Yellowstone National Park in summer is a masterwork. Yellowstone in winter is a miracle. Snow drapes lodgepole pines and capes bison as they forage in the vapor from thermal pools. That familiar Yellowstone image is a winter photographic staple. But it is giving way to another: rangers, also barely visible but obscured in snowmobile exhaust, not water vapor, and wearing gas masks as they tend entrance stations. And bison are as apt to be seen fleeing from snowmobiles as going about their serious winter business of husbanding the energy to make it to spring. That is America's greatest national park today.
"... a national treasure"
"Americans have a national treasure in the Yellowstone Park and they should guard it jealously. Nature has made her wildest patterns here, has brought the boiling waters from her greatest depths to the peaks which bear eternal snow, and set her masterpiece with pools like jewels."
- Frederick Remington, after visiting Yellowstone in 1893
The National Park Service tells us snowmobiles cause problems in Yellowstone: blue haze lingers over Old Faithful; Park Service rangers don respirators, but only to breathe; bison and other wildlife flee snowmobiles. Unfortunately, and despite the indictment, snowmobile use will continue in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks this winter.
A Full Complement of Species
For 130 years, we have protected Yellowstone National Park, first in what is now a whole system of natural spectacles that has been called the "best idea America ever had." We've protected its geysers, its magnificent views and its natural sounds. And we've protected its wildlife: Yellowstone is the only place in the lower 48 states where all the native animals present before European settlement still survive. Wolves, bison, bears, elk, bald eagles and other important species thrive alongside remarkable geothermal features, majestic mountains, pure lakes and rivers.
Yellowstone has about 250 active geysers and 10,000 thermal features within its 2.2 million acres. It is a global one-of-a-kind. Throughout its history, though, it has confronted threats. The Congress has intervened to protect Yellowstone from plans to dam the Yellowstone River and to build a railroad through the park. The Wilderness Society will ask it to intervene again to combat the latest threat to this greatest of American National Parks: recreational snowmobile use. It is a threat that continues, and seems likely to grow, despite a decade of scientific study that documents damage from snowmobiles.
Banning Science, Not Snowmobiles
The National Park Service in 2000 approved a phaseout of snowmobile use that would have reduced the numbers in the winter of 2002-2003 by half and eliminated the machines entirely by the winter of 2003-2004. But park rangers will be reaching for their gas masks yet again this winter, for the Bush Administration has proposed a plan that could actually increase snowmobile use in our first national park.
The snowmobile count for this winter is expected to be around 65,000, as usual, because of pressure the snowmobile industry applied on the Administration. In the latest development, the Administration has agreed to settle an industry lawsuit against the phaseout with a draft plan that will allow snowmachines to continue indefinitely in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Worse, it could actually increase their numbers. The public can expect to see the final plan in early 2003.
Before it unveiled its new snowmobile management proposal in November 2002, the National Park Service studied, once again, areas of particular concern. They included air quality, visibility, soundscapes, health and safety, impacts on wildlife and visitor experience. The study found that in virtually all areas, snowmobile use damages the park. The agency says that visibility will be impaired around Old Faithful, visitors will hear more noise, and "employees and visitors who are susceptible to respiratory problems would likely be affected." Science implicates human health, of both visitors and park employees, in another way: snowmobile use spreads poisons, benzene and carbon monoxide among them, through both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The list goes on; so will the damage it catalogs.
The Administration's new plan simply dismisses the science that so clearly demonstrates that snowmobiles disrupt wildlife, drown out natural sounds and create tunnels of blue haze that obscures visitors' views of Yellowstone's stark winter beauty.
Deferring to Snowmobile Industry
In deference to the industry, it will risk not only a matchless national park but the health of its own employees as they staff entrance stations surrounded by idling snow machines, with more stretched out into the distance waiting to get in. The Environmental Protection Agency has told the National Park Service the only way to protect human health, air quality and water quality is to eliminate snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
The verdict of science clearly supports phasing out snowmobiles in these parks; the public overwhelmingly demands it. With each public comment opportunity on snowmobile management, opposition to snowmobiles has risen. During the last such comment opportunity, over 350,000 Americans responded. Eighty percent supported the phaseout in Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
Our Efforts
The Wilderness Society and its conservation partners have worked hard to protect Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks from damage by snowmobiles. The culmination of that effort was the agency's decision in 2000 to phase out snowmobiles in favor of less damaging snow coaches. The latest study supports the earlier decision: snow coaches are the best way to protect these parks and still afford the greatest number of Americans to enjoy their winter beauty. We continue to educate the public, to encourage public involvement in the issue and to ask the Congress to reinstate the original decision.
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