Environmental Science Project

The Creation of Grand Teton National Park

Evolution of a Dream

Cathie Harmer

&

Franchesca Martinez

• All information & photographs are compliments of:

• the National Park Service (NPS)

• The initial Grand Teton National Park—set aside by an act of Congress in 1929

• The Jackson Hole National Monument—decreed by Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt through presidential proclamation in 1949

• Visionaries who believed that the greatest good for the Teton landscape was to create a "public park or pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people."

• Robert Righter, author of Crucible for Conservation: The Struggle for Grand Teton National Park, asserts that what these visionaries achieved was "perhaps the most notable conservation victory of the twentieth century.“(NPS.gov; 2000)

• Significant conservation issues include: grazing, brucellosis, winter use, open space, fire management, wolf reintroduction, and water and air quality monitoring.

• The park is 45 miles in length from north to south, 26 miles maximum width. Grand Teton is famous for spectacular mountain scenery and wildlife. Park boundaries include approximately 310,000 acres, 485 square miles.

• Teton Range

An active fault-block mountain range, 40 miles long (65 km), 7-9 miles wide (11-14.5 km). Highest peak: Grand Teton, elevation 13,770 feet (4,198 m). Eight peaks over 12,000 ft (3,658 m) in elevation.

• 22 species of rodents

• 17 species of carnivores (black and grizzly bears)

• 6 species of hoofed mammals

• 3 species of rabbits/hares

• 6 species of bats

• 4 species of reptiles (none venomous)

• 6 species of amphibians

• 16 species of fish

• 300+ species of birds

• Numerous invertebrates (no venomous spiders)

• Flora: 7 species of coniferous trees

900+ species of flowering plants

• Granite and gneiss composing the core of the Teton Range are some of the oldest rocks in North America, but the...