Snowmobiles in Yellowstone

The origination of traveling over snow with a powered tracked vehicle is thought to have originated in the early years of the 20th. Century when a Model T Ford was fitted with tracks and skis. A Canadian company began building a machine that resembles the modern snowmobile in 1947. I am not sure when National Park Rangers first used snowmobiles, but we were using them in Yellowstone from at least 1967 to access the far reaches of the park’s northern boundary during Montana’s extended elk season in the winter of 1967-68. The machines were not very dependable then and the models we had were not able to function well in the deep powder snow of the mountains. Rangers used snowmobiles and a surplus U.S. Army “Weasel,” a tracked vehicle built by Studebaker to patrol the unplowed roads of Yellowstone which attracted hundreds of recreation snowmobile users. The purpose of those boundary patrols was to prevent hunters from shooting elk that were in the park. The road patrols were necessary for visitor use safety and to prevent ambitious snowmobile riders from harassing the park wildlife which was already under stress from the deep snow the park had at that time. I counted over 300 snowmobiles parked at Old Faithful one day that winter. Those earlier model snowmobiles broke down a lot. All rangers carried their cross-country skis on their snowmobile, and many of us skied away from a cantankerous snowmobile or that extremely undependable “Weasel” many times in 30-40 below zero weather.

Since then, snowmobiles have been consistently improved. Today they are much more dependable and can travel hundreds of miles without incident, and they are much better at negotiating deep powder snow, though in recent years there hasn’t been a lot of the very deep powder snow winters that used to cover the buildings in West Yellowstone and the park interior during the late 1960’s. The snowmobiles that most people buy have two-cycle motors (oil and gas mix), which have more power and are faster than a four-cycle motor snowmobile. But, the emissions of the two-cycle motors pollute the air much more than the four-cycle motor. The virtually unlimited number of two-cycle snowmobile entries into Yellowstone from the 1970’s to the mid 1990’s caused a major management problem for the National Park Service, and drew widespread criticism that the machines were causing excessive pollution of the air within the park which was also a hazard to park service personnel working at the West Yellowstone entry gate from which most snowmobiles entered the park.

The National Park Service (NPS) with the support of many environmental organizations moved to eliminate the private use of snowmobiles within Yellowstone. This led to court challenges from the snowmobile manufacturers, owners of motels and renters of snowmobiles at the park entrances, and from private citizens who have traveled on their snowmobiles in Yellowstone for decades. Counter suits by those desiring to continue the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone eventually led to a series of compromise solutions that varied from year to year for the past eight years or so. During that time the snowmobile industry reduced the emission of the snowmobile by perfection of the four-cycle machine.

In an effort to resolve the conflicts and polarization of opinions while at the same time allow for some level of winter use in the park; the NPS prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the winter use plans for Yellowstone and the Grand Teton, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Six alternatives were presented in the DEIS. One alternative (#2) allows snowcoaches only, another (#3) only the road from the South Entrance to Old Faithful would be available for a limited number of oversnow access, alternative (#4) allows for increased snowmobile use to the historic use numbers, but all must with Commercial Guides, alternative (#5) provides for unguided access by private and rented snowmobiles, alternative (#6) emphasizes plowing the west side roads to allow wheeled commercial access, and allows guided access through the South Entrance only as in alternative #3. The park’s preferred alternative (#1) provides for nearly historic levels of use, but requires commercial guides. In three of the alternatives, numbers 1, 2, and 6 above; Sylvan Pass at the park’s East Entrance would be closed. As I write this in August 2007 the current policy for the use of snowmobiles to travel in Yellowstone requires that 720 machines a day will be allowed in the park, all snowmobiles must be four-cycle machines, and the snowmobile riders must be accompanied by a private guide that they hire. This essentially is the park’s preferred alternative in the DEIS. The final EIS and rulemaking is to be announced before the 2007-08 winter use season.

The NPS preferred alternative requires that all 720 snowmobiles entering the park must be accompanied by a guide. Any other over snow use would require they be transported in one of the 78 snow coaches authorized for each day. While there is the possibility that some percentage of snowmobile users who are completely unfamiliar with the park might prefer a guide, and certainly a percentage of visitors who do not have a snowmobile or know how to safely operate a rented snowmobile would find the snow coaches a welcome alternative to experience Yellowstone in the winter.

But this NPS preferred alternative ignores the hundreds, if not thousands, of locals in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, or regular winter visitors from other states who have traveled extensively in Yellowstone on snowmobiles for decades. These folks do not need a guide. Most of these folks are accomplished riders and have a long history of use in the park. The proposed alternative that they must have a guide discriminates against that user group, as well as former park rangers who may have spent years patrolling the park in the past on a snowmobile. Requiring that all motorized winter use travel be in a snow coach or must be accompanied by a rented guide, if traveling by a private snowmobile, is conspicuous privatization of Yellowstone’s winter use.

If the NPS believes that some level of snowmobile use must be set and that regulatory infractions by snowmobile users are a threat to the wildlife and other park resources, then they should set a specific number of users and have the rangers enforce the regulations regarding proper use of the snowmobiles. Rangers should be enforcing the regulations rather than farming out the responsibility to guides.

Of course, the NPS might then be challenged by the environmental groups that they do not have data to scientifically specify a safe number of snowmobiles to be allowed within the park each day. That is a court case that the NPS should welcome. Who else in the Nation has more responsibility and information to make that management decision? The NPS could more likely defend the case with the argument that yes they have arbitrarily set a level of use, but they would monitor the level of pollution and either increase or decrease the number of users based upon the data from those studies. This would be a fair, responsible management decision based on annual emission data. It would not be necessary to measure the emissions every year. The NPS would only need to establish a baseline number of snowmobiles where emissions were irrelevant because they are disseminated by the winter wind.

A common sense approach to managing snowmobiles in Yellowstone would have served both the park and those that desire to experience the park as their own guide. That would have been a less complicated and wiser management decision.

This entry was posted on 20. August 2007 at 13:14 and is filed under Snowmoblies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.