“According to NPS's own data, the (plan) will increase air pollution, exceed the use levels recommended by NPS biologists to protect wildlife, and cause major adverse impacts to the natural soundscape in Yellowstone,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said in a court order Monday.
The current Winter Use Plan is the latest effort under the Bush administration to block an eleventh-hour Clinton administration decision to phase snowmobiles out within three years. Snowmobile manufacturers quickly challenged the decision in court, and by 2001, the Bush administration settled the lawsuit and agreed to re-examine the Clinton-era plan.
After years of legal wrangling, dueling judges and interim plans, the NPS finally decided to allow 540 snowmobiles to go through in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway every day, starting this winter.
The judge said letting snowmobiles in the park “elevates use over conservation of park resources and values.” The National Park Service "fails to articulate why the plan's 'major adverse impacts' are 'necessary and appropriate to fulfill the purposes of the park,'" Sullivan said in his order.
The National Park Service must redo the plan, Sullivan said.
Banning snowmobiles from Yellowstone has long been opposed by the state’s business community, state government and the state’s congressional delegation on grounds the ban would harm the state’s tourism economy.
Yet the Park Service concluded that even with a phase-out of snowmobiles, economic impacts to local communities in the five-county area would be “negligible to minor.”
The Park Service argued that economic impacts across the five gateway counties would be less than one percent overall, could reach 8.5 percent in West Yellowstone, but only in the short-term, and would have “no measurable economic impact” in other gateway communities such as Jackson and Cody, due to their “size and diversity.”
Ed Klim, president of the International Snowmobile Manufacturer’s Association, was not immediately available for comment this morning.
Conservation groups have long opposed the NPS plans to allow snowmobiles in the parks, citing air and noise pollution and harassment of wildlife. These groups celebrated the Clinton-era decision to phase out the noisy, two-stroke snowmobiles and replace them with snowcoaches. Repeatedly, the Park Service's own research shows snow coaches are better for the environment.
Park officials said they averaged about 290 snowmobiles a day in 2006, the most recent number available. Conservationists argued that allowing 540 snowmobiles, a cap higher than that average, would not help solve the park's problems.
“This ruling will ensure that visitors are not disappointed by air and noise pollution when they make the one winter trip to Yellowstone of their lives,” said Amy McNamara, National Parks Program Director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. “We take our hats off to the tour businesses that didn’t wait for this ruling. Their increasing investments in modern snowcoaches are already making it possible for winter visitors to access and enjoy Yellowstone while protecting it.”
The judge said letting in the proposed number of snowmobiles "elevates use over conservation of park resources and values." The National Park Service "fails to articulate why the plan's 'major adverse impacts' are 'necessary and appropriate to fulfill the purposes of the park,’” Sullivan said in his order.
Yellowstone Park spokesman Al Nash said the NPS will review Sullivan's decision.
"Our goal is to review this and to see how we move forward for this coming winter," Nash said.
The winter season begins Dec. 15.
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