A district court judge in Washington, D.C., threw out a long-contested plan for snowmobile use in Yellowstone on Monday.

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled against a National Park Service plan that would have allowed 540 snowmobiles in the park each day, saying the so-called winter-use plan violates the Organic Act and goes against the advice of Park Service scientists.

Sullivan’s decision leaves questions about if and how Yellowstone will allow snowmobiles and snow coaches this coming season, which is scheduled to start Dec. 15.

“In contravention of the Organic Act, the plan clearly elevates use over conservation of park resources and values and fails to articulate why the plan’s ‘major adverse impacts’ are ‘necessary and appropriate to fulfill the purposes of the park,’” Sullivan said in his ruling. “NPS also fails to provide a rational explanation for the source of the 540 snowmobile limit.”

“According to the NPS’s own data, the [winter-use plan] will increase air pollution, exceed the use levels recommended by [National Park Service] biologists to protect wildlife, and cause major adverse impacts to the natural soundscape in Yellowstone,” Sullivan said.

“Despite this, NPS found that the plan’s impacts are wholly ‘acceptable,’ and utterly fails to explain this incongruous conclusion.”

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit for several conservation groups, including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the National Parks Conservation Association, after the National Park Service adopted the snowmobile plan in December.

Tim Stevens, Yellowstone program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said he was happy with the decision.
“The record is and has been very clear from the Park Service’s own scientists that the plan to double the average daily snowmobile use in the park makes Yellowstone’s air dirtier, harms Yellowstone’s wildlife and would have degraded Yellowstone’s unique natural quiet in winter,” he said. “This is about providing access for people to enjoy our nation’s first national park and to protect its resources that occur nowhere else in the world.”

Doug Honnold, managing attorney of the Bozeman, Mont., office of Earthjustice, said Sullivan saw through a biased plan that was “jury-rigged to justify a preordained conclusion.”

“The political fix was in,” Honnold said. “In a number of places, the Park Service cooked the books to justify continued snowmobiling. As of today, that plan does not exist and they need to go back to the drawing board.”

Jack Welch, spokesman for the pro-snowmobile BlueRibbon Coalition, was attending a hearing for a second case regarding the snowmobile plan in Cheyenne when an attorney told Judge Clarence Brimmer of the decision.

“Judge Brimmer said, ‘That’s fine. Let’s go ahead just like it didn’t happen,’” Welch said.

Welch called the decision “bizarre and far reaching” and said Sullivan’s ruling could severely limit public access in national parks across the country.

Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said the implications of Sullivan’s ruling aren’t fully understood.

“Our winter-use team and our attorneys with the Department of Justice will have to review this decision so that we can determine how it might impact our winter operations,” he said. “Clearly, Judge Sullivan takes issue with some of our analyses and some of our decision making.”

While the ruling does leave some uncertainties for the 2008-09 winter, the Park Service does have the power to enact a temporary winter-use plan.

“We’re planning to be open to visitors for the winter season beginning December 15 as scheduled,” Nash said.

In addition to allowing 540 snowmobiles a day, the Park Service’s winter-use plan would set limits on snowmobiles in Grand Teton National Park and close a section of the Continental Divide Snowmobile Trail.

Snowmobiles in Yellowstone would have to use the “best available technology,” namely four-stroke engines that are considered less polluting than conventional two-stroke machines. The plan also requires professional guides for snowmobile trips and allows up to 83 snow coaches per day. Snow coaches would also require “best available technology” engines by the winter of 2011-12. The plan was to take effect at the start of the 2008-09 winter season.

In Grand Teton National Park, the decision allows 25 two-stroke snowmobiles a day to travel Grassy Lake Road between Island Park and Flagg Ranch in both directions. Also, 40 unguided best-available-technology snowmobiles a day would be allowed on Jackson Lake to access ice fishing.