Yellowstone changes concerning

Rapidly increasing pressures from human beings and climate change are transforming Yellowstone National Park in a worrying way.

A biennial report released Dec. 10 by the Yellowstone Center for Resources noted that the nearly 150-year-old national park is in a drought condition due to decreased precipitation and snowpack, and that 18 fires—six caused by humans—burned more than 5,600 acres of the park last year, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

With the number of Yellowstone visitors anticipated to increase, more human-caused fires—as well as a decreasing number of amphibians, which are sensitive to dry conditions—are among the changes predicted.