Yosemite's glaciers are steadily melting away, but Yellowstone's have been gone for thousands of years/NPS file

Does Yellowstone National Park really have glaciers today, and are there not national parks in the Great Plains? Those questions came up in recent news reports, one from 60 Minutes and the other from various media that picked up a UNESCO report.

Yellowstone National Park's Glaciers

Yes, there were glaciers in the landscape protected today as Yellowstone National Park, but there are no glaciers in the park today. Apparently not all media outlets are aware of that, and on Thursday they picked up and ran with a report from UNESCO -- the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- stating that by 2050 one-third of glaciers in World Heritage sites would disappear because of the warming climate. Among those that would be lost, noted the report, were glaciers in "Yellowstone National Park and Yosemite National Park."

While Yosemite does have glacial ice today, it's been an incredibly long time since Yellowstone had glaciers. That didn't stop CNN, MarketWatch, NPR, other media outlets, and even Phys.org from running out stories, based on the UNESCO report, stating that Yellowstone's glaciers would completely melt by 2050.

But as the U.S. Geological Survey noted in a 2018 column by the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, "[B]y 14,000 to 13,000 years ago, however, most of Yellowstone was ice-free as the Pinedale Glaciation came to a close." Today, Yellowstone spokesperson Morgan Warthin told the Traveler, "[T]here are no glaciers in Yellowstone."

As for Yosemite National Park, the National Park Service points out that the park has two glaciers these days, "the Lyell and Maclure glaciers. These ice bodies are important to local ecosystems because they provide a year-round supply of cold water to the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River, especially during the late summer and fall after the winter snowpack has melted."

"Depending on whether drought conditions return in the coming years, the Lyell Glacier could disappear within a decade or so," the agency adds on Yosemite's website. "The Maclure Glacier is expected to remain longer, but will ultimately follow suit. When that happens, Yosemite's glaciers will become part of its past, marking the end of a rich history of glacier research."

60 Minutes And American Prairie Reserve

The CBS news magazine late last month ran a 13-minute piece on American Prairie Reserve, a nonprofit operation in north-central Montana that is working to preserve 3.2 million acres of shortgrass prairie with all its native flora and fauna, particularly bison. It was an interesting piece on this effort, though Bill Whitaker opened with a head-scratching comment when he said that of the 63 "national parks" in the National Park System, none are located in the Great Plains.

"Somehow, we skipped the American prairie. The grasslands that once stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rockies played a vital role in the lives of Native Americans, white settlers, and an endless variety of wildlife," he said. "They inspired explorers and artists, but apparently not park planners."

Unfortunately, Whitaker is wrong. All you need do is look to Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, all located in the Great Plains and all with grassland prairie and bison.

The prairie ecosystem is like a puzzle. When parts of the puzzle go missing, it is difficult to understand the complete picture. At Wind Cave, as many parts of this puzzle are preserved as is possible. As a result, this park is a refuge for prairie plants and animals, and a great place to see a remnant of the North American grasslands. -- Wind Cave National Park

In mixed-grass prairies, such as the grasslands surrounding Badlands National Park, grasses can range in height from ankle-high to waist-high. -- Badlands National Park

Grasslands are the most abundant habitat type found in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Grasses are able to cope with the low annual precipitation, going dormant as the relatively wet spring gives way to the dry, hot summer. At first glance, grasslands may appear monotonous, but, in fact, the grasslands encompass a rich and constantly changing diversity of plants and animals. -- Theodore Roosevelt National Park

And while Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas is not called a "national park," it is part of the National Park System and was established to preserve a stretch of tallgrass prairie that was a vital component of the Great Plains, as well as a small bison herd. Conntributing editor Lynn Riddick recently returned from Tallgrass, which she visited specifically to see that part of the Great Plains and the bison herd. You can hear her conversation with the preserve's superintendent here.

Beyond those established parks, there long has been talk, including among park planners, about creating a national park to showcase the Great Plains. 

* In the mid-1930s, the National Park Service was intrigued by the idea of a plains park and began collecting information for a Great Plains National Monument. Park Service planners for a while kicked around the idea of a grasslands park, either in South Dakota or in Nebraska, but World War II intervened and the study was moth-balled.

* In 1960, the U.S. Senate was urged by the delegation from Kansas to create a "Prairie National Park" in the state. Such a park would be home to herds not just of bison and antelope but could prove well as breeding grounds for prairie chicken and quail, the Senate was told. But, as happens with politics, the locals in Kansas that would be affected rose up against the proposal, in part over concerns of surrendering land to the federal government. When Western members of the Senate Public Lands Subcommittee aligned with the opponents, the legislation’s future was sealed.

* In 1995, the National Park Service studied a "Niobrara Buffalo-Prairie National Park." The study found that the region in northern Nebraska offered a wonderful plains river (the Niobrara), mixed-grass prairie, tallgrass praire, and hardwood and pine forests. Here, the Park Service planners concluded, was a wonderful landscape for a 138,000-acre park that would benefit recreation, science, and preservation. But reality often is a complicating factor, and in this case the fact that a portion of the land envisioned for the national park was in private hands was a significant impediment. When the feasibility study was presented to Congress in July 1995, the Park Service took no position on it while awaiting the outcome of a proposal to enlarge the Niobrara National Scenic River, which was in the same area of Nebraska. And even once that expansion was completed, the agency was silent on the larger question of a new national park, one that could preserve both a section of the Great Plains and bison.

So, no, there are no glaciers in Yellowstone today, and yes, there are national parks in the Great Plains.