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| visitor w/ respirator |
Snowmobilers have turned Yellowstone National Park into their own winter wonderland, scaring the wildlife from their homes and polluting the atmosphere
[photo]. Smog lined the roadways and rangers directing traffic began wearing respirators. The crush of noisy, smelly machines deteriorated other visitors' experience of nature. Most snowmobiles currently used employ two stroke engines that pass 20-33% of the fuel which is mixed with lubricating oil straight out the tailpipe. Pressure from environmentalists and a lawsuit convinced the Park Service to write a Winter Use Plan to address the threat to Yellowstone's preservation. The Clinton administration began the process of writing a rule but it was not finalized before the Charlatan and his fossil fuel handlers were able to kill the Clinton rule which suppressed snowmobile use in the Park in favor of multi-passenger snow coaches.
NRDC and other conservation groups represented by
Earthjustice won a victory against Bush's permissive rule for snowmobiles on the basis that it would impair the Park's resources. The following years saw a battle between conservations and snowmobile advocates over how the Park could be used in winter without killing off the natural beauty of the place.
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| Yellowstone Lake sunset |
The Park Service has adopted a different
regulator approach in contrast to caps on vehicle numbers which hopes to balance private access during the winter with protection of the Park's natural assets. In the final rule the Service has set up "110 transportation events" per day. Only fifty of those can include snowmobiles and those events cannot exceed an average of eight snowmobiles during the winter. The rule may allow total traffic to increase above the current cap of 318 snowmobiles per day, but manufacturer's and operators are required to cut noise and carbon monoxide emissions by 2015 using the best available technology if they want to operate their machines in the Park.
NRDC is generally pleased with the new rules after sixteen years of lawsuits and five environmental impact statements. Of course the rule could be more advantageous to Nature. In
US Person's view,
snowmobile use is incompatible with the Park's real purpose--preservation of the wild (see Organic Act of 1916). It is the publics' Park, but if they want to revel in unspoiled nature they should put forth the effort during their visits to keep it that way and
respect the year-round residents.
