Park Service: 82 percent support snowmobile ban

Casper Star-Tribune - 10/16/01 - YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - Eighty-two percent of public comments on the park's winter management favor a snowmobile ban, according to the National Park Service.

Conservation groups rallied around the results, which also apply to Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.

"The public is saying more clearly than ever, 'We support the decision to phase out snowmobiles and protect Yellowstone,"' said Jon Catton, a spokesman for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

"What also comes ringing through this public comment is that the snowmobile industry can force a new process through, and it has, but it can't change public opinion."

Environmentalists pointed out that it is the fourth time the public has supported phasing out snowmobiles from the parks.

The Park Service decided last year to phase out snowmobiles over three winters, starting with a cap at historical numbers this winter. Snowmobile access will be cut by half next winter and banned completely beginning the winter of 2003-2004.

The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association contested the decision with a lawsuit. Under a settlement, the Park Service agreed to revisit the issue with a supplemental environmental study and has until next November to present its findings.

Greater Yellowstone officials said public support for a snowmobile ban has been growing despite the snowmobile industry's opposition. The initial public comment period on the supplemental study ended Sept. 24 and 8,483 people responded.

Environmentalists say the snowmobile industry has so far provided little new information on cleaner and quieter machines that could reverse the earlier decision.

Meanwhile, Yellowstone spokeswoman Marsha Karle said the settlement established an unusually quick process for the supplemental study and the park does not have the estimated $2.4 million needed to complete it.

"We have supplied our Washington office with the information they need to pursue the funding," she said.

The funding could come from a supplemental appropriation from Congress in the Interior Department's budget.

"Suffice it to say that if Yellowstone and Grand Teton have to come up with it, something else will have to give," Karle said.

A draft of the new study must be available to the public by January.

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