News/Headlines

Yellowstone Update

Winter is back in Yellowstone, and so are the snowmobiles. If Winter Wildlands Alliance and its partners in the coalition to protect Yellowstone have anything to say about it, this will be the last year of private and commercial snowmobile use in the world's first national park. Yes, we won a huge court victory when U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan set aside the Park Service's revised plan to allow continued snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. But Judge Sullivan's ruling has already been appealed, and there is a strong likelihood that members of Congress who support continued snowmobiling in the parks will introduce legislation to allow it.

Winter Wildlands credits the thousands of skiers, snowshoers, and other winter recreationists who took the time to submit comments to the Park Service in support of a peaceful and quiet Yellowstone, and who wrote letters to their local newspapers and in general worked tirelessly to protect Yellowstone's unique and cherished resources and visitor experiences. We expect we will turn to you again in coming months, however, to continue urging your elected officials to do the right thing for Yellowstone and to make sure the phase-out takes place next winter as planned.

We will continue working with our supporters and our coalition partners to protect these special places. And we will commit ourselves to work with those in West Yellowstone who are interested in diversifying the local economy by welcoming skiers and snowshoers back to the parks and to the surrounding trails and other recreation opportunities. It is our hope at Winter Wildlands that West Yellowstone will soon be known as much more than the "snowmobile capital of the world," but rather as the "winter wonderland of the world" by inviting all winter recreationists to visit and enjoy the region's unrivaled natural beauty – including the natural sights and sounds that Yellowstone has to offer.

» General Background
» Recent Administration Action
» New Scientific Data and Abandonment of Previous Pledges
» EPA Expresses New Concerns
» Second Court Case On Yellowstone
» Economic Background
» What's happening now
» Park officials speak out

General Background
In November 2000, following a decade of study, the National Park Service concluded that mushrooming snowmobile use was impairing the resources and values of Yellowstone National Park—air quality, quiet, wildlife, and visitor enjoyment—in violation of the agency's legal mandates. The Park Service study determined that the best solution was to phase out snowmobile use within Yellowstone and transition to full snowcoach access. This summer, nearly four years later, the National Park Service and EPA independently confirmed for the third time that visitors would enjoy Yellowstone with much less risk to their health, far less impact on park resources, and greater opportunities to enjoy the park's natural ambience, if snowmobile use is ended and snowcoach access expanded.

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Recent Administration Action
Despite the additional studies and their confirmation of previous findings, the Bush Administration is proposing to allow nearly triple the number of snowmobiles this winter that were in Yellowstone last winter. The National Park Service reports that the resulting impacts will include unhealthy levels of air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and benzene, noise at levels that may prompt visitors and employees to "choose" earplugs, and further disturbance and displacement of wildlife. As the Park Service acknowledged, these impacts will exceed the protective thresholds that the agency itself believes are necessary to safeguard the health of Americans visiting Yellowstone.

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New Scientific Data and Abandonment of Previous Pledges
The Administration has repeatedly tried to justify proposals to allow snowmobile use to continue in Yellowstone with the promise that the National Park Service would closely monitor conditions in the parks to ensure that snowmobile impacts did not exceed thresholds established to protect human health and park resources.

In the Administration's own words: "Should impacts to [Park] resources exceed these thresholds, park managers would adjust the number of daily snowmobile entries, reevaluate BAT [Best Available Technology] requirements, or a combination of these or other management actions." —2003 Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, page 245.

Not only in documents, but in public statements by the Secretary of Interior herself, the Administration repeatedly assured the public that "adaptive management" would be used to tighten restrictions on snowmobile use if necessary to protect park resources and values. "We'll be monitoring the effects and, if we need to, ratchet it down." —Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Billings Gazette, June 29, 2003.

Despite these assurances, the Administration is proposing to do precisely the opposite. In the face of monitoring data that revealed repeated violations of noise thresholds last winter season by the newest models of snowmobiles, the Administration is not proposing to "ratchet down" snowmobile use but is rather proposing to nearly triple the number of snowmobiles that enter Yellowstone each day.

