CAP071

Environmentalists Sue Over Yellowstone Snowmobiles
Groups Stress Impact on Wildlife
By BECKY BOHRER, AP

BILLINGS, Mont. (Nov. 9) - Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit over the National Park Service's plan for allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park for the next three winters.


The groups claim the government failed to take into account the effect that roads groomed for snow machines have on wildlife, particularly bison, under the temporary plan.

The complaint brought by The Fund for Animals, Bluewater Network and three individuals names as defendants Interior Secretary Gale Norton and National Park Service Director Fran Mainella. The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after the Park Service issued a "finding of no significant impact" for its winter use plans, an attorney said.

The groups are asking the judge to prevent officials from implementing the plan and to stop trail grooming "in some or all of" Yellowstone until there is compliance with such things as environmental laws and Park Service policies.

This comes despite Yellowstone's announcement earlier this year that an independent study was underway to look at the effect of groomed roads on bison movement in winter. Park officials had said that a final study report wouldn't be available for the environmental assessment process but that the issue would be addressed in a long-term analysis of winter use.


Howard Crystal, an attorney for the groups, said Tuesday that patience has run out. The Fund for Animals sued the Park Service in 1997, he said, raising concerns then about continued road grooming. That led to a settlement agreement, but the groups claim the Park Service has not adequately addressed the issue.

"The general rule is that, if you're not sure about the impact of something, you don't do it," Crystal said.

Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews referred calls on the lawsuit to a spokesman at the Department of Justice, who did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday.

In the lawsuit, the groups contend that groomed roads have "serious adverse" effects on wildlife, particularly bison, which they say save energy by traveling the routes in winter. The groups also claim that the roads "directly and indirectly" facilitate bison movement outside the park. Bison entering Montana from Yellowstone may be hazed or captured and tested for brucellosis, a disease that can cause cows to abort and one that ranchers fear the bison will transmit to cattle. Bison that test positive are sent to slaughter.

D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with The Fund for Animals, said sufficient data exists to show a negative effect groomed trails have on bison.

"There's no law or Park Service policy that says, `Everyone who wants to visit Old Faithful in the wintertime has to visit Old Faithful in the wintertime,"' he said.

Beginning this winter, the Park Service plans to allow up to 720 guided snowmobiles each day into Yellowstone and 140 snowmobiles, with no guiding requirement, in Grand Teton National Park and on the parkway connecting the parks. Nearly all snowmobiles will have to meet standards as cleaner, quieter machines. The plan would be in place through the winter of 2006-07.

The temporary plan is just the latest in a series that have been drafted in recent years in attempts to address the effects of the machines on the park's environment and wildlife.


11/09/04 18:13 EST

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.

Cord

iTrader: (2)

If you first don't suceed, then try, try again. You're bound to win sooner or later.

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

You know, I have been to Yellowstone in the summer and saw all the wildlife, etc. It is truly an awe inspiring place and one day I would like to go back and snowmobile it-I can't believe these weenies want to close that down I cannot believe that 1100 sleds would cause a problem in a place that has 10000 cars in it all summer long And exhaust is nothing compared to all the nasty acidic gases that the geysers put out.

jordy

I was thinking the same thing. Seems as though we just did this... Oh well, they're still all over Glamis and the rest of the dunes as well.

clearcut3

And the media continues to call them environmentalists...they are NOT, just tree huggers. I find it amusing that these tree huggers weren't concerned about the bison at all when they fought against prescribed burning. If we would have burnt yellowstone 300 acre's at a time you would have only bettered the animal habitat and not harmed any animals. Instead they let it build up like a bucket of gasoline and explode into a 300,000 acre wild fire. They sure don't seem to be worried about all the Bison and firefighters that were injured and killed in that fire that THEY are responsible for

jordy

Along those same lines with the fire thing, the tree hugging whackos had sucsessfully blocked all the prescribed burns and logging that would keep the forests in a more managble condition in the event of a fire. Some of you may recall the Rodeo-Chedesky fire that burned around 500,000 acres in Eastern Arizona a couple years ago, well one of the little towns that had more than half it's residents' homes burned in the fire took out a billboard. It showed the remnants of a neighborhood, mainly foundations and burned out trees and had a simple message:

The citizens of Heber would like to thank the "environmentalists" for making the 2002 fire season all that it could be.

Needless to say, about the time they got the fire out, the logging resumed as did prescribed burns in areas that weren't affected by the fire.

Shane

These people are just ridiculous! They use false information (i.e. MADE UP STATS) to support their elitist mentality! They will say ANYTHING regardless of whether they know it to be true or false to advance their political agenda.