By Todd Wilkinson EBS Environmental Columnist
Rick Langton Reese died on January 9 in Bozeman. It may not be a household name for young readers familiar with the famous constellation of conservationists synonymous with the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
If this is true, the lack of association is ironic because he and his cohort of conservation contemporaries literally put the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem on the map – a feat taken for granted but in his time was globally momentous.
Not only was Reese instrumental in popularizing the modern concept of “Greater Yellowstone” – he was the first to write a book about it – but for decades he insisted that, where possible, the three words are always presented in tandem.
“Bigger“as if to mean that there is a lot more going on beyond the main focal point.
“Yellowstone”As if it were our first national park, the cradle of an American conservation ethic that has been emulated around the world, and that its health depends not only on internal factors but on the forces that occur around from him.
Lately, “Ecosystem“, indicating this region of interconnected and homogeneous mountain ranges, rivers and valleys, migratory wildlife and scenic landscapes that stir our imaginations, is analogous to a human body. The rivers of Greater Yellowstone are like a circulatory system. moving around water, the essential lifeblood; wildlife migrations are equivalent to a pulmonary system, and mountains and valleys, encompassing public and private lands, serve as essential bone and connective tissue. the basis of it all is a geo-hydrothermal system that manifests in the form of geysers, hot springs and fumaroles, about 10,000 in Yellowstone, which represent the largest congregation of these phenomena still active on Earth.
The Greater Yellowstone ecosystem encompasses all of the above and many other moving and stationary parts. What is extraordinary is that such things only persist in an interdependent way because they have not yet been altered by various types of human activity.
One of Reese’s favorite catchphrases, which he has uttered countless times to anyone who will listen, is that “the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem is one of the last biologically and topographically intact ecosystems in temperate zones. of the earth”. It’s safe to say that the Greater Yellowstone has never had a more tenacious, headstrong, and enthusiastic cheerleader.
In 1983, Reese and a courageous contingent of citizens from the three-state intersection of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho came together and founded the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. The idea of forming a group started with Ralph Maughan, an environmentalist and professor of political science at Idaho State University in Pocatello. It was Reese’s 1984 book and subsequent editions that made the Greater Yellowstone palpable, a focal point previously lacking.
“People who don’t understand the value of the wilderness, or who don’t care, or who want to take advantage of it for personal gain, will take whatever they can get,” Reese told me. “They always demand more of something that’s finished. Policy takers face an equal amount of resistance from people who are unwilling to surrender or donate things that, once gone, cannot be replaced.
Reese was born in Salt Lake City in 1942 and raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As his involvement with Mormonism waned over the years, he often mentioned how loving nature is a value embraced by many devotees; people he has always welcomed into the fold of conservation.
After graduating from East High School, he joined the National Guard, his service coinciding with the Berlin Airlift Crisis. Upon returning to the United States, he obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Utah, then completed a graduate program as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the ‘University of Denver.
While teaching political science as a professor at Carroll College and was director of community relations for the University of Utah, one of his favorite passions was rock climbing and mountaineering which began during his youth along the Wasatch front. He was recognized as a talented and precocious young mountaineer.
Reese became a member of the crack Jenny Lake Climbing Rangers in Grand Teton National Park, taking part in several dramatic rescues, none more legendary or heartbreaking than his involvement six friends who rescued a seriously injured climber and his companion on the North Face of the Big nipples.
The event was featured in a documentary, “The Grand Rescue,” which appeared on PBS stations across the country. His close mountaineering friends who attended were Pete Sinclair, Leigh Ortenburger, Ralph Tingey, Mike Ermarth, Bob Irvine and Ted Wilson, who became mayor of Salt Lake City.
It was in 1980, however, that Reese and his New Mexico wife, Mary Lee, made a life-changing decision that placed them at the center of saving the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. That year, the couple were recruited by Yellowstone Park Superintendent John Townsley to be co-director of the Yellowstone Institute (now Yellowstone Forever), which provided outdoor educational opportunities for park visitors.
A few years later, the Rees were part of meetings held at Jackson Hole, Bozeman, and John and Melody Taft’s ranch in the Centennial Valley where the Greater Yellowstone Coalition was born.
Reese, as co-founder of Mountain Journal, Cleverly believed that he would attract a crowd of avid readers, but had no idea that he would attract 230,000 followers on Facebook and have his stories pass in front of millions of eyeballs.
The story is meant to remember Rick Reese as a person who always looked forward beyond the span of his own life to see the highest goal. He didn’t fight for the wild country because it’s popular in the short term, but because it’s fair. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for helping us see the shine of a Bigger Yellowstone.
Todd Wilkinson is the founder of the Bozeman-based Mountain Journal and correspondent for National Geographic. He is the author of the book “Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek”, featuring photographs by famous wildlife photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen, about Grizzly Bear 399.
