Wyoming News

Status quo 1, Snowmobiles 0

New Federal Winter Use Study Won’t Change Yellowstone

By Brodie Farquhar, 11-21-06

Yellowstone snowcoaches, courtesy National Park Service

In broad terms, the draft environmental impact statement released Tuesday by the National Park Service may be a harbinger of how federal agencies will act during the lame duck phase of the Bush Administration -- stand pat.

The Park Service opted to continue the primary points of its Temporary Winter Use Plan -- limit the numbers of snowmobiles to the prior cap of 720 per day in Yellowstone (and 140 per day in Grand Tetons and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Parkway), require best available technology (BAT) to limit noise and air pollution and require commercial guides within Yellowstone itself.

I would submit that despite the Democratic victory earlier this month, NPS staff are not so emboldened that they feel they can defy their Bush administration minders by banning snowmobiles entirely. Nor are they so cowed by political appointees that they recommended a complete surrender to go back to the hey-day of unlimited snowmobile numbers and trashing the commercial guide and BAT requirements.

In sum, NPS officials have adopted a compromise position -- one which will not provoke the wrath of the Bush administration, nor the wrath of the Democratic Congress that will take power in January.

The preferred "stand pat" alternative essentially gives the Park Service to ride out the next two years and see what happens in the 2008 elections -- with Congress and the White House. If the presidency AND the Congress go Democratic in 2008, then NPS can safely ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone -- as the science has recommended for the past six years.

I’m sure that snowmobile advocates and conservationists would have liked a more clear-cut victory, but this is something both sides can live with, because it changes nothing on the ground.

Let me repeat: This "stand pat" position is not going to change anything on the ground. Yellowstone is quieter and cleaner -- not because of BAT sleds, but because the number of snowmobiles has been so low in recent winters, and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

You'll continue to see the relative stagnation of snowmobile numbers and the rapid growth of snowcoach ridership, because the business, culture and experience of motorized access to the parks has fundamentally changed and is never going back to the "good/bad old days" when over 1,000 two-stroke snowmobiles zoomed through the parks on peak days.

In the 1990s, the Yellowstone experience was built on fast, light, two-stroke snowmobiles that allowed riders to engage in their noisy, speedy sport. And when a park ranger was nearby, you could slow down and sedately cruise around the parks, drive past bison and visit Old Faithful. And when the ranger left, you could let 'er rip.

That snowmobile experience has fundamentally changed in recent years, especially the past two winters. Instead of fast, light two-stroke snowmobiles, all snowmobile traffic in the parks is limited to heavier four-stroke models that are designed to be quieter and less polluting, as well as for cruising, but not speed or catching air. These heavier sleds get stuck in the snow if they venture off groomed trails and the requirement for commercial guides means that everyone obeys the speed limit. For any adrenaline-junkies addicted to the sheer rush of bombing around and flying over the snow at high speed, this is a major let-down, and they simply aren't going back to Yellowstone.

I'd compare it to the difference between driving a sporty Mustang convertible on the open highway (and no cops around), to driving your grandma's Caddy through a quiet, tree-lined, upper-class neighborhood with "Neighborhood Watch" signs on every corner. Both involve motorized transportation and can be pleasant in their own ways, but the experience is widely different.

Meanwhile, snowcoaches are enjoying faster growth in ridership and are much more flexible in use than snowmobiles:

• Whether you have a dry winter or a ton of snow, snowcoaches readily adapt (from tracks to wheels), while snowmobiles do not.


• Cross-country skiers or snowshoers can bring their gear on a snowcoach, be dropped off and picked up. That could be awkward on a snowmobile, with poles and skis sticking out every which way.


• Snowcoach riders can shoot pictures and engage in conversation with their commercial guides on a continual basis. Snowmobile riders have to stay in a group and can only talk to or listen to their guide when the group stops periodically. You may have had a question about that bull bison by the road, but that was several miles and 10 minutes ago.

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