Monitoring at Old Faithful last winter, when daily snowmobile numbers averaged fewer than 300, revealed that the threshold for protecting the natural soundscape of Yellowstone's most popular destination was exceeded on 28 of 30 days when monitoring was conducted. Yet instead of reducing snowmobile entries or taking other steps to meet the protective threshold, the National Park Service is now choosing to allow levels of manmade noise it previously considered unacceptable and simply define these impacts as less problematic than it previously did. The Administration continues to shun a snowcoach transportation system that would meet its threshold to protect quiet while still providing full public access.

In its newest proposal, the Administration is simply choosing to redefine what it previously determined were unacceptable impacts to park resources and human health so that snowmobile use can be accommodated at levels that are predicted to exceed protective thresholds.

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EPA Expresses New Concerns
The Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concern about the Administration's newest proposal to allow 720 snowmobiles per day in Yellowstone.

In a September 20, 2004 letter to the superintendents of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, EPA reiterated the conclusion that it reached twice before: that banning snowmobiles and substituting expanded snowcoach visitor access "is the 'environmentally preferred alternative' which would best protect park resources."

EPA is encouraging the National Park Service not to abandon compliance with protective thresholds which the Park Service said were designed to "ensure that impairment and unacceptable impacts do not occur." (In the Administration's newest proposal to allow 720 snowmobiles a day, the Park Service predicts that thresholds to protect air quality and quiet will be exceeded—for example: with persistent engine noise at Old Faithful and unhealthy levels of carbon monoxide at Old Faithful and Yellowstone's West Entrance).

EPA also pointed out that the Park Service has no idea whether the Administration's newest proposal will cause haze in the park, and how much of the park will be affected by snowmobile engine noise.

This especially raises a concern because while the Administration repeatedly has assured the public that snowmobiles approved for use in Yellowstone would get cleaner, not dirtier, the opposite has happened. Compared to the 2002 models, the 2003 and 2004 snowmobiles approved for use in the Park are more polluting. The Administration's failure to acknowledge and address this issue will have real consequences for people who will breathe the additional pollution.

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Second Court Case On Yellowstone
These concerns with the new Yellowstone rule will come before Judge Emmet Sullivan who has before him a more comprehensive case than the one before Judge Brimmer. It includes the findings of additional studies that were undertaken by the National Park Service during the past four years in response to a snowmobile industry lawsuit. These additional studies verified the agency's earlier findings including its central conclusion that snowcoaches would provide significantly greater protection to human health and Yellowstone itself than a continuation of snowmobile use. In essence, the broader scope of the Sullivan case incorporates everything that the National Park Service has determined.

In December 2003, Judge Sullivan ruled that the National Park Service is bound by its overarching mandate to conserve the national parks and cannot arbitrarily allow snowmobile use in the face of its own studies showing that snowcoaches, not snowmobiles, provide the best available protection for Yellowstone's environment.

Judge Sullivan has ordered the National Park Service to publish new rules for this winter season that comply with his ruling last December. These rules are expected to be finalized and submitted to Judge Sullivan in mid-November.

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Economic Background
The Idaho Falls Post Register recently examined tax data from West Yellowstone and commented:

Idaho Falls Post Register
September 5, 2004

Our View: West Yellowstone's bounce

Remember all those bleak stories about West Yellowstone's winter economy shriveling up after dueling federal judges decimated snowmobile traffic into Yellowstone National Park?

Something odd happened after the story faded from the front page. The Montana community's economy showed some resilience.

Turns out West Yellowstone's winter attraction isn't snowmobiling. It's the park. Maybe the idea of Yellowstone with less air pollution and noise appealed to more cross-country skiers and people willing to take a snowcoach into the park. But visitors still came, and they spent money.

