Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources The History of NPS Science · and Management The Absaroka Volcanic Province The Fastest Falcon Volume 6 Number 2 Sce11es from rhe "visirors pleosuring ground." NPS photo archives. Rhetoric or Reality? It's always interesting for an insider to the public which have garnered the most the Service are sometimes accused of hear someone else, someone like histo­ public and political attention in the past ~'crying wolf" about declining rian Dick Sellars, comment about how two decades, not any apparent lack of biodiversity or threats to cultural re­ Yellowstone appears from a distance of research and scientific decision making. sources and the need for more money, time, space, or in this case both. As he If parks are clean and rangers are smiling, staff, and time to manage such threats. talked with Yellowstone Science about can the resources really be in danger of Are scientists their own worst critics in his documentary history of National Park irreparable decay or extinction? decrying the state of their ranks and Service science and resource manage­ Interesting, as well, is park ranger Brian programs? Is it a matter of different ment, I had a sense that some things had Suderman' s read of Sellars' history. His perceptions-even between park rang­ changed very little, in public and bureau­ only criticism focuses on Sellars' failure ers and researchers-of what it means to cratic attitudes. Our fundamental values to credit rangers with a stronger role in conserve park resources? Or have scien­ as an agency and nation still strongly lean preserving resources through their pri­ tists failed to convincingly explain, to toward just what the title of Sellars' book mary assigned duties oflaw enforcement, the public as well as to other NPS em­ itnplies: preserving nature in the national visitor contact, and interpretation. ployees, the seriousness of resource parks... a fairly static condition in which Webster says to preserve is "to guard, to threats and just what future improve­ if all looks well, perhaps it is enough to keep safe from injury, harm, or destruc­ ment are needed to achieve "scientific" satisfy our constituents, the American tion; to keep up and reserve for personal resource management? landowners, and park visitors from other or special use ... " Certainly the park Such questions come more easily than lands. rangers of our history and present do so. answers ... so we continue to present fea­ Those of us prone to such contempla­ But it is common for the scientists and tures on research and preservation ac­ tions wonder about the popular image of professional resource managers in the tivities in Yellowstone, hoping to spread our parks and the friendly park rangers, NPS to say that we are a long way from knowledge and provoke some thought which usually rankhigh ifnot atop the list understanding and embracing science in among readers about what it means to of public agencies and their servants. It's our mission and our daily work. Is this preserve nature and culture in the decripitroads and facilities that serve rhetoric or reality? Voices in and outside Yellowstone. SCM Yellowstone Science Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources Volume6 Number2 Spring 1998 Table of Contents The Geologic History of the Absaroka Volcanic 2 Province Yellowstone's well-known features often obscure the older history of a vast volcanic field notable in its own right. A geologist sheds light on explosive events that rocked the landscape 50 million years ago. by Margaret M. Hiza The Evolution of NPS Science and Natural Resource 8 Management: Rhetoric versus Reality The National Park Service has a long record of stewardship, but has also tended toward tourism development while science programs languished. A historian argues that scientific resource management was -and is still-lacking in parks. Editor Interview with Richard W. Sellars Sue Consolo-Murphy Art Director Greater Yellowstone Peregrines 16 Renee Evanoff Once one of the most endangered birds on the continent, this fast-flying Associate Editor predator has made a remarkable recovery inside and beyond Yellowstone's Sarah Broadbent boundaries. Printing by Terry McEneaney, Bill Heinrich, and Bob Oakleaf Artcraft Inc. Bozeman, Montana Review 22 Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History by Richard West Sellars. Reviewed by Brian Suderman News and Notes 24 On the cover: A photo ofa El Nifio makes for Dry Snow Year • Lynx to be Listed Under Endangered Species peregrine falcon in flight. Act• Experts Discuss New Zealand Mud Snails• Study on Cougar-Wolf Photo courtesy Tom Interactions • Satisfied Anglers Maechtle. Above: a group Yi!ll~1:v~to~e~'$~iJ~-'~~ i~- published qri'attei:!Y;' an-d:'s~bnn'ssions are'w~lcoµte trOm all investigators ·of young peregrine falcons conductin£:_ ~~31 ~se~h _i~ the Yello:vstone area., Editorial correspondence should be sent _to the' in a hacking box before re­ Editor, -YeltO'Wstone ScienCe, Yellow_s~11e _Center for Resources, P_.O. _Box 168, -Yellowstone lease into Yellowstone Na­ > ..