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Conservation Groups Will Head to Court Over Yellowstone Snowmobile Decision

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A day after the Park Service announced its decision on snowmobiles in Yellowstone, six conservation groups said they would challenge the decision in court. NPS Photo by Jim Peaco.

Six conservation groups are condemning the National Park Service's decision regarding snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, saying it goes against the core values of the national park system. To right that wrong, the groups said they would seek judicial relief.

In a joint press release, The Wilderness Society, National Parks Conservation Association, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, Winter Wildlands Alliance, and the Sierra Club said the decision to allow as many as 540 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone goes against the Park Service's own scientific studies and recommendations and will lead to "noise, dirtier air and frequent disturbance of wildlife."

"That choice ignores the National Park Service’s overarching mandate to give highest priority to conservation of national park resources," the organizations said, adding that they hoped Congress would exercise its oversight authority over the Park Service.

“The past four seasons have shown that Yellowstone’s winter visitors are increasingly embracing modern snow coaches and the health of the park has improved because of it,” said Amy McNamara of the Greater
Yellowstone Coalition. “The National Park Service’s decision makes a U-turn on that progress and will lead to unacceptable impacts in our first national park.”

In their release the groups noted that the Park Service disclosed in a study accompanying its decision that allowing 540 snowmobiles into Yellowstone each day will dramatically expand-to 63 square miles-the portion of the park where visitors can expect to hear snowmobile noise during more than half of the visiting day. That would be a three-fold increase from the current portion of the park where noise intrudes on the visitor’s experience during at least half the day.

The groups also noted that in its Final Environmental Impact Study accompanying its decision, the Park Service notes that Congress established the National Park Service in 1916 in part due to a recognition that the American people “wanted places to go that were undisturbed and natural and which offered a retreat from the rigors and stresses of everyday life.”

“National Parks are supposed to receive the highest level of resource protection for the benefit of wildlife and future generations of visitors. The Park Service’s plan undermines this conservation commitment to the American public in its National Park System. This decision would set a dangerous and unacceptable precedent for the entire National Park System and that is why we will continue to work for a better decision,” said the NPCA's Tim Stevens.

Comments

Yada, yada, yada.
Guess the NPS will just have to raise fees even more to cover court costs...go ahead, shoot yourself in the foot!


Yeeeeehaaaa!!!
Time to go sleddin'!!
Here's mine:
http://www.arcticcat.com/snow/sled.asp?id=803
BTW, snowmobiling DOES allow me to go places to go that are "undisturbed and natural and which offer a retreat from the rigors and stresses of everyday life.”...I AM HANDICAPPED...I have few opportunities to enjoy the wilderness.
So stop trying to lock up the parks for only the able-bodied. Frickin' selfish wackos....


Every winter I am in the north eastern cascades on my sled exploring some great wild country.
I do meet folks out there doing the same, though it does not happen often.
The picture above in Kurt's post does not look like folks wanting to explore some undisturbed and natural back country.
(For your viewing pleasure)


NICE sled Random Walker!!
BTW, that picture was taken where all the sleds are bunched up after entering the park, they are more spread out than that, usually. Especially further into the park.


Why is it that the idea of snowcoaches isn't being mentioned? It is my understanding that they provide much the same benefits of snowmobiles, but without the problems...
---
jr_ranger
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared towhat lies within us." - Emerson
http://tntrailhead.blogspot.com
President, CHS SPEAK (CHS Students Promoting Environmental Action & Knowledge)
Founder and President, CHS Campus Greens
Come be a part of the ridiculously awesome youth movement for clean energy! www.ssc.org


Y'all need to chill and live happy. Snowmobiles are fun, cross country skiing is fun, snowcoaches are fun. Live and let live and de-stress, people! The sun will come up in the east in the morning, life is too short.


Do y'all ever enjoy the parks, or just worry yourselves to death over 'em?
Jus think of how many years are taken off your life with worry. Do ya really think the bison give a rat's a$$ over snowmobiles? They're just worried about their next meal. They're probably pretty used to the noise. In the meantime, let's LIVE and just LIVE! RIDE those snowmobiles (looks like a LOT of FUN), SWISH them skis, let's party dude!!


One of the major concerns in establishing "no-fly" zones in certain regions of the Grand Canyon was "to preserve a wilderness experience for visitors by reducing noice pollution in areas of major tourist activity", so that those wishing to experience the canyon's environment could do so without the feeling of standing at the end of an airport tarmack. That, and to relieve the congestion that was a growing safety concern, with too many flights and too many underskilled pilots contributing to the degredation of air safety in the most populace regions of the canyon. I doubt whether a serious arguement can be made that in so doing, the NTSB and FAA have made a drastic negative impact on those wishing to take part in an aerial tour of the Abyss, whether via helicopter or light aircraft.

Preserving the "wilderness experience" is, or at the very least, should be a primary directive of the NPS as it pertains to all their units. That is, after all, why the parks were established in the first place, not as playgrounds for any mode of vehicular traffic that we manage to invent. There are currently countless thousands of acreage set aside for winter sport usage, with miles and miles of established trails developed specifically for these purposes. I don't see the point for the wanton disregard for environmental impact and other studies to be blatantly ignored for the convenience a puny minority who wish to partake in these activities. Certainly the increase in revenues aren't justification, which one would think the NPS might take into account. This is quite a similar situation to the "smoke free" zones being enacted by many State legislatures. Your personal freedoms end when they begin to have a negative impact on the health of others, "for the good of all", was how our local referendum was phrased. Second-hand smoke is NOWHERE near as dangerous in a dispersed environment as fuel leaks and other operational impacts of ATV's, snowmobiles, ORV's and other environmentally unfriendly vehicles. If people make the choice to take their version of "enjoying the parks" as a quite-time experience, as it was intended to be, that original statute in Teddy Roosevelt's founding doctrine should be all that is needed to limit or ban these types of intrusions from the wilderness experience.

For the record, I enjoy ocassional snowmobile and ATV excursions. But I see no need to intrude where the traffic is neither welcomed or harmful. The country is still large enough to find your niche, no?


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