July 5, 2006

By Noelle Straub, Gazette Washington Bureau

Billings Gazette

Billings, Montana

http://www.BillingsGazette.com

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Washington, D.C. - The rule allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park could be extended through at least 2010 under a provision included by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., in a spending bill recently approved by a key Senate committee.

Burns, who chairs the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, authored the provision in a bill funding the Interior Department and other agencies for 2007. It is intended to extend the current rule permitting up to 720 snowmobiles a day in the park.

The provision would keep that rule in place for three years, or until the Interior Department issues a final rule on the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone, which is expected late next year. If that new rule is challenged in court, Burns' provision would reinstate the current rule for a period of up to three years.

Burns spokesman Matt Mackowiak said the senator included the provision because he wanted to give a sense of certainty to businesses and communities near Yellowstone, and also to tourists wondering if they'll be able to snowmobile in the park.

Burns also wanted to take aim at courts that might step in and take action on the final rule. "It will protect the winter-use season from frivolous lawsuits and liberal judges," Mackowiak said.

The full Senate must still approve the spending bill. The House version of the legislation, which passed that chamber in May, did not contain the snowmobiling provision.

The current, temporary plan allows a daily parkwide limit of 720 snowmobiles. Snowmobiles must be part of commercially guided trips and meet park standards on noise and pollution.

That rule is set to expire after the 2006-07 winter season.

The National Park Service is studying what its final policy should be on winter use of snowmobiles. A draft proposal is expected late this fall and a final plan in fall of 2007. Options range from a complete ban on snowmobiles to increasing the number currently allowed.

Under Burns' proposal, the current rule would be extended for three years or until the date the Interior secretary implements regulations on the issue. But if a court "enjoins or otherwise limits the implementation of the replacement regulations," the current plan would be reinstated for up to three years.

Yellowstone Park spokesman Al Nash said the current, temporary regulations were meant to provide some certainty during the process of writing the new environmental impact statement.

He said that, at open houses this spring in Bozeman [Montana] and Jackson [Wyoming], some people expressed concern that the final rule is not expected to come out until nearly the beginning of the 2007-08 winter season. They feared repeating the situation of a couple years ago when the season began without a clear policy, which made planning difficult, he said.

"Based on what I know about the language that Sen. Burns inserted in this bill, this would be one way to provide some measure of certainty for people to plan as we're moving this process forward," Nash said.

But Chris Mehl, spokesman for the Bozeman-based Northern Rockies office of The Wilderness Society, said Burns' proposal flies in the face of a recent policy directive by new Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and criticized the lack of public hearings on it.

Kempthorne recently said that the National Park Service has dual goals but that in the case of conflict, conservation will trump commercial or recreational activities.

"We would hope that Congress would uphold what the new interior secretary just laid down about the importance of protecting parks rather than attaching a last-minute rider with no hearings or opportunity for input," Mehl said.

He also said that more Yellowstone visitors are beginning to choose mass-transit snowcoaches over snowmobiles.

"We've seen the last couple years, people are voting with their feet," he said. "So why Congress is stepping into that, when the free market is working, is another question."

The Wilderness Society is still looking into what the part of the provision dealing with court action would mean on the ground, Mehl said. "It raises a number of red flags. The whole point is, let the pros do their jobs, the career experts at the Park Service. Leave them alone."

Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., who chairs a key national parks subcommittee, said people deserve "reasonable access" to Yellowstone.

"My belief is that snowmobiling is an activity that can and should be provided for in an environmentally responsible way in the park," he said in a statement. "Having the appropriate rules in place will allow park vendors to plan for their winter seasons and have an understanding about what kind of access will be allowed."

Burns and Thomas teamed up in 2004 and 2005 to pass legislation ensuring that, despite legal wrangling, the current rule would be in effect though those winter use seasons.

Copyright 2006, Billings Gazette.

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