A final plan for wireless communications in Yellowstone provides the potential for a modest increase in developed areas while protecting backcountry and historic sites, National Park Service officials say.

Conservation groups have denounced the plan, saying it allows a substantial increase in the number of towers and could result in cell coverage for as much as two-thirds of the park.

The plan, released Monday, would add a cell tower to the Lake Village area and would allow wireless Internet access for visitors at some developed sites. Historical sites such as the Old Faithful Inn and the Mammoth Hotel would not have wireless service. Officials also included provisions to modify equipment on Mount Washburn, consolidate equipment at Mammoth and relocate the Old Faithful cell tower to a less conspicuous location.

Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Respon-sibility, said he is disappointed with the new plan.

“They say that the plan is limited to developed areas, but the electronic footprint would cover most of the park, including most of the backcountry,” he said, adding that the plan could introduce as many as six new cell towers in the park.

“This is not so much anti-technology but a concern about using public resources to promote private services,” Ruch said. “Wrapping it in the rhetoric of public purpose is troublesome. It’s a form of commercialization that appears to be contrary to [Park Service] policies.”

Ruch said he’s glad planners decided to keep wireless Internet service out of historical buildings, but he said they failed to explain why Internet service is needed at all.

“They seem to want to bring Manhattan to Yellowstone and seem to offer no justification for it,” he said.

Ruch didn’t rule out a lawsuit over the plan.

“We’ll be taking a close look at it,” he said. “The Yellowstone staff didn’t appear to listen to the comments from the public. They were determined they were going to say yes and there will be an expansion in coverage in Yellowstone, period.”

Park spokesman Al Nash said the plan respects the pristine nature of Yellowstone’s backcountry. He challenged Ruch’s claims that six cell towers could be constructed and the claims that cell service could go deep into the Yellowstone backcountry.

“Baloney,” he said. “We would accept an application [for] one more tower to service Fishing Bridge and Lake, period. We currently allow cell phone service in a small percentage in the park. Even if a cell tower were to be constructed to serve Lake and Fishing Bridge, the vast majority of the park would remain free of cellular coverage.” 

Nash said the plan gives officials the opportunity to reduce the visual impact of existing structures.

“We’re respectful of the public’s concern about visual impacts of facilities, so looking for future criteria to relocate the Old Faithful cell tower, essentially cleaning up the installation at Mount Washburn and consolidating wireless communications facilities at the Mammoth area to one location, are efforts we can take to be responsive to that public concern.”