Yellowstone launches winter planning process

Jon Jarvis, NPS Director. DOI photo

Public open houses set for Feb. & March
^{By ELIZABETH LADEN}
ISLAND PARK — Snowmobiling is in full swing in Island Park and West Yellowstone. And although many people find the sport fun and a great way to enjoy winter, snowmobiling is also a political issue that has divided people for decades.

The National Park Service (NPS) has still not settled on a permanent winter plan that satisfies environmentalists, who generally dislike snowmobiles, and snowmobilers, who want to visit Yellowstone on snowmobiles.

Today (Jan. 29), NS planners announced that they will once again start public scoping for a long-term winter use pan and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for America’s first national park.

This plan is supposed to manage winter visitation so that park visitors have a range of “appropriate winter opportunities in a suitable setting that they do not impair or irreparably harm park resources or values,” says the NPS’s news release.

Scoping is an opportunity early in the planning and EIS process for the public, organizations, and other agencies to suggest issues and alternatives that NPS planners could consider.

“We begin this process with a clear goal: a winter use plan for Yellowstone National Park consistent with the NPS mission, best available sound science, accurate fidelity to the law, and the long-term public interest," said NPS Director Jon Jarvis. "While the public scoping is just a first step, it is an important one, and the NPS looks forward to receiving comments and learning from them," he noted.

The EIS will consider a variety of alternatives for managing winter use in the park, including the use of snowmobiles, snowcoaches, and wheeled vehicles and guiding requirements. The EIS will evaluate the environmental effects of winter use on air quality and visibility, wildlife, natural soundscapes, employee and visitor health and safety, visitor experience, and socioeconomics.

A draft EIS and proposed rule are expected to be released in the spring of 2011 for public review. The NPS intends to complete the EIS process and issue any new regulations prior to the start of the 2011-2012 winter season.

Currently the park is operating under an interim winter use plan in effect through the winter of 2010-2011 while the NPS prepares this long-term plan. This temporary plan allows a maximum of 318 snowmobiles in Yellowstone each day. All visitor snowmobiles in Yellowstone must be led by commercial guides. All commercially guided snowmobiles are required to be "Best Available Technology (BAT)," which are the cleanest and quietest commercially available snowmobiles. Up to 78 snowcoaches are also permitted each day, and they must be commercially guided.

BAT snowmobiles have 4-cycle engines, are extremely quiet, and they do not smell. They are quieter than most snowcoaches, and meet EPA emission standards, which some snowcoaches fail to do. Still, organizations like the Bozeman-based Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) continue to say that snowmobiles are “foul smelling” and noisy, and encourage people to visit Yellowstone in snowcoaches. Last week, GYC announced that it wants snowmobiling banned from Yellowstone by the start of next winter. 

In a July, 2009 Senate Energy Committee hearing in Washngton, D.C, U.S. Senator John Barrasso slammed the Obama administration’s threat to limit snowmachine access to Yellowstone National Park.

Senator Barrasso grilled Jon Jarvis, who at the time was still the nominee for National Park Service director.

Barrasso said Jarvis represents the extreme policies of the Obama administration that will put environmental ideology before the public interest.

“The Obama Administration’s plan (to severely limit snowmobile numbers) will roll back years of public input and court rulings. Visitors to Yellowstone will be robbed of reasonable and responsible access to the park,” stated Barrasso. “The Administration plan will halve the number of visitors to Yellowstone. It will have a significant impact on Wyoming’s gateway communities.The National Park Service move will leave small recreational businesses around Yellowstone in limbo. The proposed limits are below what was recommended by the Park Service less than two years ago.”

Read excerpts from the committee hearing at the end of this article.

Public scoping comments will be accepted until midnight Eastern Time, March 30, 2010. Comments should be substantive, pertinent, and provide new information not available in earlier winter use planning processes.

Submit comments online at:
http://parkplanning.nps.gov/yell.

To submit comments in this manner, select "Yellowstone National Park" from the drop down box and then follow the link for the winter use plan.

Comments may also be mailed to Winter Use Scoping, Yellowstone National Park, P. O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190.  

Comments may also be hand-delivered to Yellowstone National Park headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming. Comments will not be accepted by fax, e-mail, or in any other way than those specified above.

Your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Public scoping open houses:

February 16, Idaho Falls, Idaho, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Hilton Garden Inn, 700 Lindsay Blvd.

February 18, Billings, Montana, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Hilton Garden Inn, 2465 Grand Road.

March 15, Cheyenne, Wyoming, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Little America Inn and Resort, 200 West Lincolnway.

March 17, Washington, D.C., from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm in The Old Post Office, 12th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.

A scoping brochure is available at

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/yell.

Additional information about winter use planning and visiting the parks in the winter, can be found at

http://www.nps.gov/yell/winteruse.htm.

Excerpts from Transcript of Huly 2009 Energy Committee Hearing:

Barrasso: The New York Times had an editorial last week and it said that there shouldn’t be any access by snowmachines in Yellowstone Park, period, so you support snowmobile access to Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks, is that what I hear you say?

Jarvis: At this point I cannot commit one way or the other. I don’t know the details of this, but I do commit to winter use and winter access and a sustainable decision; one that can provide continuity and planning for the gateway communities and for the park itself.

Barrasso: Well, planning if you say there’s no snowmobiles, I mean, that’s an absolute answer, but that’s not the one that anybody in Wyoming is looking for. So when you say you’re committed to winter access I want to know that you’re committed to winter access for snow machines in Yellowstone Park.

Jarvis: As I say, we have litigation in this case. We have two dueling courts, we have to do an interim rule. Hopefully we can kick in immediately to do the environmental impact statement, the final rule, which will analyze the best available science, the working group that is out there, all of the stakeholders on a range of alternatives. But at this point it would be incorrect for me to make a commitment to one or the other. We have to go through the process, I think that is the key.

Barrasso: Well on November 17 of this last year, the National Park Service released a statement about winter use in Yellowstone, and this is the quote; ‘Monitoring data from the past four winters shows excellent air quality, few wildlife disturbances and reduced sound impacts,’ the things that you just mentioned. ‘All were at fully acceptable levels,’ air quality, wildlife, sound, ‘All were at fully acceptable levels, and below the levels of historic, unregulated use of the parks, which show that the limited use of guided and the best available technology snowmobiles has worked. So the science appears to support current management of the snowmobiles in the park.’ Do you agree with that National Park Service statement of November 17?

Jarvis: Absolutely, I think that all of those indicators have been…all of these programs that we have implemented as a system, as you have mentioned, have significantly improved, not only the quality of the environment in this case, but also the public experience. But what we’re trying to reach now is something that is sustainable into the future, applying all of those standards.

This is part of the January 28, 2010 online edition of The Island Park News.

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