In another twist in the drama over snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park this winter, the National Park Service changed course again yesterday and announced it will allow up to 720 of the machines per day in the park.
The confusion stems from dueling lawsuits and court rulings, and the impending Dec. 15 start of the winter season.
The Park Service originally proposed to allow 540 snowmobiles into the park per day, but a federal judge in Washington, D.C., threw out that plan in September, citing the emissions and noise impacts on the park. The agency then proposed a plan earlier this month to allow up to 318 snowmobiles a day in Yellowstone for the next three winters.
The Park Service has now interpreted a recent ruling by a federal judge in Wyoming as an order to reinstate a previous rule from 2004 that allowed up to 720 commercially guided, best available technology snowmobiles and up to 78 multi-passenger snowcoaches per day. Conservation groups expressed outrage over the agency's interpretation of the ruling.
That higher limit will not be reached most days. During the last two winters, an average of about 296 snowmobiles a day entered Yellowstone, the agency said. The park's peak day was during last December, when 557 snowmobiles entered the park.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Wyoming issued an order on Nov. 7 that was critical of the September ruling by the D.C. judge but did not overturn it. Brimmer wrote that he strongly disagreed with the ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, which came in response to environmentalists' lawsuits filed in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia arguing for no snowmobiles.
In a decision critical of the Park Service, Sullivan said the 540-per-day proposal clearly elevated recreational use over conservation of park resources, relied on faulty data and failed to explain why its "major adverse impacts" are necessary. According to the Park Service's own data, he noted, that plan would have increased air pollution, exceeded use levels recommended by agency biologists to protect wildlife and caused major adverse impacts to the natural soundscape.
Sullivan ordered the agency to come up with a new plan. Meanwhile, the state of Wyoming had filed its own lawsuit in federal court in Cheyenne, saying the Park Service should allow more than the 540 snowmobiles per day.
Brimmer wrote that although the D.C. lawsuit was filed first, his court should have had jurisdiction because Yellowstone is in its backyard, and he criticized Sullivan for taking the case. He also said he found no evidence for Sullivan's ruling and that he believes the Park Service thoroughly reviewed and investigated the effects of the rule on the park's environment. But Brimmer refused to make a finding contrary to that of the D.C. court out of "comity and respect" for the court and let Sullivan's ruling stand.
However, Brimmer said that while the Park Service came up with a new plan, as Sullivan ordered, the agency should reinstate the previous rule. A 2004 rule that established a temporary, three-year winter-use plan allowing up to 720 snowmobiles a day expired at the end of the 2006-07 winter season.
"At this juncture, the Court finds it unlikely that the NPS will have the ability to promulgate and put into effect a rule for this winter season in a timely manner," Brimmer wrote. "The Court finds it appropriate to reinstate the 2004 temporary rule without the sunset provision. This will provide businesses and tourists with the certainty that is needed in this confusing litigation."
But the Park Service was in the midst of promulgating a rule that it said would have been in place by the start of the winter season. The agency had already published an environmental assessment and a proposed rule to allow up to 318 snowmobiles and 78 multi-passenger snowcoaches a day for the next three winters. A 15-day public comment period on the environmental assessment ended yesterday and one on the proposed rule ends Nov. 20.
In response to Brimmer's ruling, the Park Service will put that process on the back burner. Instead, the agency said yesterday, it will publish a rule in the Federal Register to reinstate the 2004 rule, and Yellowstone will operate under it for this season.
"The reinstated 2004 rule will also allow the NPS time to analyze public comment received on the temporary plan and its supporting proposed rule, in order to guide a long-term planning process for winter use in the parks as directed in the orders issued by both federal courts," the agency said in a press release.
Monitoring data from the past four winters show excellent air quality, few wildlife disturbances and reduced sound impacts, according to the Park Service. "All were at fully acceptable levels, and below levels recorded during historic, unregulated use in the parks, which show that the limited use of guided, BAT snowmobiles has worked," the agency said.
But environmentalists expressed outrage. Bill Wade of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees said he hopes the new leaders of the Park Service "see all this for what it is and turn this train wreck around."
"We thought we had seen the limit of unprincipled leadership regarding decisions related to winter use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton, but obviously we hadn't," Wade said. "NPS leaders had every opportunity to do what is 'right' for the resources and uphold the preferences of the American public as a result of the D.C. Court decision. Instead, they've chosen to cherry-pick some language in the Wyoming Court's decision that they've decided allows them to do exactly the contrary."
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