NPS alters park snowmbile rules

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

It was a day late, but that didn't mean it was a dollar short.

That's how National Park Service officials characterized their Tuesday announcement outlining permanent snowmobile and snowcoach rules for Yellowstone National Park.

The announcement spelled out only one major change from the latest NPS rules: Instead of locking the gates on Sylvan Pass, along the route to the park's east entrance, the Park Service will play the situation by ear and let snow and avalanche conditions determine when and for how long to open that route.

“When we believe the danger is too high, the pass will be closed,” NPS Intermountain Regional Director Mike Snyder said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “We will not take unacceptable risks for our employees. It's going to be up to Mother Nature to determine when it's open and when it's not.”

The Park Service had previously said it planned to close the pass to motorized traffic for the entire season, which elicited controversy in Cody, Wyo., the closest town to the east gate. Snyder said federal officials will sit down with Wyoming and local officials next year to determine other potential options.

As for the rest of Yellowstone, the agency is sticking to a plan it announced earlier this fall, in which as many as 540 snowmobiles and 83 snowcoaches, all of them using “cleaner, greener,” noise and pollution technology, will be allowed on guided tours into the park every day.

All administrative machines will use the new technology as well.

The new rules go into effect for the 2008-09 season. The park is still scheduled to open for the upcoming season on Dec. 19, admitting as many as 720 snowmobiles a day this winter, though that cap has not been reached in recent years.

One group, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, immediately decried Tuesday's announcement, calling the decision “a deep wounding slash” in the park that doesn't meet “the intent” of law.

“This decision needs to be dramatically corrected,” the coalition said.

In recent years, an average of 250 to 290 sleds a day have entered Yellowstone during the winter season.

The new rule would allow that roughly to double, and that will mean more noise and more air pollution in a place that deserves the best protections available, the coalition contended in a press release.

“This is a decision that has twisted science to meet a political agenda,” coalition member Rob Arnberger said. “It is a shame that the Park Service, which should be a national environmental leader, has selected an alternative that is not the best choice” for air quality, wildlife and human experience in the park.

But Snyder said he was confident that level of travel “will be fully in compliance with” Environmental Protection Agency concerns, and will allow visitors an efficient way to see Yellowstone in the winter.

He said that real-time monitoring data last winter showed “we were meeting the values of the park and we were not having unacceptable impacts,” despite some “bumps” in noise level.

Those were caused mostly by old-fashioned, loud snowcoaches due for replacement, he said.

Snyder's comments came after he signed a document called a “record of decision” that implements the winter-use plan. It was due Monday, but was delayed by lots of internal discussions and questions at NPS headquarters in Washington D.C., Snyder said.

Snyder said he would like to see the issue put to rest.

“I hope we're able to move forward,” he said. “And I hope we're able to implement” the plan.

Winter use in Yellowstone has been the subject of a 10-year dispute, with $10 million worth of studies and major disruptions to the winter tourism economy as legal battles ebbed and flowed.

The retiree coalition will now take its concerns to Congress, according to executive director Bill Wade.

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