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YELLOWSTONE |
IN THE NEWS TODAY: Yellowstone National Park at Risk -- by NPS Spring Road Closings -- by National Park Service West Entrance Road in Poor Condition -- by NPS Gallatin ORV Lawsuit -- by the Sierra Club Daily Environmental News -- from ISyndicate |
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ROAD REPORT PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-
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YELLOWSTONE
NATIONAL PARK AT RISK by National Park Service YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (NPS) -- Yellowstone National Park officials announce the availability of The State of the Park report, developed in response to concerns expressed by Congress. For many years, Congress has been asking the National Park Service for a comprehensive accounting of exactly what is done with the money appropriated to the parks. Superintendent Michael Finley stated, "We have taken their concern to heart and have produced this report in order to provide that information to them and the American people." The State of the Park report is intended to be a candid appraisal of the state of Yellowstone's natural and cultural resources and the ability of the National Park Service to properly manage and protect them. The park's progress toward the recovery of threatened and endangered species and the continuing preservation of many other animals and their habitats are assessed. While there have been positive achievements, some disturbing trends are also pointed out, such as the escalating encroachment of alien plants, animals, and disease organisms. There is also concern about the future of the park's geothermal systems and bison and pronghorn populations. This report documents shortages of staff and funding needed to manage these complex and often controversial natural resources. The report describes the cultural resources protected by Yellowstone, which range from outstanding archeological sites to nationally significant historic structures and the information, artifacts, and collections preserved in the park's library, museum, and archives. While some progress has been made in managing and preserving cultural resources, large elements of the program are still below Congressional and Department of Interior standards for adequate stewardship. Providing for the enjoyment of the park by the public is one of the park's primary missions. Some important progress is noted, such as new informational exhibits, enhanced medical training for park personnel, expanded educational programs, and major improvements in concession services, including new visitor accommodations at Canyon and Old Faithful. However, there is concern about the overall quality of visitors' experiences as reflected in their frustration with crowds, gridlock, and noise. A review of infrastructure and management effectiveness shows that the needs of the park far outweigh the support available despite some very important achievements such as reconstructed road segments, enhanced telecommunications, an aggressive program for alternative fuels, and improved employee housing. Millions of dollars are needed for road improvements and other infrastructure-related deficiencies, in addition to the increased operating funds necessary to provide for the proper protection and management of the park. Later this year, a companion document, the park's Business Plan for Yellowstone's Future, will present standards for the park's major programs. It will also outline the specific human resources and financial support needed to achieve those standards for program success and the long-term protection and management of Yellowstone. Is Yellowstone at risk? "Yes," says Superintendent Michael Finley. "But it will only remain at risk if the American public ceases to care, if budgetary needs are not met, or if the many county, state, and federal jurisdictions whose decisions affect Yellowstone do not recognize and act upon our collective interest in safeguarding essential resources beyond the park's boundary - resources without which the park itself will be tragically diminished. The gift this country gave itself and the world when the Yellowstone idea took hold has multiplied in value a hundredfold, and its assets will become more precious in the future, if we let them." A limited number of copies of The State of the Park report are available. If you wish to receive a copy, or if you wish to receive an executive summary, please contact Superintendent, Yellowstone National Park, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone Park, Wyoming 82190. The executive summary and the entire document are also available on the Internet at www.nps.gov/yell/stateofthepark.htm. |
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS Ralph Maughan
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SPRING ROAD
CLOSINGS by National Park Service YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (NPS) -- Beginning Monday, March 6, groomed roads in Yellowstone National Park will begin to close to over-snow vehicles so that spring plowing may begin. Roads close at 8 a.m. on the day listed.
