Recent development with Yellowstone Snowmobiling

[MtnBiker]

Hey thats cool. The prior post was a little sloppy, so I fixed it. And I to can be sarcastic at times . BTW welcome to the board.

 

[acludem]

I'd like to see snowmobiling outlawed all together in these parks. Protecting the natural beauty of these parks is too important. Ride a bike or walk if you want to enjoy our national parks, motorized vehicles of any kind should be allowed only on roads in these parks, unless by authorized personnel such as foresters or park rangers.

 

[MtnBiker]

That is were the snowmobiles are allowed in Yellowstone, on designated roadways.

 

[LoudBeagle]

Yellowstone Park has been my backyard all of my life. Snowmobiles pose no threat to the park in any way. It is a lie. If people are worried about "pollution" then everyone, everywhere should quit driving cars because, after all, pollution from cars is carried by clouds, which can end up over the park, so that when it rains or snows in the park, the pollution is dumped there. And the idea that snowmobiles disturb animals is really ludicrous! The animals in the park don't even look up most of the time when snowmobiles drive by. And if they do look up, they look downright bored! I have seen it again and again firsthand! The REAL agenda behind all of this is for an elite group of people to gain total control over the park, and maybe one day close it entirely off to the "common" American citizen. It is not that these elites love the park and the animals so much - it is that they HATE middle-class America so much and the fact that so many people can still find FREEDOM and enjoyment in nature without their interference. They want us ALL in little coaches on guided tours through the park, where THEY decide what we'll see and when and where we'll stop. Now that's a REAL nature experience, isn't it? Might as well go to Disneyland! Come to think of it, maybe that's where these elites come from!

 

[LoudBeagle]

By the way, anyone who would operate a snowmobile in areas other than on the roads is an idiot who is taking a chance. Don't forget that we're taking about Yellowstone, which basically sits atop a huge volcano. There are many areas of thin crust, which if something heavy enough crosses, like a snowmobile, you could fall through into a boiling pool of water. There are people who still disobey the rules and continue to be scalded or boiled alive. It happened again just a few years ago. This despite the warning brochures everyone is given every time they enter the park.

 

[MtnBiker]

No kidding Loudbeagle. I have been in Yellowstone many times myself. At the gates people are handed brochures on not approaching buffalo, (they may seem tame and docile yet are quite wild and very fast when they want to be) despite the warnings there are injuries (and sometimes deaths) every year from some idiot going to close to the animals. Just goes to show you there will always be people who make the poor choices.

 

[MtnBiker]

Yellowstone to Issue New Snowmobile Rules

February 11, 2004 01:30 PM EST


CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks scrambled Wednesday to put in place temporary rules for snowmobile use this season to comply with the latest ruling from a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Wyoming issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday against Clinton-era restrictions on the vehicles, which are popular with tourists but criticized by environmentalists. He ordered the Park Service to develop temporary rules for the remainder of the season - which ends next month - including the use of cleaner, quieter snowmobiles.

The temporary rules, announced during a conference call with reporters Wednesday, will increase from 493 to 780 the number of snowmobiles that can enter Yellowstone each day this season. Only a portion of them would be required to be the cleaner, quieter machines, but all will have to be part of commercially guided trips, Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said.

For Grand Teton, 140 snowmobiles would be allowed each day in Grand Teton and the parkway connecting the two parks, park spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo said.

Lewis refused to speculate on what rules would be in effect next season or what the next legal step would be. She said officials "have been focusing on the current order in front of us."

Brimmer's move was cheered Tuesday by Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the businesses that rely on renting snowmobiles to visitors, but jeered by environmentalists, who fear an increase in pollution, noise and damage.

In December, just before the snowmobile season in the parks, another federal judge, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., reinstated the Clinton administration plan to ban snowmobiles in favor of less-polluting, mass-transit "snow coaches."

Sullivan's ruling allowed a limited number of snowmobiles in the parks this winter, but all had to be part of commercially guided trips. The ruling called for a complete ban next winter and blocked the Bush administration's attempt to scrap the rules in favor of cleaner machines.

Snowmobile manufacturers and Wyoming officials had appealed Sullivan's ruling, saying the phase-out plan would devastate communities that rely on winter tourism.

Environmental groups support the ban, arguing that snowmobiles create air and noise pollution in the parks and endanger the health of park workers. They also contend that the snowmobiles hurt wildlife.

David McCray, a snowmobile-business operator in West Yellowstone, Mont., said his concern now is the potential confusion the latest ruling may cause, particularly approaching the President's Day holiday weekend.

"To once again change the rules for this year - if there's any advantage for West Yellowstone businessmen, it's going to be negligible," he said.

A message left Tuesday for the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association were not immediately returned.

In welcoming the ruling, Freudenthal said in a statement that, "The people that are suffering under the move toward banning snowmobiles are the small-business owners in and around the parks."

But Michael Scott, executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a conservation group, called Brimmer's ruling "terribly unfortunate."

"Yellowstone was clearly on a path to a better future, to cleaner air, to healthier wildlife," he said. "I think this ruling potentially puts that in jeopardy."




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I thought the last judge ruling would be overturned.