The Impact of Development of Cities to The Environment in Reference to The Yellowstone National Park

Urbanization typically has negative effects on natural parks, and nature in general, with trees and sometimes even entire forests being cut down to have houses and buildings built.The world is becoming more urbanized as time goes by, and the majority of people in the world today are urban residents now.Since urbanizing Yellowstone National Park destroys homes for animals, kills plants and trees, and increases pollution to the nature around the park and in the park, urbanizing Yellowstone should be strictly off limits, and the preservation of the park should be of great concern.

Homes are essential for the lives of every living thing, and animals’ homes being lost must be a crucial consideration when urbanizing a national park. These destructions of these habitats have been lethal to animals during the urbanization of Yellowstone National Park. According to Habitat Loss by the National Wildlife Federation, under “What are the main drivers of habitat loss in Yellowstone?” is stated “Land Conversion for development of Yellowstone: The conversion of lands that once provided wildlife habitat to housing developments, road, office parks, strip malls, parking lots, and industrial sites continues, even during the current economic crisis.” The Wildlife Federation is essentially stating that the country continues to urbanize our natural habitats for development, and Yellowstone National Park continues to follow this tradition. Although one might suggest that Yellowstone is still home to many animals, this number continues to decrease and will continue to decrease over time. The homes and habitats being lost due to urbanization in Yellowstone National Park is very clearly unethical and immoral and is one of the many, many reasons that the artificial development of the park needs to come to a halt.

The destruction of trees and plants is also very harmful to the Earth and the surrounding environment of Yellowstone National Park. Figure 1 from the article Urbanization is good for pests, bad for trees by Steve Frank shows the effects of urbanization on greenery and trees on a city around Yellowstone. The lack of the color of green after urbanization is extremely worrisome, as this has a major effect on pollution and the environment in general. Pollution will be increased due to the industrial nature of urbanization and the lack of pure, clean oxygen because of the absence of trees. Referring again to the article by Steve Frank, he states “Trees cool the environment by shading houses, roads, and sidewalks that absorb heat.” It could be said that trees are non-essential to Yellowstone, but they provide extra oxygen and cool our environment to cancel the effects of global warming, so they are non only essential, but crucial to our environment. The motives to preserve trees in and near Yellowstone is apparent, so urbanizing the park should not be considered, as this has a direct effect on the trees in the park.

The preservation of the park is just as crucial as aiming to decrease pollution near the park, as the park needs to come to a halt with urbanization. Yellowstone National Park has already been considered a priority to most, as the article Preserving the Park by Oh Ranger states “Since its founding as the first national park in 1872, Yellowstone has been a pioneer post, a testing ground for new concepts and a data center for research into the inexact science of preserving wild lands for public use. Initially, Congress did not even appropriate funds to mark the boundaries. Superintendent Nathaniel P. Langford and several successors worked, single-handedly and without salary, to protect the vast wilderness and its visitors from poachers, vandals, raiders, thieves and troublesome mountain ramblers, but the task proved overwhelming.” The park also needs protection from urbanization, as the pollution and the obsession over industrializing near the park is apparent.

Urbanization in Yellowstone would undoubtedly drastically increase pollution in the surrounding environment of Yellowstone National Park and the Earth as a whole. The article Urbanization and Air Pollution: Then and Now by EOS expresses “Air pollution often plagues industrialized cities, particularly during their early development, which means that Yellowstone would be in great danger if it were to urbanize even more”. The killing off of trees combined with the industrial efforts of Yellowstone National Park could possibly mean that pollution would increase at a rate higher than ever before recorded near the park.

Yellowstone, rather than being polluted more and killing off animal habitats, needs to put a halt to its nearby urbanization and must preserve its great greenery to maintain its beautiful natural sights.