New plan would allow 318 snowmobiles in Yellowstone

A grizzly bear walks across a snowy Yellowstone meadow. NPS photo

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — A new plan to provide for limited, regulated snowmobile and snowcoach access in Yellowstone National Park for the next two winters has been approved. The plan allows up to 318 commercially guided, Best Available Technology (BAT) snowmobiles and up to 78 commercially guided snowcoaches daily in Yellowstone for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 winter seasons. And, it  continues to provide for motorized oversnow travel over Sylvan Pass and the
East Entrance road.

The park has allowed up to 720 snowmobiles a day into the park over the past five winters, but the park saw an average of 205 snowmobiles and 29 snowcoaches last winter. The park's highest recorded day was 557 snowmobiles in late December 2007.

During the next two years, the National Park Service will prepare a new Environmental Impact Statement and a new long term plan for winter use in Yellowstone National Park.

However, this decision provides long term direction for winter use management in Grand Teton National Park, and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway.

Twenty-five snowmobiles a day will be allowed to travel on the Grassy Lake Road, with no BAT or guiding requirement.  On Jackson Lake, an initial daily limit of 25 BAT snowmobiles will provide access to ice fishing opportunities for persons with appropriate fishing gear and a valid Wyoming fishing license. The limit may be increased to 40 snowmobiles per day if monitoring of park resources indicates acceptable conditions. Grooming and motorized oversnow travel on the Continental Divide Snowmobile Trail between Moran Junction and Flagg Ranch will be discontinued.

“While I have not yet had a chance to fully review the announcement of the Park Service, I am concerned that this decision goes too far in limiting access and may be unwise for a country doing all it can to reinvigorate a moribund economy” said Congressman Mike Simpson, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment which funds the National Park Service. “Yellowstone National Park has remained one of America’s most important and spectacular public places for over 125 years while accommodating a broad range of visitor activities, including snowmobiling. I intend to meet with senior officials at the National Park Service about this decision over the coming days to hear their reasoning and share with them my concerns.”

Rules to implement the decision will be published in the coming weeks in the Federal Register, to allow the parks to open for the winter season as scheduled on December 15, 2009

This is part of the October 15, 2009 online edition of The Island Park News.

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