A new article, rich in narrative and photographs, documents the struggles, successes and setbacks experienced by the diverse and often rare natural inhabitants of the unique Yellowstone Park habitat. Although stories abound of ranchers and visitors being attacked and even killed by animals including wolves and bears, the truth behind the statistics is strikingly and significantly different than the headline grabbing, skewed and mostly false stories.  An example from this article: “…In the 144 years since Yellowstone was established, more people have died there of drowning and of scalding in thermal pools, and of suicide, than have been killed by bears. Almost as many people have died from lightning strikes. Two people have been killed by bison…”  This first national park, created in 1872 , remained an unregulated environment where many species were relentlessly slaughtered for profit by commercial hunters, until well after the “National Park Service replaced the Army in 1916” as the managers of a vast area with a directive to protect both wildlife and human visitors. The struggle between the wildlife, the steadily increasing number of park visitors, and the use for profit by ranchers, continues to this day. This national treasure desperately needs an actionable plan to create and maintain an irreplaceable ecosystem where human intervention does not destroy the future survival of already threatened species and habitat.

• Yellowstone: Wild Heart of a Continent. It’s more than just a park. It’s a place where, 140 years ago, we began to negotiate a peace treaty with the wild.