Bill Challenges Reversal of Parks Snowmobile Ban

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, June 27, 2002 (ENS) - A bill introduced in the House today would override a National Park Service decision to continue to allow snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Park Service announced its decision two days ago, overturning a ban instituted by the same agency, under a different administration, almost two years ago.

Representative Rush Holt sponsored the bill to enact the Park Service's Clinton era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. (Photo courtesy Office of Representative Holt)

The Holt-Shays bill would codify a Clinton era National Park Service rule to phase out snowmobile use implemented in January 2001. The Bush administration suspended the rule after coming into office and announced Tuesday that it would replace the rule altogether.

"By allowing snowmobiles in our most beloved Park, we believe that the Park Service is making a giant mistake, a mistake that would sacrifice our historic commitment to preserving Yellowstone for future generations of Americans to enjoy," said Holt, a member of House Subcommittee on National Parks, Public Lands and Recreation. "The Administration's recent decision ignores science, law and public opinion, and we are here today to fight it."

A decade ago the National Park Service began to study the impacts of snowmobile use on park wildlife, air quality, human health and visitor experience. Their research, which included 375 scientific studies and 22 public hearings, revealed that snowmobile use was damaging to all these factors.

Snowmobiles line up at the gate to enter Yellowstone National Park, where they pollute the air and frighten the wildlife. (Photo by Jeff Henry, courtesy The Wilderness Society)

The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association and the state of Wyoming filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, and in June 2001, the Bush Administration settled the suit by requiring the National Park Service to reexamine two issues: public comment and scientific review.

Over the past year, the Park Service has received 350,000 comments regarding the proposed phase out, more than the agency has ever received on a single issue. The comments ran more than four to one against snowmobiles.

"The people are telling the Bush Administration that they want snowmobiles out of Yellowstone and Grand Teton and a return to natural sounds and clean air in the parks," said Steven Bosak of the National Parks Conservation Association. "Instead, the Park Service is giving the American people a park where natural sounds are burdened by the abrasive roar of the snowmobile and where a clean environment throughout winter will be polluted by exhaust fumes."

Snowmobilers could be required to travel with trained guides in the future. (Photo courtesy Yellowstone National Park)

About 75,000 snowmobiles now enter Yellowstone Park each year, about 16 times the number of automobiles that journey through the venerable preserve. According to studies by the Park Service's Air Resource Division, snowmobiles contribute up to 68 percent of Yellowstone's annual carbon monoxide emissions, and up to 90 percent of the park's hydrocarbon pollution.

The bill introduced today would implement the original, Clinton era snowmobile rule, phasing out recreational snowmobile use over a three year period and promoting a snowcoach based transit system. The bill faces an uphill battle in the Republican controlled House, and may never make it out of the subcommittee on national parks.

Representative Chris Shays sponsored the bill with Representative Holt. (Photo courtesy Office of Representative Shays)

"Congress created the National Park Service in 1916 to protect Yellowstone on behalf of the American people. It is now up to Congress to save Yellowstone," said Holt. "We are here today not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Americans who believe that we have a moral obligation to safeguard the world's oldest national park."