Yellowstone winter use will get another study

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

People have been arguing about winter use in Yellowstone National Park for 15 years, and another round is set to begin.

The National Park Service Friday announced the formal onset of yet another environmental impact statement. This one, when complete, is meant to spell out the long-term management of snowmobiles and snowcoaches in Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park and the John. D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.

The options include:

€ Various limits on the number of snowmobiles that may enter the parks.

€ Guiding requirements, including allowing some unguided or non-commercially guided use.

€ Allowing only mass-transit vehicles, such as snowcoaches.

€ Leaving some road stretches ungroomed for "experimental purposes" to study the use of groomed roads by bison.

Issues to be examined include the effects of winter use on air quality and visibility, wildlife, natural soundscapes, employee and visitor health and safety, visitor experience and socioeconomics.

All of those issues have been previously studied.

"Only the government could repeat the same study, spend money, and call it progress," said Chris Mehl, of The Wilderness Society's Bozeman office. "We've done this before."

The Park Service released its first study of Yellowstone snowmobiling in 1990, a document that called for further study when snowmobile visitation reached 143,000.

That threshold was crossed three years later. By 1997, the Fund for Animals and other groups had sued, complaining of a Park Service failure to write an EIS.

The Park Service then agreed to write that document and close one winter road for a while to see how bison react. That issue flipped back and forth for a few years, and the road was never closed.

That EIS, often called the Clinton EIS, was completed in 2000, and called for phasing out snowmobiling over three years.

Pro-snowmobile groups sued, and the Bush administration agreed to write a supplemental EIS. That document was completed in 2003 and called for allowing snowmobiling to continue, but under strict guidelines.

Then federal courts in Washington, D.C., and Wyoming blocked both the Clinton and Bush plans, and the Park Service wrote a less complex study, called an environmental assessment, for a three-year temporary plan, which is in place through the winter of 2006-07.

Hundreds of thousands of people commented on the various documents, which the government spent at least $7 million compiling.

Meanwhile, the public was understandably confused about whether the park gates were open, and some people were reluctant to use guides and rent approved "cleaner, greener" machines, as required by the Park Service.

Snowmobile visits fell by 25 percent in Yellowstone last winter, while snowcoach visits climbed 14 percent.

Only 24,049 snowmobiles entered the park last year, less that one-fifth than did in 1993, and 17,218 people entered on snowcoaches.

Both previous EISs said switching entirely to snowcoaches is the "environmentally preferred" alternative

The new EIS is still in the "scoping" phase, which means people can offer comments to suggest issues and alternatives.

The comment period is open until Sept. 1, 2005. The document is scheduled for completion prior to the 2007-2008 season. More information is available on the Internet at http://parkplanning.nps.gov

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com

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