Snowmobiles Banned From Yellowstone

by Patricia Collier

Environmental and animal advocacy groups are praising a new law which forbids the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park after this winter.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan made the ruling December 16, one day before the park's official snowmobile season opened. The Court's decision also limits the number of snowmobiles allowed in the park to 493 per day.

A Clinton-era plan had called for phasing out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone, but the Bush administration overruled that mandate and actually increased the number of snowmobiles allowed to 950 per day.

The Bush plan called for the development of "cleaner, quieter" snowmobiles, but Sullivan noted in his 49-page report the Bush plan was "conspicuously timed with the change in administrations," and said there was evidence it "was completely politically driven and results oriented", not driven toward protecting the park and the wildlife.

The lawsuit, filed by The Fund for Animals, Bluewater Network, Ecology Center, and several individuals, centered around the park's practice of "road packing", or preparation of the roads for use by snowmobiles.

"Yellowstone is a national treasure, not a privileged playground for snowmobiles and other recreational abuse," said D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with The Fund for Animals.

"If the Park Service intends to comply with its protectionist mandate and engages in an objective analysis of the impacts of road packing on bison and other wildlife, it must conclude that road packing activities should be terminated," Schubert said.

Road packing is the grooming, or clearing, of unplowed roadways, disrupting otherwise natural surroundings. Packing has been found to be harmful to the animals in the park because if they use the groomed roadways they can often be led out of the park.

Bison have been particularly affected by both snowmobiling and road packing because once outside the park, they are allowed to be hunted and killed.

"The bison is the very symbol of the National Park Service, yet this agency is forcing these majestic animals out of Yellowstone by allowing rampant snowmobile use, and then slaughtering them once they leave the park's boundaries," said Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals.

"America's last free-roaming herd of bison deserves protection, not persecution," he added.

Markarian said use of the packed roads by deer, elk, moose, wolves and other animals, has resulted in artificial changes to the distribution and habitat of those species as well.

Sullivan noted the Park Service disregarded public opinion because many past public comment sessions revealed a majority of people did not want snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone.

Snowmobile dealers said the ruling would be costly, not only for their businesses, but for their customers, who paid higher prices for the new "cleaner and quieter" vehicles.

"It's cruel and unusual punishment for us," said Randy Roberson, owner of Yellowstonevactions.com, in West Yellowstone. "Whether you like snowmobiles or not, we don't deserve this."

Sullivan's ruling also requires the government to study road packing, an action requested by environmental and animal rights groups in 1999.

If it is determined that packing indeed harms wildlife, then grooming of the roads inside the park will be stopped and all forms of snowcoach travel (large passenger vans) will be banned.

The ruling also ordered the Park Service to respond by February 17 to a 1999 petition submitted by the Bluewater Network, asking that snowmobiling be banned in all national parks.

According to Sullivan, the Park Service "simply cannot debate that pressing human health concerns, as well as the possibility of grave environmental damage, demand prompt review" of snowmobile policies at all the country's national parks.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.