Dear editor:

Update: Still no rain gutters on Tenement Row (formerly Officers Row), the employee housing south of the Visitor Center at Yellowstone Park headquarters in Mammoth. 

This matter was first brought to the public’s attention in the “150 Years of Yellowstone” video series, Fort Yellowstone edition, 2022. In the YouTube video we see the National Park Service has identified a funding source for new gutter. The gutter’s importance is mentioned. 

Update: Pitching my idea of transforming Yellowstone employee housing to visitor lodging to Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso drew off topic responses. Rep. Harriet Hageman never responded. Seriously gals, please think the plan through. This will bring tremendous revenue for the state of Wyoming, at the same time eliminate a large portion of “maintenance backlog” in Yellowstone. Please work for Wyoming.

Per the rain gutters, the National Park Service astonishingly continues to demonstrate their ineptness and unwillingness to properly — and competently — maintain the park. In the care of a contracted concession operator bound to a rigid maintenance regime, the rain gutters — thus building decay — would not be an issue. 

The $500 per month NPS employee rent will be replaced with $2,500 per night for visitors looking for a stone chalet with elk on the manicured lawn, kinda like the one the park superintendent currently occupies with the barbecue grill on the porch exposed to bears. With heads on beds revenue from hundreds of converted housing units, Park County Travel Council could retain a CEO by doubling or tripling salary.

County commissioners: The lack of private vehicle registration in the park is still a matter.  The federal law is 36 CFR 4.2(a)(b).

Commissioners, please contact Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly and remind him of our infrastructure needs here in Park County, and how Wyoming pays school tuition to Gardiner, Montana on behalf of Yellowstone kids as per law. Ya’ll can’t sit passively by and believe Sholly has taken care of the license plates and temporary work permits. There are laws being broken in Yellowstone, and as a result, Park County is losing revenue. Please work for Park County.

Recently, I sent license plate pictures to a commissioner.

Media. Obligingly forwarding the NPS narrative of overworked and understaffed NPS workers is not really news, it is propaganda. The following is one example dispelling this fake news narrative:  

On Memorial Day, YNP Lake ambulance transported a patient to Livingston Health Care.  The two EMS workers enjoyed a sit down lunch for 45 minutes at a Livingston, Montana deli and even gave a tour of the ambulance. Now 112 miles from their Lake station, this dilly-dally duo were no longer first responders, but rather, eventual responders. No staffing shortages in the emergency department, as entitled government break time is more important than public safety.

Confirmation pictures have been sent to a Powell Tribune editor.  

Media continued: More wildland habitat succumbed to the new wastewater treatment facility in Mammoth. With Superintendent Sholly’s nonsustainable, brazen new housing initiative comes new plumbing piped into the new lagoons. There is no new visitor lodging in Mammoth, only new employee housing. The latest habitat loss is directly attributed to park employees.  

When putting together a story on visitors loving Yellowstone to death, bear in mind NPS and concession employees disproportionately have a far greater impact on the ecosystem than visitors.

With more zealous superintendents yet unborn, what sort of urban development sprawl will Yellowstone have in few hundred years?  

The sprawl won’t be for visitors or even be their fault. It will be the fault of the media for not dogging the sanctimonious NPS. Please work objectively.

Steve Torrey

Cody