"...to promote and regulate the use of the...national parks...which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
-National Park Service Organic Act, 16 U.S.C.1.
There is a reason that locals talk about "Kickin' A%& on Togwotee Pass"... Twenty miles east of the entrance to Grand Teton National Park at Moran Junction, there stands a mountain playground where snowmobiles can freely wander and thrash about. Offering abundant snowfall and sweeping panoramas of the Teton mountains, the roadway through the Absaroka range crosses the Continental Divide and offers hundreds of miles of perfect snowmobile runs for sightseers and thrill-seekers alike. Two resorts, Togwotee Mountain Lodge and Brooks Lake Lodge, offer varying degrees of luxury for a getaway. With easy access to both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and the historic town of Jackson, travelers can enjoy adventure sports in the breathtaking Bridger-Teton National Forest. A well-known destination for snowmobile enthusiasts, Togwotee Pass is an adventure paradise.
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, founded in 1872 and 1950 respectively, are visited by millions of visitors annually from around the globe. With striking geological settings and an incredible plethora of flora and fauna, each park is an ecological wonder that are rightfully preserved as natural wonders of the world. The National Park Service, under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, is endowed with the responsibility to preserve these lands for posterity. To simultaneously be vacation spot for the masses of the world and provide residence for innumerable creatures, the duty of the Park Service is to ensure the safety and enjoyment of visitors with a minimum of interference to the ecosystem.
A new proposal in the National Park Service's preliminary draft of their new environmental impact statement would upend the environmentally-driven 2001 regulations that limit the number of snowmobiles allowed into Yellowstone National Park. Citing improvements in emissions and noise-output standards, proponents of the plan seek to effectively triple mechanized winter traffic in the park. The proposed measure, which would permit over seven-hundred snowmobiles to enter Yellowstone National Park each day, would effectively expunge the Clinton-era reforms that the Bush administration has systematically and progressively slashed. If the wording in this preliminary environmental impact statement remains unaltered, the implementation of this proposal would destroy the spirit upon which the National Park Service was founded.
A decade earlier, unregulated traffic in the park saw nearly eight-hundred loud, heavy-polluting two-stroke snowmobiles race within and throughout the pristine borders of Yellowstone daily. As the air became clogged with exhaust and the incessant whine of hundreds of engines, and wildlife suffered extreme stress and harassment in what is supposed to be their unadulterated sanctuary, the environmentalist group Fund for Animals filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service in 1997 to step up pressure and force the agency to produce a final environmental impact statement and winter-use plan.
As a result, the National Park Service released two years later its final report, "Winter Visitor Use Management: A Multi-agency Assessment". In the report, it is revealed that the best course of action to preserve the natural beauty and protect the wildlife of Yellowstone is to completely eliminate the use of snowmobiles in the park. Proposing a shift toward snow coaches for transport and sightseeing, the report is firm in its belief that continued snowmobile use will further deteriorate a delicate ecosystem. As the second millennium wound down along with President Clinton's second term, the Department of the Interior determined to adopt the snowmobile ban laid out in the final report, ensuring the unspoiled vitality of Yellowstone's ecosystem for posterity...
Or at least until a new, environmentally-insensitive president took residence in the White House. After George W. Bush emerged victorious from the heavily-disputed 2000 elections, he sought to undermine the painstakingly-achieved, ecologically-sound paradigms set by the previous administration regarding America's first national park.
First, the ban was repealed upon pressure from the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association and replaced by entrance-gate quotas and guide requirements for all snowmobiles in Yellowstone. Then, again with mounting pressure from snowmobile concerns and businesses local to the national park, the government released two reports in 2002 and 2003 that stated snowmobiles were compatible with the park's overall values and mission. Bucking the years of research put forth by the National Park Service following the 1997 lawsuit, the studies determined that it would be more prudent to cave to special interests rather than perform its stated mission to leave the national parks "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
Michael Finley, superintendent of Yellowstone National Park from 1994-2001, has been vocal in his displeasure with the current course of action being taken by the National Park Service. Referring to the landmark 1999 report, Finley declared, "The facts and science gave them a direction to take, then they softened, twisted and contorted the science. The plan deserves to be challenged. It deserves burial in deep snow." After thirty-two years of dedicated service, Finley is a conservation guru who has stood firm in his convictions to continually work toward protecting the environment. Yet opinions such as his carry little weight in the current administration.
Meanwhile, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne reaffirmed in late 2006 that the National Park Service is committed to policies emphasizing the conservation of natural and cultural resources over recreational use. While his words seem reassuring, his record in such matters stands as a troubling contrast. As governor of Idaho in 2004, Kempthorne praised Bush's repeal of the 2001 roadless-preservation law. "This is the way federal land management should work. Cooperation, not confrontation, should be the hallmark of conservation efforts." As a man committed to cooperating and freely assisting timber and other environmentally-degrading concerns, Kempthorne seems ill-suited to upholding the National Park Service Organic Act or any other tenet of land conservation.
Indeed, it seems that many among the National Park Service's staff are more supportive of recreation above any conservation efforts. John Sacklin, a longtime management assistant at Yellowstone, says the park has not abdicated its responsibilities and that the park's natural assets will remain protected under the new plan.
Arguing the same tired claim that the technology has become much cleaner and quieter, Sacklin feels that simply managing numbers will preserve environmental integrity. But the numbers tell otherwise. A winter 2003-2004 Park Service study investigated whether snowmobiles were audible more than fifty percent of the time at Old Faithful. Even with the reduced quantities and supposedly newer, quieter technology, the threshold was exceeded with "major adverse effects" to both visitors and wildlife around the famous geyser.
So the government, in its two subsequent studies, raised the threshold for adverse effects to seventy-five percent audibility. Yet this standard, too, was exceeded each time by the 250 snowmobiles representing the "best available technology", a requirement to enter Yellowstone. As Tim Stevens, Yellowstone program director for the National Parks and Conservation Association, has pointed out, "Instead of meeting the bars they set for themselves, they lowered the bars." Science has indeed presented the necessary path for Yellowstone. Governmental ineptitude and spinelessness have combined to push that science aside for doubletalk and inaction.
There is a time and a place to snowmobile. That is how locales like Togwotee Pass provide a living for hundreds of employees and services to many thousands of guests each year. Much like punk kids are not allowed to skateboard on the pristine rails and spaces of thousands of government and private structures around the country, there are some places where people should not be allowed to run rampant on any mechanized vehicle they wish. It has long been recognized, as designated by its stature as the oldest national park in the world, that Yellowstone is such a place.
Some people get only one chance to visit Yellowstone National Park. If this proposal comes to fruition, we risk losing the splendid natural beauty that led Ulysses S Grant to sign the bill preserving Yellowstone as a national park in 1872. The government already did its research eight years ago; it has been proven that adverse effects will come of this increased snowmobile use. We must rise and demand better of our leaders. We must keep this international treasure immaculate and unfettered for future generations.