Good News For Snowmobilers

TxDoc · November 16, 2002

Bush Reverses Snowmobile Rule

Parks to Limit Number on Peak Days

By John Heilprin

Associated Press

Tuesday, November 12, 2002; Page A23

The Bush administration plans to allow more snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks on average, while cutting numbers on the busiest days. The decision reverses one taken during the Clinton presidency that would have banned them by next winter.

There would be no limits on snowmobiles for the winter season beginning next month and running until mid-March, Interior Department officials said.

But starting in December 2003, no more than 1,100 snowmobiles a day would be allowed in the two popular parks together and a portion of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway connecting them, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

For the past decade, the parks have had an average of 840 snowmobiles daily during the winter but as many as 1,650 a day during holiday and other busy weekends. Both parks are in northwestern Wyoming, but Yellowstone also extends into Idaho and Montana.

Interior planned to release an environmental impact statement today that details the proposal. The ceiling represents a compromise between the unlimited access wanted by snowmobile makers and users and the ban sought by environmental groups and some Democrats in Congress.

"This is just a boon to the industry," said Kristen Brengel of the Wilderness Society, an environmental group. Bill Dart, public lands director for the Idaho-based Blue Ribbon Coalition, which advocates opening more public lands to recreational motor vehicles, said his group is satisfied with the peak-days ceiling, even though it might not reflect the rising popularity of snowmobiling in the parks in recent years.

"Clearly, I don't think they're caving to industry," Dart said. "They're talking about one-third less numbers on peak days."

To minimize the impact and maximize safety, the regulations would require that 80 percent of the snowmobiles allowed in the two parks be led by commercial guides. Also, beginning next year commercially rented snowmobiles would have to have four-stroke engines, which are said to be quieter and less polluting. Private snowmobile owners could use traditional two-cycle engines until the 2004-2005 winter season.

Interior officials said their plan is based on a belief that four-stroke engines can significantly cut noise and reduce emissions of hydrocarbons by 90 percent and carbon monoxide by 70 percent.

They left open the possibility of adjusting the caps based on results from air quality and noise monitoring stations that will be installed in the parks.

"This plan, in essence, stays away from the extremes," said Eric Ruff, an Interior Department spokesman. "It strikes a good balance. It protects resources and allows visitors a unique experience."

The Environmental Protection Agency recommended in 1999 that snowmobiles be barred from the two parks as the "best available protection" for air quality, wildlife and the health of people who work and visit there. Interior advanced that idea in the waning days of the Clinton administration.

The Bush administration ordered a new review as part of a settlement with snowmobile makers who challenged the proposed ban.

DigUout · November 17, 2002

Since I'm a longtime snowmobiler and Wyoming resident, I've been following this story pretty closely for the past couple of years. I, of course, have some thoughts on this -

The ramifications are not just losing the right to sled in the park, but that the government could start closing public lands, nationwide, to recreational use based on environmental groups complaints that end up with enviros getting only their way and leaving nothing for anyone else to enjoy. That my friends, is not solving the problem. That is dictating to one faction and TS to everyone who doesn't agree with them. I think we're a better society than that, and the Bush administration's attempt at a compromise reflects just that.

If you want to keep the public lands in your backyard open to the public and maintain your right of access to them, stay informed. The enviros are a passionate and powerful voice who play off of our fears for support of their cause. They use that fear and muddled statistics in hopes that you won't take time to search out the truth and come to an informed decision regarding your public land use.

Public lands should be for everyone to use and enjoy and hopefully the enviros attempts to dictate that will expose them to not only the American public but to the government that they are attempting to manipulate. Their thinly veiled charade of attempting to close public lands to rec vehicles to "help preserve Mother Nature", is nothing more than a smokescreen to have the land for use only as they want, with no offerings of a compromise for the rest of the tax payers and US citizens. That is dictatorship folks, and it stinks!

So please stay informed, stay responsible and stay above petty complainers who would tell you how you can use your public lands. Information is available and the truth is apparent to those who would seek it -

.......man, the view from my soapbox is really something!

Torque Junkie · November 18, 2002

Well said, Dig!

As a Montana resident I know exactly what you're talking about as well. I'm glad to see some common sense coming back to land management. These Envrio-Nazis are really making it difficult to do anything up here.

-Mike