Deseret News (Salt Lake City): Be careful with Yellowstone

Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary with the Department of the Interior, is looking to take Yellowstone Park off the list of "endangered cultural sites" kept by the United Nations.

That thought should make people nervous.

Yellowstone was placed on the list in 1995 when the area was threatened by a proposed New World gold mine. Hoffman said the gold threat is now gone, therefore the distinction is no longer needed.

Conservationists disagree, saying that dangers ranging from mine tailings to whirling disease still exist. They claim that the deer and buffalo will have no place to roam if restrictions are removed.

Finger pointing has ensued, of course. Along with the standard "he said, she said" heated debates.

Whatever he says and she says, we say until the conservationists can be shown to be wrong, leave Yellowstone on the list. It not only needs special protection, it deserves special protection. The park was America's first national park, christened by Teddy Roosevelt. It is the national flagship for beauty and preservation. If Yellowstone becomes contaminated or damaged, the effects will radiate beyond Wyoming, beyond the West and into the national psyche itself.

Westerners, especially, have had a unique affection for the park. Fifty years ago, Utah families could not always afford to go to Disneyland, but most could afford a trip to Yellowstone. And for many Utahns, it was Mother Nature's Disneyland, filled with pools as deep as the sea and geysers that gushed like oil wells. Bears sometimes pawed at the family sedan, and elk wandered freely in and out of campgrounds.

Yellowstone is much more than a park. It is a jewel box, a repository of nostalgia and, to a degree, America's identity.

For such reasons, it is important to err on the side of caution.

If there's a chance -- even an outside chance -- the area could be damaged by taking it off the list of endangered sites, we say it is better to be careful than sorry.

Like so many other natural wonders, once Yellowstone has been destroyed, it will not be coming back.

And the nation has already lost too many natural treasures to be playing Russian roulette with this one.