Yellowstone National Park is using money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to replace a failing wastewater treatment plant at Madison Junction and install 15 new vault toilets in high-use areas across the Park.

Some grizzly experts are revisiting the current models used to predict and protect bear populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, arguing that more bears can be killed in an annual hunt than is currently allowed.

The Grand Loop Road may be closed to traffic and all services shut down for the season, but that doesn't mean Yellowstone National Park is deserted this time of year. Indeed, National Park Service officials are working on some larger projects designed to lessen pollution in the Park.

What a miserable existence this must be: some 100 bison, quarantined for upwards of four years after being separated from their Yellowstone National Park herds because of brucellosis, are still in search of a home after some four years in captivity.