In 1916, the head of the American Civic Assn., J. Horace McFarland said of our National Parks, "The parks are the Nation's pleasure grounds and the Nation's restoring places.... The national parks...are an American idea; it is one thing we have that has not been imported."

What better place than our “Nation’s restoring places” to institute greenhouse reduction measures to help clean up our environment and with the help of tire manufacturer, Michelin, that is exactly what the World’s first national park is doing.

Michelin, the official tire of the Yellowstone Park Foundation, has been equipping the park’s entire fleet with its green, energy-savings tires. The move will assist Yellowstone in meeting its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% before 2016.

"Since Michelin became the official tire of the Yellowstone Park Foundation in 2009, the park's fleet managers have reported fuel savings on the first seven vehicles of as much as 20 percent compared to the previous tires," said Don Baldwin, product category manager for Michelin Americas Truck Tires. "This translates into emissions savings of more than 4 tons of CO2 each year per truck. In addition, the Michelin tires are lasting twice as long as the previous tires, further reducing environmental impact."

Michelin also reminds us that visitors to Yellowstone also play a major role in the park's carbon footprint. So you may want to reconsider that trip to the park in your gas guzzling H2 and opt for a more efficient choice.

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Photo Credit: cc: flickr.com/photos/bdlandis