09/06/2026
I don’t do political posts here. Today I’m making an exception.
This opinion piece by Loren Blackford, executive director of the Sierra Club, appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle this week.
You can agree or disagree with its politics. But there is something larger here that matters deeply to THE REAL YELLOWSTONE™.
Our national parks are not simply a collection of beautiful places.
It is people.
For generations, rangers, maintenance crews, interpreters, firefighters, dispatchers, scientists, road crews, administrative staff, seasonal employees, concessioners, families and many others have devoted careers and lives to caring for places that belong to all of us.
I grew up among those people.
My father spent his career as a Yellowstone ranger and park manager. My mother built a life alongside him. Our family lived inside Yellowstone, and many of the people whose stories THE REAL YELLOWSTONE™ is working to preserve devoted decades to Yellowstone, other parks and public lands.
They weren’t Democrats or Republicans.
They were and are public servants!
That distinction matters to me.
There should be room for vigorous disagreement about budgets, policies, management decisions and the future of our public lands. But the National Park Service—and the people charged with protecting these extraordinary places—should never become collateral damage in our political battles.
Yellowstone has existed through presidents of both parties and generations of Americans with very different ideas about government.
It belongs to all of us.
And caring for it is not a partisan value.
It is an American one.
