Parks examining options for use of snowmobiles
By Tim Dudley, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
September 22, 2008
With less than 90 days before the winter season begins in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, officials are trying to determine how to allow snowmobiles and snow coaches this year.
On Sept. 15, a U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., threw out the parks’ winter-use plan, leaving them with no regulations that allow snowmobiles and snow coaches to be used in the parks.
In a news release Friday, park officials said they are exploring ways Yellowstone and Grand Teton might be open to motorized oversnow travel this winter though park superintendents cannot simply issue an order to open the parks to snowmobile or snow coach travel.
Park mangers and staff members are consulting with attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Interior, the release says.
While the parks are examining options, the outcome of another legal challenge to the latest winter-use plan is pending in Wyoming U.S. District Court.
The plan that was rejected by the Washington judge would have allowed up to 540 commercially guided, cleaner and quieter snowmobiles and 83 snow coaches a day to enter Yellowstone this winter. In Grand Teton, it would have allowed 40 unguided a day on Jackson Lake to facilitate ice fishing by those possessing appropriate fishing gear and a valid Wyoming fishing license, and would have allowed 25 snowmobiles a day to travel on Grassy Lake Road.
In rejecting that plan, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said the proposal violates the Organic Act by elevating use over conservation of park resources and fails to state why snowmobiles and snow coaches are “necessary and appropriate to fulfill the purposes of the park.”
“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 in his ruling. “Despite this, NPS found that the plan’s impacts are wholly ‘acceptable,’ and utterly fails to explain this incongruous conclusion.”
Portions of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are open to wheeled vehicle access all year, offering opportunities to enjoy other winter activities such as wildlife viewing, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