West Yellowstone doesn't so much need the certainty of snowmobiles‹as lawyers for the snowmobile industry and the states of Wyoming and Montana told a judge last week‹as it does simple certainty.

Last year, the Bush administration allowed 950 snowmobiles a day in the park, reversing a Clinton era plan to phase out snowmobiles and switch to snowcoaches.

On the eve of the season in mid-December, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of Washington, D.C., threw out the Bush plan, reinstated the Clinton plan and ordered the maximum number of snowmobiles allowed into the park cut to 493.

Next, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne, Wyo., threw out the Clinton plan, and that brought the cap up to around 780.

By then, however, the snowmobile trade had been disrupted and traffic averaged about 260 machines a day.

How bad was the economy hit? The town of West Yellowstone collects a 3 percent tourist tax. That's a good measure of business activity, and it shows January's receipts were off 31 percent from a year before.

Then a funny thing happened. The tourist trade rebounded.

February's tax collections jumped 48 percent from the month before, and actually showed a 2 percent increase over February 2003. Not great, but hardly a collapse.

Indeed, the entire year—including the ill-fated snowmobile season‹showed a 5 percent increase in tax receipts.

Other park gateway communities are more diversified so the snowmobile trade didn't affect them as much.

That doesn't mean the West Yellowstone economy didn't suffer. But it does suggest there's a way for the community to thrive without compromising the park's air quality, wildlife and solitude.

West Yellowstone can adjust and remarket itself. People will continue to visit the park in winter. They'll ski or snowshoe in. They'll take snowcoaches. Given the right incentives, they'll probably stick around to ride a snowmobile through the national forest lands that surround the park. And they'll spend money.

The Bush administration's latest plan capping snowmobiles at 720 a day only delays that day. It means more lawsuits, more studies and more disruptions to West Yellowstone.

The Bush administration is telling the community what it wants to hear. But it's doing the town no favor.

Marty Trillhaase

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What's happening now
In October 2004, Judge Clarence Brimmer ruled on a lawsuit initiated by the snowmobile industry and the State of Wyoming that the process leading up to the 2001 decision by the National Park Service was flawed. But while Brimmer thought the process was politicized, two subsequent studies conducted by the National Park Service have come to the same conclusion - that a transition to snowcoaches was best for the health, safety and enjoyment of Americans and for our nation's first national park.

It is important to note that Judge Brimmer's ruling rejected an industry argument that, under the Organic Act which governs our national parks, the National Park Service has an obligation to keep snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Judge expressly recognized that the National Park Service has discretion to transition to full snowcoach access so long as the agency undertakes an appropriate process.

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A flawed plan
The Park Service acknowledged when it released its pro-snowmobile recommendation last March that it was not the alternative that would best protect the two parks. In essence, the agency spent $2.4 million for yet another study on the winter use issue in Yellowstone and identified an "environmentally preferred alternative" to replace snowmobiles with snowcoaches and the "preferred alternative," which allows more snowmobiles in the parks.

The FSEIS and the Record of Decision to implement the snowmobile option essentially make a strong case to remove snowmobiles from the parks, even though the Park Service chose otherwise. Among all the options studied, the one favoring multi-passenger snowcoaches "Best preserves the unique historic, cultural, and natural resources" in the two parks and would lead to the lowest levels of impacts to air quality, water quality, natural soundscapes, and wildlife, the Park Service said.

It acknowledged picking snowmobiles over snowcoaches will generate twice as much carbon monoxide emissions in the parks, create more haze at Old Faithful, pose an undue risk to visitors with asthma and other respiratory conditions, increase wildlife harassment and mortality, and permeate the park with inescapable noise even on ski trails far from snowmobile routes.

Just as important, the snowcoach option would not — as snowmobile advocates claim — lead to economic disruption in West Yellowstone and other "gateway communities" outside Yellowstone: "Even with the phase-out of snowmobiles, economic impact to local communities in the five-county area have been found to be negligible to minor."

