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| WEDNESDAY February 21, 2001 Vol 5, # 18 |
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| WEDNESDAY February 21, 2001 Vol 5, # 18 |
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| Site Search | Support Yellowstone! Discussion $7.95 Internet, Email, More Email Newsletter | |
YELLOWSTONE ROAD
REPORT PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-
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SNOWMOBILE POLLUTION
WORSENS by Bruce Gourley YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- Snowmobilers, perhaps seeking to make certain they get a last outing in Yellowstone before the proposed ban takes place in a few years, are flocking to Yellowstone National Park in record numbers this winter. In January, the Park experienced nearly a 40% jump in the number of snowmobiles which passed through the west entrance. This past weekend, more than 3000 machines entered the Park in one of the busiest winter weekends ever in Yellowstone. The jump has been so dramatic, and the resulting pollution so great, that this winter season fresh air is being pumped into the entrance booths manned by rangers in an attempt to reduce the rising number of complaints of headaches, runny eyes and sore throats. Yellowstone Superintendent Michael Finley recently noted that pollution levels at the west entrance have reached the point where they are "sometimes as bad as Denver's worst smog days, or the tunnels in Paris." Studies have shown that each two-cycle snowmobile produces enough pollution equivalent to 60 cars, plus the machines leave concentrations of ammonium and sulfate in the snow. A proposed ban is in place to eliminate snowmobiles from Yellowstone by the year 2004. At that point, the only snowmachines plying Yellowstone's winter roads would be snowcoaches, enclosed machines which sit up to ten people each and pollute no more than an automobile. Although many outdoor enthusiasts point out that the snowcoach experience is not as attractive as snowmobiling, nonetheless the number of snowcoach visitors to Yellowstone grew by over 30% at the west entrance in January. The increase in the number of snowmobiles entering Yellowstone this winter, resulting in increased pollution levels in Yellowstone, adds a sense of urgency to the proposed ban on the machines, whether in full or in part. In fighting a complete ban on snowmobiles, some Western Republican congresspersons are pushing for a cap on the number of machines allowed into the Park and a gradual phasing out of the highly-polluting two-stroke machines in favor of less-polluting (and less noisy) four-stroke machines. Environmentalists, however, fear that this lesser plan will not go far enough in protecting Yellowstone National Park from the harmful effects of snowmobiles. |
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS Russ Finley
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THE 1998
FIRES: 13 YEARS LATER Editor's Note: We received a good deal of response from the following story, including several people who asked for contact information on the fire report publication mentioned below. As such, we are re-running this story and including contact information for obtaining copies of the report. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (NPS) -- People wondering what the future holds for the millions of Western acres that burned last summer may find some answers in the recently released Yellowstone in the Afterglow: Lessons from the Fires. Yellowstone National Park produced the 118-page book to document both what has changed and what was unaffected by the fires that swept across more than a third of the 2.2-million-acre park in 1988. "Many dire predictions were made that summer about the park’s future," noted Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Michael Finley. "People expected that visitation would drop in subsequent years, that wildlife would be reduced, that the forests would have to be replanted, that flooding would increase downstream of the park as a result of increased erosion on burned slopes." Instead, the research done by dozens of independent scientists during the last 12 years has shown that Yellowstone’s human, wildlife, and plant communities have sustained themselves, although the moose population on the northern range appears to have declined in part because of the loss of old growth forest. In addition to summarizing the results of many research projects, Yellowstone in the Afterglow explains the history of the park’s controversial fire management policy and how the public’s perceptions of the park and of wildland fire have shifted. "Such fires are incompatible with the human communities that now surround many wildland areas, but they are a fundamental part of the ecology of places like Yellowstone," Superintendent Finley observed. One of the unexpected results of the 1988 fires was the appearance of aspen seedlings in burned areas of the park where aspen had not previously existed. Although fire was known to encourage the sprouting of suckers from the roots of existing aspen, it is widely believed that establishment of aspen by seed has been extremely rare in the Rocky Mountains since the last ice age because of unsuitable climate. Whether any of Yellowstone’s new aspen seedlings will survive the current climate, competition with faster-growing lodgepole pine trees, and wildlife browsing to eventually become trees remains to be seen. The fires that burned in and around Yellowstone in 1988 generated both concern for the forests and criticism of the ‘natural’ fire policy that had been in affect since 1972. The Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture convened an interagency committee to review the fire policies on federal lands. They determined that the natural fire policy was a viable and valuable fire management tool, but called for more specific criteria for determining under what circumstances fires are permitted to burn. For Yellowstone National Park, this means the park not only takes into account the weather forecast, but the availability of firefighting resources at the regional and national level, and the potential impact on neighboring communities. Since Yellowstone's revised fire management plan was approved in 1992, the park has had 177 lightning-caused fires that have burned 27,000 acres. Copies of Yellowstone in the Afterglow are available to the public at no charge from the Yellowstone Public Affairs Office while the supply lasts. You may request a copy of the this publication via email by clicking here (be sure to include your postal mailing address) or by postal mail at "Yellowstone in the Afterglow, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 82190." |
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| LETTER TO THE EDITOR by Marion Dickinson I know there is a lot of concern over the impact that a Republican administration is going to have on Yellowstone and other national parks. I really think that one of the first things we need to do is decide what we want our national parks to be for all of the people of this country...and I do mean THIS country. At the risk of sounding like I am prejudiced, I think it is ludicrous for there to be talk of shutting out Americans when certain levels of usage are reached, but allowing bus loads of foreign visitors in at the rates subsidized by taxpayers here. We lament the high usage of our most popular parks, then build ever bigger and better roads, lodging facilities, and visitor centers to make it easier for people to get there and stay there. The wolves in Yellowstone itself is a case of adding a real visitor attraction to increase visitation at the same time we are saying visitors need to be limited. I'm sure there are many other places that could have supported a wolf population without the increased traffic in their location. Several years ago at the height of visitation concern one issue of one newspaper had two separate articles, one discussing the need to limit visitors and the other bragging about how the wolves were such a benefit because ever so many more people were coming to Yellowstone to see them! I hope never to see usage limited to those who have unlimited free time to hike, bike, or ski into the national parks and keep out those working 40-60 hour weeks 50 to 52 weeks a year and have limited time to get there and visit. EDITOR'S NOTE: Marion Dickinson is from Rawlins, Wyoming, and is a long time Yellowstone visitor. Yellowstone Net welcomes stories from Yellowstone visitors about their experiences. Click here to send us your Yellowstone story. |
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| SEARCH AND RESCUE IN GRAND
TETON by National Park Service GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (NPS) -- Skier Greg Otto, 30, was seriously injured while descending a steep couloir on the afternoon of February 3rd. Otto and two companions were attempting to ski Air Force Couloir into Granite Canyon when Otto hit a rock with his ski and sustained a dislocated hip. His friends were able to move him to the floor of the canyon, where the exposure to the avalanche hazard was not as great. One partner remained with Otto while the other sought help at nearby Teton Village ski area. Six rangers and ten volunteers from Teton County SAR responded. The rescuers were transported to the mouth of Granite Canyon by snow machine, then continued to ski to Otto's location. The operation was complicated by darkness and high avalanche danger. Otto was treated on scene, then transported by toboggan and snow machine to a waiting ambulance, arriving around 11:30 p.m. Otto was admitted to a hospital, where the dislocation was reduced. |
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