About the Grass

One of the great mysteries for me here at Mammoth has been the watering of the grass. The Mammoth Hot Springs area is in a high desert environment, surrounded by sage brush and grasses that dry out during the summer. The buildings of Mammoth, however, are surrounded by green lawns, kept green by a rotation of water pouring out of sprinkler systems throughout the property. While it irritated me, especially when the water makes it difficult to get in and out of the dorm or the EDR and when I see small streams running down the roadways, I never found out the reasoning until a guest complained about the noise of the sprinklers running outside his hotel window in the middle of the night. "Doesn't Xanterra have an Ecologix program? Then what are they doing watering the lawns when it's been raining?" he queried. I could only agree with him because that was exactly what I had been thinking. Besides, what is the deal behind watering lawns in the world's premier national park where everything is supposed to be "natural"?

Fortunately, Suzanne, a fellow Guest Service Agent at the front desk, has been reading up on Yellowstone facts. "Haven't you noticed that Mammoth is the only location with grass?" she quizzed me. Well, yes, I guess I have, but I never really thought about it. According to her reading, when the army moved into the Park to take control over the poachers, they wanted grass around their new fort so they brought in sod. Ah, the grass has historical value. "Besides," she also pointed out, "if the grass wasn't here, the elk wouldn't be here." "They wouldn't?" "Well, they don't hang around anywhere else." She has a point. Mammoth is known for the elk herds that come down from the hills to munch on the greenery. Tourists stay in this area just to see them. I thought they just liked the safety of the buildings, but you don't hear about the elk herds of Old Faithful. Plus, an elk was apparently killed in the middle of the night on the steps of the Dining Room by wolves last winter. So much for safety among the buildings.

The word on the watering from the maintenance department - if they don't super-saturate the grass in this dry climate with this poor soil, it won't stay green. Even when it's raining.