So the Park Service agrees phasing out snowmobiles, as originally intended after a decade of public involvement and using the best science available, would protect the parks better than its plan to keep snowmobiles but with new restrictions. The Park Service also claims requiring new four-stroke machines would reduce noise and air pollution problems, but it then acknowledges those reductions still won't protect the parks as much as the snowcoach option.

At a time when maintenance backlogs in Yellowstone and other national park units are into the hundreds of millions of dollars, the snowmobile plan will cost $1.3 million more than the snowcoach option to implement. The Park Service will need to implement an elaborate monitoring scheme to track snowmobile impacts. Moreover, law enforcement costs will go up to try to stem the ever-increasing number of violations by snowmobilers, which last winter set a new record for citations with 358 violations for everything from speeding to underage driving, boundary violations, wildlife harassment and other offenses. So taxpayers will wind up paying more for fewer protections at the world's first national park. You're being asked to subsidize one form of recreation — snowmobiling — even though it will continue to harm Yellowstone.

This isn't about reducing visitor access to the parks. It's about the right of one small group to spoil the visitor experience for everyone else, and to continue to threaten the health and well-being of Yellowstone's resources and employees. Yellowstone can once again become the winter wonderland it once was. Meantime, snowmobilers will still have thousands of miles of trails on national forests around the parks to enjoy their sport.

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Park officials speak out
Judge Sullivan's decision was immediately welcomed by a variety of former Park Service officials, who were among the leading advocates for banning snowmobiles as the best way to protect Yellowstone, as well as by other park experts and those who make a living guiding visitors to the park in winter. Examples:

"Yellowstone is where our country first said, 'This is what our national parks mean to us.' This ruling reaffirms that fundamental purpose. Our duty is to take care of our national parks as fully as possible so that we pass them in good health to our grandchildren. Had we let that principle slip in Yellowstone to benefit the snowmobile industry, it would have set a terrible precedent in all our national parks."
-- Denis P. Galvin, Deputy Director of the National Park Service under presidents Reagan, Clinton and during the first year of President George W. Bush's administration.

"As someone who proudly wore a National Park Service uniform for more than 30 years, I'm overjoyed. This ruling says that as a country we're not giving up on what we started in Yellowstone. Protecting Yellowstone to the best of our ability was a great idea in 1872 and the court today has reaffirmed that it's still a great idea in 2003."
-- Bill Wade, who served in the National Park Service for more than 30 years, finishing his career as Superintendent of Shenandoah National Park.

"This ruling is already rippling through the National Parks. It will be a huge morale boost for men and women who wear the Park Service uniform. For three years in the first national park, the Bush Administration has been pushing to toss aside what the Park Service conscientiously determined is necessary to protect Yellowstone and the health of employees and visitors. It has been shocking and demoralizing to be told, in effect, 'We know what is best for people's health and the park, but we're not doing that because the snowmobile industry wants something else.' The Administration had placed the fundamental mission of the Park Service in doubt-today, that shadow has been lifted. The court has reaffirmed that our responsibility is to protect the national parks as fully as possible. Now, the employees will be watching to see how the Administration adjusts its management plans to comply with the judge's ruling."
— Rick Smith, a 30-year veteran of the National Park Service, served as Acting Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park.

"I'm a professional guide and photographer and have spent 25 years in Yellowstone. I couldn't be happier with this ruling. Yellowstone is still magnificent today because previous generations didn't exploit it. When they recognized their actions were causing damage, they placed the park back on track to keep it healthy for future generations. Today's ruling does this and I'm thrilled. I'm also pleased as a local citizen and business owner because this ruling is good for our economy. Three million people a year come through our gateway communities to visit Yellowstone for one reason: there's no other place like it in the world. This ruling will clean up Yellowstone's air and restore peace and quiet. In the end, what's good for Yellowstone is good for our economy.
— Tom Murphy, resident of Livingston, MT, and professional guide and photographer.

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