Off-limits: Snowmobile ban looms at Yellowstone

Scenes like this one near Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone National Park could become a vision of the past

By Environmental News Network staff

National Park Service officials recommended Tuesday that recreational snowmobiles be phased out of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks entirely by the winter of 2003-2004 and that multi-passenger snow coaches be phased in over the next three years.

The public has until Oct. 31 to comment on the winter use plan and final environmental impact statement for Yellowstone, Grand Teton and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway.

Comments could sway the NPS plan, but the BlueRibbon Coalition, which supports snowmobile use in the parks, believes the plan is a fait accompli. The group may take legal action against the NPS if the ban is enforced.

The NPS acknowledges that a ban on snowmobiles will likely have an adverse effect on local economies but reasons that improved air quality, reduced noise pollution and benefits to wildlife outweigh that impact.

Under the NPS plan, local snowmobile outfitters would be encouraged to continue their winter-park tours in cleaner, quieter snow coaches, according to Marsha Karle of the NPS. The mass-transit vehicles would have to meet emission and noise standards still to be determined.

"It's a foregone conclusion that this will wipe out all the little guys," said Adena Cook, public lands director for the BlueRibbon. "There will be a few big operators left who can afford to make the transition from a snowmobile fleet and invest in snow coaches, because it's a very expensive transition."

Though controversial, the NPS recommendation doesn't come as a surprise to either side of the snowmobile debate. In March the NPS announced it was leaning toward a snowmobile ban in the Greater Yellowstone Area, which encompasses more than 11 million acres.

The final recommendation has some recreationists up in arms. BlueRibbon believes the final environmental impact statement is the result of an agreement between the NPS and the Fund for Animals and other environmental groups who sued in May 1997 to force an end to traditional winter uses of the parks, including snowmobiling.

The coalition also maintains the NPS didn't have enough time to prepare their recommendation properly.

Snow coaches will become the primary mode of winter transportation in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks if the NPS recommendation is adopted

"When you compare this two-year exercise with, for example, the bison environmental impact statement, which took over five years, you recognize that this plan was fractured from the get-go. There just wasn't enough time to do it properly," said Vikki Eggers of BlueRibbon.

"It's too bad the NPS tossed aside the opportunity to craft a solid, workable winter recreation plan for Yellowstone together with the surrounding counties and states that were cooperating agencies in the process," said Cook. "The tools were there. The expertise was there. The partners had rolled up their sleeves and were sincere in their efforts. Instead, the agency grandstanded, promoting a blatantly political option that's inflammatory and divisive.

"As a political statement, the winter recreation plan may score some points with radical environmentalists, but as a blueprint for winter recreation management, the plan is not a professional or workable document."

Conservationists applaud the plan.

"The Park Service is upholding the law and responding to the public, and future generations will be grateful," said Mike Clark, executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. "It's clear that Americans want places where they can find peace and quiet, undisturbed wildlife and pure air, not more pollution and stress from thousands of snowmobiles.

"Yellowstone's decline could have symbolized that America is beginning to give up on its national parks — that we are now comfortable passing these parks on to our kids and grandkids in worse shape than we inherited them," said Clark. "This plan reverses that. It restores Yellowstone, and it restores the standard we set for our national parks."

The National Parks Conservation Association, The Wilderness Society and Bluewater Network are among many environmental groups that support the NPS plan.

"The Park Service is doing the right thing by establishing a schedule to clean up Yellowstone¹s air and remove the din of machines from the visitor's experience," said Bob Ekey, Northern Rockies regional director of The Wilderness Society. "The Park Service is also providing ample time for local business owners and entrepreneurs to make a successful transition to the new system of access."

Comments on the final recommendation can be sent by post to Clifford Hawkes at the National Park Service, 12795, West Alameda Parkway, Lakewood, Colorado 80228, or by e-mail to the NPS.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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The rights of winter: Snowmobiling debate
Whose public access? The snowmobiling debate in Yellowstone
NPS clarifies snowmobile crackdown
Snowmobile debate moves to Capitol Hill
Yellowstone draft EIS criticized

winter use plan and final environmental impact statement
BlueRibbon Coalition
Yellowstone
Grand Teton
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway
American Council of Snowmobile Associations
Wilderness Society
Greater Yellowstone Coalition
Bluewater Network
National Parks and Conservation Association

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