Following his career on the faculty of the University of Utah, in 1980 Rick Reese was asked by Yellowstone Park Superintendent John Townsley to run the Yellowstone Institute. The following year, Rick began work on his book, Greater Yellowstone: The National Park and Adjacent Wildlands, which was published two years later. With a group of volunteers, Rick began the planning for creation of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition late in 1982. GYC was formally created in December 1983 and Rick served as President for the next three years. Rick tells us about his budding awareness of the importance of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the effort to make ecosystem awareness an essential part of conservation thinking here in the Rocky Mountain region.