Park Service Revs Up Snowmobile Use in Yellowstone

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, August 20, 2004 (ENS) – The National Park Service announced a plan Thursday to allow 720 snowmobiles into Yellowstone National Park each day for the next three winters.

The proposal is the latest twist in a controversy at play in two federal courts, and critics say it ignores an array of scientific studies demonstrating that snowmobiles should be phased out in Yellowstone.

The Park Service's preferred alternative would also allow 140 snowmobiles in Grand Teton National Park and the parkway that connects the two parks.

The federal agency says the proposal is an attempt to give visitors, employees and residents of the park's gateway communities greater certainty about near-term winter recreation in the park.

Snowmobiles granted park access under the plan must be run by commercial operators and users must travel with guides. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

The Clinton administration imposed a phaseout of snowmobile use in Yellowstone by this winter, but that plan was derailed by a legal battle and reversed by the Bush administration.

Last December - six days before the start of the winter recreation season - the Bush administration issued a rule that set a daily limit of 950 snowmobiles in Yellowstone and 190 in Grand Teton and the parkway that connects the two parks.

But the plan was ruled illegal by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan only one day prior to the start of the winter season.

Sullivan, who sits on a federal court in Washington, DC, ruled that the administration failed to explain why the policy should be reversed in light of ample evidence that snowmobiling causes adverse effects on wildlife and resources within the parks.

The reinstated plan set a daily limit of 493 snowmobiles in the Yellowstone and 50 in Grand Teton and the connecting parkway. That plan would have banned all snowmobile use in the 2004-2005 winter season.

Sullivan's ruling, however, prompted the state of Wyoming and the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA) to ask a district court judge in Cheyenne to reopen a related case.

In February 2004 U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer heeded that request and issued a temporary injunction blocking the Clinton ban.

Brimmer ruled that the ban would cause irreparable harm to the local economy and ordered the Park Service to issue a temporary rule to increase snowmobiling in the parks for the remainder of the 2003-2004 season.

Pollution from snowmobiles has created health concerns for employees working in Yellowstone. (Photo courtesy Save Yellowstone)

The agency announced in July that it would conduct a new environmental assessment to determine the impact of snowmobiles in the parks.

That assessment, announced Thursday and slated for publication today, finds "no significant impact" from the agency's preferred alternative.

The preferred alternative requires snowmobiles operating in both parks be four-stroke models that are cleaner and quieter than older two-stroke models.

It also requires the 720 snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone travel with commercial guides and stay on park roads in order to protect wildlife.

The plan does not require commercial guides for the 140 snowmobiles permitted in Grand Teton.

The agency says operating under the temporary plan for the next three winters "would minimize economic impacts on gateway communities … and would also provide the National Park Service the opportunity to gather additional, real-time data to be used preparing permanent regulations for winter use in the parks."

But critics say the proposal rests on a false claim that snowmobile use in the parks will have no significant environmental or public health impacts.

They note that during the past decade the Park Service has studied the impacts of snowmobile use on park wildlife, air quality, human health and visitor experience.

Yellowstone was designated as a national park in 1872 - the world's first. It has the world's largest concentration of geysers and is known for its wildlife, including grizzly bears, wolves and bison. (Photo courtesy NPCA)

"If the administration goes through with this, it will mark a new low in its pattern of ignoring science to benefit a special interest at the public's expense," said Michael Finley, a former superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and a member of the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees.

The public has until September 30 to comment on the proposal, which the Park Service will post online today.

The agency says it will publish a final rule implementing the ultimate decision will be published by October 29, 2004.

But whether that rule will stand is far from certain.

The issue is still at play in both federal courts and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is considering a challenge to the Brimmer's injunction that blocked the Park Service from implementing the Clinton ban.