If Bruce Babbitt’s lobbying to push the Obama administration to use the Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect important, scenic landscapes in the West is successful, President Obama might consider starting with Idaho’s Yellowstone.

You might remember the Idaho Statesman picked Boisian Kathy Steinbach’s vision for a new national monument she called Mesa Falls National Monument in a public appeal for ideas. This 200,000 acre slice of the Island Park Caldera contains Idaho’s most moving waterfalls, pure, clear springs bubbling out the ground, home for grizzly bears and priceless hot springs connected to Yellowstone’s geysers.

Steinbach wanted to be sure it remains open for snowmobilers, even more important now that Yellowstone is restricting the machines even more.

“The Mesa Falls area is as beautiful as anywhere in Yellowstone,” Steinbach said. “It deserves to be preserved and recognized.”

The area begins along the Yellowstone National Park boundary in Idaho. This is Idaho’s, Yellowstone, the only national park within our border, a fact often missed. USA Today reported in 2006 and the New York Times reported in 2007 that Idaho doesn’t have a national park.

All the more reason to turn Ashton into a gateway community for the monument and the back door into Yellowstone. That's why the Chamber of Commerce supported the monument idea.

Steinbach’s monument would include the Upper and Lower Mesa Falls on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, Big Springs, a source of the Henry’s Fork northeast of Island Park, Warm Springs, due east of the falls and the Idaho part of Yellowstone’s southern entry to Bechler Ranger Station and Cave Falls. The southern boundary should be Fall River so it includes Sheep Falls.

Steinbach wanted to protect all of the hydrothermal features connected to Yellowstone’s geysers. That would mean making a ban on developing the Island Park Geothermal Area, a 32 mile area in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, permanent.
I would call the monument the Idaho Caldera National Monument.

Because of the current politics the Idaho delegation would have a hard time supporting it. And nothing Obama will do would win him Idaho in 2012.
But nationally Obama would be protecting a national treasure, Greater Yellowstone, in a manner that would leave a legacy for generations. But he will have to start work soon.

Babbitt spent time meeting with all the local interests when he helped President Clinton expand Craters of the Moon. I’d be surprised if Interior Secretary Ken Salazar didn’t do the same.