Administration's Trial Balloon on Snowmobiles Signals Departure from Park Service's Conservation Legacy

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Administration's Trial Balloon on Snowmobiles Signals Departure from Park Service's Conservation Legacy

MONTANA, BOZEMAN, Dec. 13 -/E-Wire/-- Last fall, after more than a decade of study, the National Park Service determined that the tens of thousands of snowmobiles entering Yellowstone each winter were harming Yellowstone's wildlife and impairing the park's clean air and natural quiet. The Park Service decided that snowmobile use should be phased out in order to protect Yellowstone. Yet the agency, now controlled by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, suggested this week that if a phase out happens at all, it would not be for at least two more years.

Such a delay would be a stark departure from Yellowstone's history. Over the past century, when it determined that certain activities were damaging the country's first National Park, the Park Service moved swiftly to eliminate wildlife poaching, feeding of bears, destruction of thermal features by souvenir collectors, and other practices.

"In our oldest National Park, preserving irreplaceable natural treasures has always come first," said Steven Bosak of the National Parks Conservation Association. "Defending snowmobile use that is harming Yellowstone, instead of defending Yellowstone itself, is a change of direction in the management of our nation's most cherished places that millions of Americans will find deeply troubling."

"If this administration's reluctance to eliminate damaging activities had guided past management, imagine what a different place Yellowstone would be today," added Michael Scott, Executive Director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. "Bans on visitors wandering into fragile geyser basins to chisel off souvenirs, and on feeding bears, recognized that those activities, like snowmobiling, were fun, but were also taking a toll on Yellowstone and diminishing the park for other visitors."

"By delaying a phaseout of snowmobiles, the administration is turning a blind eye to the golden rule that has always guided management of Yellowstone," said Sean Smith, Public Lands Director for Bluewater Network. "That ethic holds that we should do for future generations what our ancestors didâpass on Yellowstone's natural wonders, unimpaired."

Delaying a phaseout of snowmobile use in Yellowstone is also counter to strong messages that the administration has received lately from Congress, top scientists, and the public. Those messages have included:

-- A letter sent to the White House by 102 members of CongressâDemocrats and Republicans, alikeâurging President Bush to adopt a snowmobile phaseout and honor "a long-standing, bipartisan commitment that our national parks be given the highest level of protection."

-- A letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, signed by 18 Ph.D. scientists specializing in wildlife biology and ecology stating, "it is our professional opinion that snowmobiling [in Yellowstone] results in significant direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts on wildlife, their behavior and environment." And,

-- Thousands of citizen comments from throughout the country sent to the Park Service in the latest round of public input on Yellowstone's winter use management. Eighty-two percent of the comments urged the Interior Department not to reopen the Park Service decision to phase out snowmobile use.

"On four separate occasions over the past three years, the public has made it clear that Yellowstone deserves the highest standard of protection and ought to be free of unhealthy exhaust, noise, and wildlife harassment," said Betsy Buffington of The Wilderness Society. "The administration's suggestion that snowmobile use will be allowed to continue despite the damage it is causing ignores the public's desire to see Yellowstone protected for future generations."

The decision made last year by Park Service professionalsâthat phasing out snowmobile use is the best way to protect Yellowstoneâhas been effectively overturned by a July settlement between the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association and Secretary Norton.

Today, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, National Parks Conservation Association, Bluewater Network, and The Wilderness Society called on the Interior Department to publicly reaffirm its commitment to the National Park Service Organic Act. Passed by Congress in 1916, the Act directs the Park Service to manage parks "in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

That mandate was the basis for the Park Service's November, 2000 decision to phase out snowmobile use from Yellowstone.

Greater Yellowstone Coalition

http://www.greateryellowstone.org

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