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Read the Winter Use Plan. Comment period ends May 29, 2002


Winter Use Plans: Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway

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Replying to:

National Park Service proposes banning or limiting snowmobiles in Yellowstone, Grand Teton




By CHRISTOPHER THORNE


Associated Press Writer




WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Park Service is proposing that snowmobiles be banned or their numbers greatly reduced at Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks.




The draft proposal, released Tuesday, is based on a Park Service study that re-examined whether the agency should uphold the Clinton administration's decision to eliminate all recreational snowmobiling in the parks by the winter of 2003-04.




Critics say snowmobiles disrupt wildlife and pollute the air. Supporters say the environmental threat is overstated and snowmobilers bring needed revenue to communities around the parks.




The park service study, which will be open to public comment before a final version is drafted in November, lays out four alternatives:




-Phase out snowmobiles beginning in December, with a full ban effective in the winter of 2003-04.




-Begin phasing out snowmobiles in 2003-04, with a full ban in 2004-05.




-Cap the number of snowmobiles at 500 and make them meet stricter emission standards by 2005.




-Cap the number at 330, require stricter emission standards and require snowmobilers to travel with a Park Service guide.




Yellowstone is one of the nation's signature parks, featuring abundant wildlife, geysers, lakes and streams. Its 2.2 million acres stretch from the rocky northwest corner of Wyoming into southern Montana and eastern Idaho.




The 310,000-square-acre Grand Teton park lies south of Yellowstone and is connected to it by the 82-mile John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway.




Up to 1,000 snowmobilers enter the parks on weekends, with most going through West Yellowstone, Mont., the closest town to a park gate. From there, a favorite route is the 32-mile road from the West Gate to Old Faithful, the famous geyser.




Park employees have reported that on windless days, a blue haze covers the gate and the route, and workers have complained of sore throats, burning eyes and lethargy. Last weekend, workers wore Park Service-issued respirators at the West Gate entrance.




Concerns over noise and air pollution prompted the Park Service to issue the ban in November 2000. That decision was put aside on June 29, 2001, when Interior Secretary Gale Norton agreed to reassess the issue to settle a lawsuit brought by the state of Wyoming and snowmobile manufacturers.




As part of the settlement, the Park Service was ordered to conduct a second study and include new data on air pollution that the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association had argued was left out of the first study.




The new study debunks the manufacturers' argument, finding that most of the data the association had insisted was new had either already been considered or consisted of promotional material, like glossy sales brochures.




Environmentalists who advocate banning snowmobiles entirely were critical of the options that would keep the parks open to the machines, even at lower numbers, and said the second study amounted to a $2.4 million waste of taxpayer money.




"The information in this study provided by the snowmobile industry is not new and does not change the Park Service's fundamental conclusion that snowmobile use damages these two magnificent national parks," said Alix Rauschman, a spokesman for the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition.




Ed Klim, president of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association, has been critical of the Park Service in the past, suggesting that the new study failed to use new data he said was offered by the industry.




Klim did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment on Tuesday. Neither did spokesmen for Polaris Industries Inc. or Arctic Cat Inc., the two leading makers of snowmobiles.




A 60-day public comment period will begin when the study is published on March 29. It is available now on the Internet.