• .Nationa!Park, WY82190. 1 tional Park. Photo courtesy Tue-, opillions expi~sse,d.Jn_- Yellow,;tonti ~ci_ence ar_e th,~ authors <ind lllay' n,~t reflect either NatiOnal Paf~ Seryice policy or th,e y_ie:w_ss)f ~e YeUowstone Center__fo(Reso~ces. Bob Oakleaf See related __ _COf>¥11ght 4' 1998,._ th,e Y_ell,(l:WSton,e_As_~ociation for Natural Scie_nce, History & Education. story on page 16. Support0 foi Yell()wstone Sciencejs pn;vicled,_by,-tlie Yello',\lstone A_ss_ociation for Natunil Science, :Efistory & Educati~n,, _a_n~)l--P~fit_~ducati~n_al organization d_edicated to serving the park and its _Visito[s. For m?Ie infonn_ati_on_ about the'_:Y:~n~wstonC AssOCi:ition, including membership, write to I:\ _ ,-P_.o. B,ox:117_~ Yeiio\Vsfone Nation!ll Park, WY 8219~. ,';ti, _Yellowston'e'Science is,printed on ~ecycled paper with aliilseed oil~biised ink. Spring 1998 The Geologic History of the Absaroka Volcanic Province By Margaret M. Hiza Yellowstone National Park was estab­ to the region; many of the rocks in the of highly potassic volcanic rocks, first lished 125 years ago, primarily because park formed from volcanism that oc­ found and described in Yellowstone by unique geologic features of the curred 50 million years earlier. This ear­ Joseph Paxton Iddings in 1895. Also Yellowstoneregion are among the world's lier eruptive activity produced another uniquely preserved within the Absaroka greatest treasures. The high plateau voluminous deposit of volcanic rocks, province an~ nearly the entire volcanic rimmed by mountains, the world's larg­ the Absaroka Volcanic Province. The edifices oflargestratovolcanoes together est geyser field, and the altered yellow province is the largest volcanic field of with proximal and distal volcanic depos­ rocks of the Grand Canyon of the its age in the western United States, en­ its, well exposed in a terrain dissected by 2 2 Yellowstone are but a few features in the compassing 9,000 mi (23,000 km ) of glaciers. These ancient volcanoes are simi­ park which are the direct result of volca­ the greater Yellowstone region and lar in form to Mt. Rainier, Mt. Fuji, Mt. nic activity. Many readers are aware that roughly one-third of Yellowstone Na­ Kilimanjaro, and other modem stratovol­ part of the park is actually a large caldera tional Park (Fig. 1). Volcanological and canoes, but because they are old and that erupted violently only 600,000 years geochemical features within these older inactive, yet well-preserved with can­ ago, in one of the largest eruptions known volcanic deposits are not only unique to yons cut through them by glacial activity, in recent geologic history; it may still the region, but to the world. they afford geologists a unique opportu­ erupt again. This young caldera also pro­ The Absaroka Volcanic Province was nity to study the inner plumbing system vides the heat source responsible for the a region of interest for early prospectors of volcanoes (Figs. 2 and 3). Many of the largest geyser field in the world, and the who mined gold and silver associated exposed features of these stratovolca­ numerous hot springs of the Yellowstone with old volcanic centers. It is a region noes were described during the Hayden region. This heat comes from magma­ famous to geologists for the first recog­ Survey of the early 1870s. They were molten rock below the surface. nition and naming of the absarokite­ studied in detail by Thomas Jaggar and However, volcanic activity is not new shosonite-banakiteseries. This is a group J.P. Iddings during a subsequent expedi- 2 Yellowstone Science Figure 1. Map showing the dis­ lion by Alexander Hague and are the Absaroka Volcanic Province tribution ofvolcanic rocks ofthe origin for volcanological terms now used AbsarokaProvince in the greater the world over. Yellowstone region. One example is the "laccolith" of Mount Figure 2. Photo ofRampart vol­ Holmes, which is the first of its kind ever cano east of Trident plateau described (Fig. 4 ). Preserved within these showing re1nnant dipping lava volcanic deposits is a world-class conti­ flows on either side of volcanic nental faun al assemblage, including early edifice. Canyons which dissect primate species found nowhere else on II Yellowstone the volcano are the result ofgla­ the planet. Entire ancient forests from a National ' ~, 11 Pfilk ciation. period of earth's history which was one .t, Figure 3. Photo ofElectric Peak of the warmest known are also fossilized Idaho : I as seenfrom the su1nmitofGreys within the large volumes of ash and coarse 1' Peak in northern Yellowstone sediment. These deposits record a period Park. Electric Peak is a portion of dramatic climate change to the cooler 1-------;:.-I .