In conjunction with these road closures, visitor facilities in the park will also close for the winter season according to the following schedule:
The Mammoth General Store (the store will be closed for renovations from Sunday, March 12 through Tuesday, March 21; it will reopen to the public at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 22) and Mammoth Clinic remain open year round; and the road from the North Entrance to the Northeast Entrance of the park (Gardiner, Montana, to Cooke City, Montana) remains open year round to wheeled vehicles. Visitors are encouraged to call the park for current information prior to traveling to Yellowstone at (307) 344-7381. |
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| WEST ENTRANCE
ROAD IN POOR CONDITION by National Park Service YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (NPS) -- As the end of the winter visitor season for Yellowstone National Park approaches, park snowmobile road conditions are deteriorating. The National Park Service (NPS) cautions visitors entering through the West Entrance that the 14-mile section of road between the West Entrance and Madison Junction is currently in extremely poor and unsafe condition with long patches of bare pavement in some areas. Deteriorating road conditions have been caused by unseasonably warm winter weather and minimal snowfall. Because there is not enough snow for normal grooming to be effective, the NPS is trying a new procedure to attempt to keep the road open until the scheduled March 13 closing date. Beginning today, park staff will widen the road and grade down the moguls with snow grooming equipment. The soft, slushy layer will be removed, leveling the road to the hard ice floor surface. Driving on ice packed roads can be considerably different
than on snow packed roads, and Conditions could improve with colder temperatures and new
snowfall, however continuing deteriorating conditions and additional warming may require
closing the road before the scheduled closing date of March 13. The weather forecast for
the weekend calls for temperatures in the 40s and 50s. The forecast for early next week is
for colder temperatures |
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| GALLATIN ORV
LAWSUIT by the Sierra Club BOZEMAN, Mont. -- A coalition of conservation organizations has filed a lawsuit against the Gallatin National Forest in an effort to force the U.S. Forest Service to end the unnecessary and increasing damage to wildlife habitat and danger to wildlife caused by off-road vehicle (ORV) and late-season snowmobile use. The group's lawsuit will be to compel the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to halt ORV-caused destruction of grizzly bear habitat as required by the Endangered Species Act. "We don't want our children to grow up to find that the only grizzly left in the wild is made by Yamaha," stated Sanjay Narayan, an attorney for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, noting that seven of eleven models of Yamaha's four-wheeler ORV line are named after threatened forest predators, including the top-of-the-line 'Yamaha grizzly'. The Gallatin National Forest in Montana is just north and west of Yellowstone National Park, and it is one of the last places in the lower forty-eight states where grizzly bears live. But the Gallatin, its grizzlies, and bears all across the Greater Yellowstone area are under attack. Off-road vehicles are gouging illegal roads in our national forests, tearing up terrain, destroying habitat and endangering grizzly bears and other wildlife. "Grizzlies need roadless habitat in order to survive," said Louisa Willcox, Project Coordinator of the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project. "ORVs can be as bad as bulldozers in the backcountry - they increase human-bear conflicts, fragment already-disappearing habitat, and chase bears away from natural food sources," Willcox concluded. She also noted that grizzly death in roaded areas is five times as likely as in wild, unroaded areas. Over the last decade, off-road vehicle use has escalated astronomically across the Gallatin National Forest: four-wheelers, three-wheelers, motorcycles, and snowmobiles are becoming common in every corner of the forest outside of designated Wilderness areas. And while the Gallatin has done little to stem the rising tide of off-road vehicle use, even U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck recently recognized that "new and less expensive [ORV] technology allows people to get to areas previously unreachable to motorized vehicles on National Forests and Grasslands. In the process, unplanned and unauthorized roads and trails may be created, sensitive wildlife habitat disrupted, erosion accelerated, and water quality degraded." "Our land managers have let us down, and, more importantly, the publics' wildlife is being lost because our land managers will not stand up for the public estate and manage the land with an eye to the future." said Jim Barrett, Executive Director of the Park County Environmental Council in Livingston. "The use of roads and trails for motorized recreation is an assault on our public lands the likes of which we haven't seen since the days of the gold rush. Increasingly, every nook and cranny of our precious forest and prairie habitats are being invaded and trampled by ORVs and snowmobiles," Barrett exclaimed. According to U.S. Forest Service reports, there are half a million miles of roads and trails on America's public lands that are open to ORVs, including 75% of all Gallatin National Forest trails and 91% of forest trails outside of designated Wilderness. The Gallatin also contains the second highest grizzly bear habitat acreage of any national forest in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Undoubtedly, the recent increase in motorized access on the forest has significant, continual adverse impacts on species like grizzly bears and elk that depend upon secure habitat free from motorized human impacts. "Every species on the Gallatin, from grizzly bears on down to the trout in our streams are affected by ORVs," said Shawn Regnerus, Program Associate, of the Predator Conservation Alliance. "We can't let rampant ORV use continue to destroy the grizzly bears and wild country that make the Gallatin unique." Jasper Carlton, Executive Director of the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, believes "The failure to implement protective measures on behalf of the Great Bear bodes ill for other threatened and imperiled species such as the lynx, wolverine, fisher, and our native cutthroat trout. Hopefully our actions today will remind agencies that they need to take serious look at ecosystem-wide protections for multiple wildlife species." The majority of Americans want ORV use regulated and reined-in. A 1999 poll (Mellman Group) showed that 67 percent of respondents want ORVs prohibited in the undeveloped "roadless" areas of our National Forests; 55 percent thought ORVs should be prohibited everywhere in National Forests. Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund filed the ORV lawsuit on behalf of the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Park County Environmental Coalition, Predator Conservation Alliance, and Sierra Club. |
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