The world's first national park loses vital protection

When Yellowstone was removed from the United Nations" World Heritage in Danger list this summer, it should have been good news. But park advocates charge the Bush administration with downplaying problems there. (Yellowstone was placed on the list in 1995 because of concerns about a proposed mining operation, which has since been scrapped.)

In a statement, National Park Service director Fran Mainella said that the government was pleased with the UN decision. But one of her predecessors disagrees: Roger G. Kennedy, director from 1993 to 1997, made an unsuccessful attempt to convince the UN to keep the park on the list, arguing that its problems have not gone away. The threats include an increase in off-season visitors, the legal killing of free-roaming bison that stray outside park boundaries, and a parasitic infection called whirling disease that is fatal to Yellowstone's cutthroat trout.

Steve Bosak of the National Parks Conservation Association says the Bush administration pushed to have Yellowstone removed from the list to make itself look good, even though it was the Clinton administration that thwarted development of the mining project. Bosak adds that President Bush is trying to reverse some Clinton-era progress—for example, the ban on snowmobiles has been lifted.

The U.S. government is still not off the hook. It will have to monitor the delicate balance between the park's wildlife and visiting humans and submit annual reports to UNESCO.