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Retirees Coalition Asks Congress To Oppose Snowmobiles

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on December 4, 2006 - 1:39pm

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees has gone to Congress to head-off efforts by outgoing Senator Conrad Burns of Montana and outgoing Representative Richard Pombo to keep snowmobiles in Yellowstone no matter what science recommends.
A letter from the coalition was hand-delivered this morning to Senators Reid, Durbin, Dorgan, Feinstein, and Bingaman along with Representatives Rahall, Christensen, Pelosi and Hoyer. In it the coalition states that the pro-snowmobile riders Burns and Pombo want to attach to an Interior Department spending bill "ignore repeated scientific findings of the National Park Service and Environmental Protection Agency and would force a radical departure from NPS' overarching duty to conserve national parks.
"By mandating a continuation of snowmobile use, the riders prescribe a future in our country's oldest national park that would include levels of air and noise pollution and disturbance of wildlife that NPS has determined are readily avoidable by providing full public access to Yellowstone with snowcoaches rather than snowmobiles."

You can find the entire letter here. In it the coalition's executive council goes point-by-point through key sections of the National Park Service's Management Policies, highlighting areas of the manual that argue quite clearly against the current form of snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
I wonder if the coalition sent a carbon copy of the letter to Mary? After all, she has spoken out in favor of snowmobiles in Yellowstone, and just last month park officials released a draft environmental impact statement in which the preferred alternative called for continuation of the current limit of 720 snowmobiles per day.

Comments

Submitted by Alan Gregory (not verified) on December 5, 2006 - 9:49am.
This is incredible. Study after study after study find that snowmobiles are just plain bad for Yellowstone, its wildlife, its low-impact visitors and the Park Service employees who keep the place running. Yet, here again we have another effort by two block-headed legislators to enshrine the snowmobiling culture. When will real people stand up and just do the right thing?!
Submitted by Spectre (not verified) on December 7, 2006 - 10:34pm.
REAL people don't mind snowmobiles...just elitist enviro-whackos!!!
Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on December 8, 2006 - 6:27am.
Could you logically explain why someone who prefers to minimize pollution in national parks is "elitist"? "Protectionist" I can see, "elitist" I can't. Curiously, on another post you adamantly argue that the Founding Fathers intended taxes to go only towards national defense. Well, the founding founders (Congress) of the National Park Service directed that it conserve the resources in national parks, and the NPS's own Management Policies direct it to protect the parks from impacts that impair those parks. Too, the Clean Air Act mandates that Yellowstone officials preserve their Class I Airshed status. Snowmobile studies in Yellowstone clearly show that the current fleet of snowmobiles that enter the park impact it, and so the NPS would only be doing its congressionally mandated job by banning snowmobiles. If, on the one hand, you truly believe the Founding Fathers intended taxes only to be spent on defense, on the other you have to also accept the Park Service's congressionally directed mandate and observance of its own Management Policies. You can't support one and not the other.