to fish, but
they're cold waters fed by mountain snows and they contain native trout that
depend on cold oxygen-rich water. Yellowstone is a stronghold for native
Yellowstone cutthroat trout, but Yellowstone is a stronghold for lots of
aquatic organisms. Not just trout, but four species of native amphibians that
are widespread throughout this place. Water is important for loons that are
uncommon in this region. We know that beaver and moose, we know that grizzly
bears, we know that elk, we know that bison all use shallow surface water
habitats on a regular basis. I was drawn to work with water because I come from
the desert where it's sparse and it's very little of it, and so you really
notice just the magnetic nature of water how dependent life is to it and how much
it's drawn to being toward water.
Yesterday we were working on a special project that was related to a mine clean-up
outside of Yellowstone National Park, so I was helping to collect water
samples and do water chemistry measurements to see how the cleanup was
affecting water quality running into the park. Yesterday, we're working on Soda
Butte Creek, which is a really interesting tributary that comes into
the park at its northeast boundary. Soda Butte Creek was at one time one of the
most contaminated rivers entering a national park in the US, and an
interesting reclamation project spearheaded by collaboration between the
Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the National Park Service
led to a clean-up effort that removed toxins that had the potential to enter
Yellowstone National Park. That clean-up was successful and we've been working on
a water quality project that demonstrates that conditions in Soda
Butte Creek that flows into Lamar River and ultimately the Yellowstone River
have been cleaned.
Water's life, and water really drives the system. That's definitely something of
interest for our scientists because with climate change, water patterns may change.
Snow and rain patterns may change. In the Rockies we store most of our water as
snow. It's delivered all winter-long, and then released slowly through the early
summer. So, changes in snowpack will lead to changes in water storage, and
therefore, changes in river flows.
Freshwater habitatsâand in particular shallow wetlands and pondsâare things
that are the most vulnerable to a change in climate. And so, we should do
everything we can to both understand, but protect, remaining habitats.
Those healthy rivers that are flowing out of the park are also providing a
great resource downstream for everything from farmers and ranches, cities, towns.
You know, we need water, and so having these healthy waterways in a national
park is actually providing a lot for the folks downstream.
It's kind of fun when you're by a river in Yellowstone to think about the
journey that that water will take: where it has been, where it has come from, and
where it will go.