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YELLOWSTONE |
IN THE NEWS TODAY: Protecting Yellowstone -- by Bruce Gourley Lake Trout Update -- News Brief Global Warming Studied in Yellowstone -- News Brief Yellowstone Mystery Revisited -- News Brief NEW! Daily Environmental News -- from ISyndicate |
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ROAD REPORT PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-
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 PROTECTING YELLOWSTONEby Bruce Gourley Yellowstone is a national treasure which is owned by the American public. Protecting Yellowstone is the responsibility of the American public. This weekly feature will help identify and explore the issues which are crucial to the ongoing, healthy existence of the "Crown Jewel" of America's National Park system. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNET) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has turned thumbs down to the National Park Service's draft environmental impact statement on winter use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The 350-page document, which features seven alternative plans for managing winter use in Yellowstone, including the Park Service's preferred alternative, has been given a failing grade by the EPA. The EPS notes that all seven alternatives fail to protect the environment, do not adhere to federal air quality standards and violate a 1972 executive order on snowmobile use in national parks which declared that snowmobiling should be allowed in national parks only if it poses no harm to the environment. The EPA faulted the Park Service for not taking immediate steps to limit snowmobiles, which produce enough carbon monoxide and other fumes to threaten human health and exceed allowable federal levels. According to the EPA, snowmobiles are classified as off-highway vehicles, or OHVs, because of their engine type, although they operate on established roads in the national parks. The Park Service is seeking to gradually reduce the amount of snowmachine traffic in Yellowstone, but the EPA findings question the very existence of snowmobiles within the Park. Last season, some 76,000 snowmobiles entered Yellowstone, with 59,000 of them entering at West Yellowstone, the gateway sometimes referred to as the Snowmobile Capital of the World. Manufacturers are now in the beginning stages of building machines that will run both cleaner and quieter, although they will not be in production for some time yet. The Winter Use Proposal plans as they stood were largely decried by many business interests near the Park as being too extreme. The Park Service's preferred alternative, which is criticized by the EPA as not going far enough, would plow the road between West Yellowstone and Old Faithful and would set limits on the usage off snowmobiles within the Park. Thus, the Park Service finds itself caught in the middle between area business interests and the EPA. The mandate by the EPA to stiffen the proposals will certainly lead to more outcry from some area business groups and snowmobile advocacy organizations in general. Environmentalists, however, will likely rally behind the EPA findings. The weighing in of the EPA adds an entirely new dimension to the ongoing debate, a dimension which may lead to quicker and more pronounced action in regards to snowmobile usage in Yellowstone National Park. (Yellowstone Net provides you opportunity to voice your opinion regarding the various Yellowstone issues to your congresspersons and to editorial sections of magazines and newspapers by clicking here.) |
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS Ralph Maughan
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LAKE
TROUT UPDATE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- Yellowstone National Park researchers are making plans to add a new weapon in their fight against non-native lake trout in Yellowstone Lake: a commercial gill-netting barge. The 35 foot, custom designed barge will be able to to set half-mile long nets in the West Thumb region of the lake, increasing by four-fold previous netting capabilities. Lake trout often swim at deeper depths than do native cutthroat trout, and the barge will allow researchers to reach down to the depths where the lake trout are more likely to be found. Lake trout, illegally introduced into Yellowstone Lake, threaten the native cutthroat population, and last year's efforts to remove lake trout were considered successful, with as many as half of the adult population being removed. The barge, however, will allow park officials to effect the removal of an even higher percentage of mature lake trout this coming summer. |
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| GLOBAL
WARMING STUDIED IN YELLOWSTONE News Brief YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- In science's ongoing effort to study current global warming, efforts are being made to reconstruct the reasons for periods of global warming centuries and even eons ago. One period of time which scientists are seeking to understand is that known as the "Medieval Warm Period," a period between 1100 and 1300 AD when world weather warmed up considerably, for reasons not clearly known. Tree rings in some of Yellowstone's oldest trees and stumps are being studied, as scientists have found correlations between tree growth and global warming during the Medieval Warm Period. Similarly, tree growth has been increasing in the midst of the current global warming period, as evidenced by the rate of growth and increasing elevation of growth of certain tree species found within Yellowstone. |
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| YELLOWSTONE
MYSTERY REVISITED News BriefYELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- In 1991, Dan Campbell disappeared while hiking in Yellowstone's high country in the Hellroaring area. Campbell was hiking with his dog and was allegedly searching for elk antlers to gather and sell, an illegal activity in the Park. Dan Campbell has not been seen since he set out on the trailhead on September 4, 1991. He was supposed to meet his sister in Jardine, just north of the Park, two days after starting his hike, but he never showed up. No trace of Campbell or the dog has ever been found. The investigation, which began on April 8, has always been handled as a disappearance by the Park County Sheriff's Department. However, the Campbell family has filed suit in District Court, charging that evidence which indicated that Campbell may have been murdered was never pursued. The family is seeking monetary damages in their lawsuit. |
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