Vol 3, # 89

   Monday, October 18, 1999

YELLOWSTONE
WEATHER
Highs 40s, Lows 20s
Partly Cloudy

   

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Travel News:

ROAD REPORT
Some road
construction
delays.
 

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNET) -- The Winter Use controversy in Yellowstone is heating up this winter, and it does not appear that it will cool down anytime soon, despite a forecast for a colder Montana and Wyoming area winter this season.

At this point, the National Park Service's proposed plan for plowing the West Yellowstone to Old Faithful roadway during the winter months continues to receive opposition from the snowmobile industry and many environmentalists, the latter who cite the danger to wildlife in the Park and buffalo migrating out of the Park.

The snowmobile industry, in the meantime, is calling for the use of cleaner burning and quieter snowmobiles, plus better enforcement of speed limits in the Park and a snow machine curfew, as a way of countering the Park Service's proposal.

And then last week, a coalition of ten environmental groups raised the bar even higher by proposing that snowmobiles be banned completely from Yellowstone.  These groups cite the fact that snowmobiles emit hundreds of times the pollution of automobiles and that their sound carries for up to ten miles.  They maintain that snowmobiling should never have been introduced to Yellowstone in the first place (it was introduced to the Park in the 1960s).  Their so-called "Citizen's Solution" would allow visitors to access Yellowstone by snowcoach instead of snowmobile and would begin in 2002.  In addition, the East entrance to Yellowstone would be closed in the winter in order to halt the use of explosives to maintain the roadway. 

The ten groups which are advocating the removal of snowmobiles from Yellowstone are the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, The Wilderness Society, Idaho Conservation League, Montana Environmental Information Center, Montana Wilderness Association, National Parks and Conservation Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Predator Conservation Alliance, Sierra Club and the Wyoming Outdoor Council.  Together, they represent nearly two million people.

What will the fate of Yellowstone's winter seasons be?  It is too early to tell for certain how things will boil down.  But regardless, it is a certainty that snowmobile usage in Yellowstone is going to change.

Voice your opinion to your congresspersons and editorial sections of magazines and newspapers by clicking here.

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS

Ralph Maughan
Kim Steinbacher
Kevin Sanders
Steve Brashear
Clint Wilkes
Tim Gourley
Hon. Bob Gammage
Ruth Colter-Frick
Lee Whittlesey
Tom Mazzarisi
Russ Finley
David Monteith
Denise Elmer
Dr. Bob Bara

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (NPS) -- The National Park Service (NPS) has announced the locations for a series of meetings that have been scheduled to accept public comment on the Draft Winter Use Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.

The remaining meetings have been scheduled for the following dates and locations:

October 21 - West Yellowstone, MT
West Yellowstone School
Multi-purpose Room
500 Delacy Ave
(Entrance on N. Geyser St)

October 23 - Livingston, MT
City/County Complex
414 E. Callendar

October 26 - Cody, WY
Cody Auditorium
1240 Beck Ave

October 28 - Jackson, WY
Teton County Library
Auditorium
125 Virginian Lane

November 3 - Lakewood, CO
4 Points Denver West Hotel
137 Union Boulevard

All meetings will be held from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., with the exception of the Livingston meeting which will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Members of the public will each be offered five minutes to offer their substantive comments on the various alternatives contained in the Draft Winter Use Plan/EIS. The meetings will be chaired by a hearing officer, and park managers will be on hand to listen to the comments expressed by audience members during the meetings. Public comments will be recorded by a court reporter, with the resulting transcript included as part of the official record of the planning process. There will be no formal presentations or question and answer period.

On August 15, 1999, the complete Draft Winter Use Plan/EIS was made available to the public via the Internet (www.nps.gov/yell/technical/planning) for a ninety-day review and comment period--double the length of time required by departmental policy and thirty days longer than required by the settlement agreement. At the time of the Internet release, it was noted that printed copies of the complete document would be available to the public after September 15. Unfortunately, printing and shipping difficulties delayed the availability of the printed document. Therefore, the public comment period has been extended until December 1, 1999. Written comments can be submitted to: Clifford Hawkes, National Park Service, 12795 West Alameda Parkway, Lakewood, CO 80228.

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BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Montana State University in Bozeman has received a federal grant of $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture which they hope to use in helping develop a better brucellosis vaccine.   A part of the process of developing an improved vaccine would be to make it easier to test bison for brucellosis, a task which is currently difficult to accomplish.

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- Outfitters and guides in the Bridger-Teton National Forest wilderness areas are baiting elk with salt licks in an effort to lure them out of Yellowstone National Park during hunting season.  Some of these salt licks are very large in size, and sit just yards from Park boundaries.  Salt baiting is banned in Bridger-Teton Forest wilderness areas.  Additionally, Yellowstone officials are concerned that the salt licks are attracting grizzly bears looking for an easy meal, and are thus increasing the odds of human and bear interaction.

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