Hamilton Reef
03-30-2002, 09:46 AM
For the snowmobilers from Michigan big money polluter President GW Bush has responded to the need to destroy the national park. If there isn't enough snow in Michigan you can still travel to Yellowstone Park, wear a gas mask for air pollution, harass the wildlife, and destroy the winter peacefulness of the park. The campaign contributions and insider connections from the polluting businesses around the park have paid off. The park rangers have been threatened job retaliation if they try to do their job or try to protect Yellowstone Park from the continued destruction from Bush's snowmobiles.
Snowmobilers get park-use reprieve
By MIKE STARK
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
Snowmobilers will get at least two more winters in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, according to a proposal by park officials released Friday.
Snowmobiling in the parks and on the connecting John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway was scheduled to be phased out after next winter. Park officials now want to bump that deadline to the end of the 2003-04 winter.
"We haven't had time to implement the existing use plan and we also need time to complete this SEIS," said Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews.
The Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which looks at the environmental effects of different winter use alternatives for the parks, isn't scheduled to be finished until November.
The study is part of a settlement between the National Park Service and the snowmobile industry, which sued over the Clinton administration's plan to phase out snowmobiles by 2003.
While the SEIS is being finished, park officials also are trying to set up a mass transit, snowcoach-only system outlined in the current winter use plan.
The postponement of the snowmobile ban would give a little breathing room for businesses that get an economic boost from sled use in the winter.
"It certainly would help us," said Eric Stevens, manager at Pahaska Tepee west of Cody, Wyo. He added that a complete phase out of snowmobiles would probably mean his operation would have to close.
It's also important that the Park Service be ready to maintain winter use services, including the snowcoach system, according to Marysue Costello, executive director of the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce.
"If the ruling goes into effect now, they're not going to be prepared for it," she said.
The delay would give communities such as West Yellowstone more time to adjust their marketing plans if the Park Service decides to change what kinds of activities will be allowed in the park, she said. An added benefit is that the extra year will give more time to show off cleaner, quieter snowmobiles, she said.
Jon Catton of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition said the delays - prompted by the lawsuit from the snowmobile industry - are costly to taxpayers and allow more environmental damage inside the park.
"First and foremost, Yellowstone needs more protection, not more delay," Catton said. This winter, he said, "snowmobilers were caught speeding, cutting through fragile meadows and trespassing."
The public has made it clear that it wants snowmobiles to be phased out, Catton said. As the comment period for the draft SEIS comes to a close May 29, Catton said, he expects that message to be reiterated.
"I think we'll hear that from the public for the fifth time in three years," he said.
Snowmobilers get park-use reprieve
By MIKE STARK
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
Snowmobilers will get at least two more winters in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, according to a proposal by park officials released Friday.
Snowmobiling in the parks and on the connecting John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway was scheduled to be phased out after next winter. Park officials now want to bump that deadline to the end of the 2003-04 winter.
"We haven't had time to implement the existing use plan and we also need time to complete this SEIS," said Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews.
The Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which looks at the environmental effects of different winter use alternatives for the parks, isn't scheduled to be finished until November.
The study is part of a settlement between the National Park Service and the snowmobile industry, which sued over the Clinton administration's plan to phase out snowmobiles by 2003.
While the SEIS is being finished, park officials also are trying to set up a mass transit, snowcoach-only system outlined in the current winter use plan.
The postponement of the snowmobile ban would give a little breathing room for businesses that get an economic boost from sled use in the winter.
"It certainly would help us," said Eric Stevens, manager at Pahaska Tepee west of Cody, Wyo. He added that a complete phase out of snowmobiles would probably mean his operation would have to close.
It's also important that the Park Service be ready to maintain winter use services, including the snowcoach system, according to Marysue Costello, executive director of the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce.
"If the ruling goes into effect now, they're not going to be prepared for it," she said.
The delay would give communities such as West Yellowstone more time to adjust their marketing plans if the Park Service decides to change what kinds of activities will be allowed in the park, she said. An added benefit is that the extra year will give more time to show off cleaner, quieter snowmobiles, she said.
Jon Catton of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition said the delays - prompted by the lawsuit from the snowmobile industry - are costly to taxpayers and allow more environmental damage inside the park.
"First and foremost, Yellowstone needs more protection, not more delay," Catton said. This winter, he said, "snowmobilers were caught speeding, cutting through fragile meadows and trespassing."
The public has made it clear that it wants snowmobiles to be phased out, Catton said. As the comment period for the draft SEIS comes to a close May 29, Catton said, he expects that message to be reiterated.
"I think we'll hear that from the public for the fifth time in three years," he said.