Park Service mulls plan to allow snowmobiles in court ruling’s wake
Posted on September 22nd, 2008By Noelle Straub
Greenwire: National Park Service officials and Bush administration lawyers are exploring ways to allow snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park this winter after a federal judge threw out the plan that would have allowed 540 machines into the park per day.
“Park mangers and staff members, in consultation with attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Interior, are looking at a wide range of options, which might provide for motorized oversnow access this winter,” a Park Service statement said. “They recognize the normal start of winter season is now less than 90 days away.”
In a decision harshly critical of the National Park Service, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan last Monday rejected the agency’s plan to allow up to 540 recreational snowmobiles and 83 snowcoaches to enter Yellowstone every day beginning Dec. 15. He vacated both the plan and the related environmental impact statement and sent them back to the agency for further action.
Two days after the ruling, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees accused Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis of “stalling” by not quickly issuing new guidelines for this winter, saying that in 2004 the Park Service announced a new plan within a day of a court ruling. The group also charged park officials with falsely asserting that Sullivan’s ruling could result in no snowmobiles this winter, when the court “simply told the Park Service to come up with a plan that complies with the law.”
But on Friday, the Park Service said the 2004 rule that established a temporary, three-year winter-use plan remains valid and currently governs snowmobile use in the parks. The authority it granted to operate the machines in Yellowstone expired at the end of the 2006-07 winter season, park officials said, and unless some change occurs, neither snowmobiles nor snowcoaches will be allowed in Yellowstone or Grand Teton this winter.
“The discretionary authority of the superintendents of the parks is limited to actions in accordance with regulations,” the statement said. “Therefore, they cannot simply issue an order to open the parks to snowmobile or snowcoach travel this winter.”
The coalition said today that the statement does not allay their concerns because the superintendent “isn’t being totally forthright in terms of their authorities.” Bill Wade, chairman of the group’s executive council, said park officials had used their authority last year under the Administrative Procedures Act to publish an emergency rule to allow use for last winter.
“Why can’t they go ahead and say they have that authority, it’s been used before and can be used again unless they discover a more appropriate way to go?” Wade said. “What we object to is the appearance of ’stringing along’ the public, the outfitters and other interested parties, and creating confusion and uncertainty.”
The group wants the park to allow the number of snowmobiles this winter to remain at the daily average of the past five seasons, about 260 snowmobiles per day, and then begin phasing down the number of snowmobiles next winter while promoting expanded snowcoach access.
Snowmobile groups have vowed to appeal Sullivan’s ruling. They want the park to allow up to 720 snowmobiles per day in Yellowstone, saying his decision represents a “radical departure from established legal principles and interpretations of governing statutes.”
Sullivan’s ruling came in response to environmentalists’ lawsuits filed in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia that argue for no snowmobiles. The state of Wyoming filed its own lawsuit in federal court in Cheyenne, saying the National Park Service should allow more snowmobiles. After Sullivan’s order, the judge in that case asked lawyers to present options for his court to give the Park Service for the coming winter.
Under the rejected plan, snowmobiles had to meet best available technology standards for emissions and noise. Snowcoaches also had to meet those standards by the 2011-12 winter season. The plan required all snowmobiles to be accompanied by commercial guides and travel in groups of one to 11. In Grand Teton National Park, it would have allowed 40 snowmobiles a day on Jackson Lake to facilitate ice fishing and 25 snowmobiles a day on the Grassy Lake Road.
Sullivan called the plan “arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by the record, and contrary to law.” He said it clearly elevated recreational use over conservation of park resources and failed to explain why its “major adverse impacts” are necessary to fulfill the purposes of the park.
The Park Service failed to explain how increasing snowmobile usage complied with the conservation mandate of the Organic Act and failed to provide a “rational explanation” for the source of the 540 limit, Sullivan wrote.
According to the Park Service’s own data, Sullivan noted, the plan will increase air pollution, exceed the use levels recommended by agency biologists to protect wildlife and cause major adverse impacts to the natural soundscape in Yellowstone.