CCNPSR has learned from internal sources that the Bush Administration will falsely claim this week that its plan to dramatically boost snowmobile numbers would have no significant environmental or public health impacts.
In truth, the expected action by the National Park Service would require weakening of standards designed to protect park resources and contradict more than a decade of scientific analysis including the conclusion of the Bush Administration's own two-year Supplemental Environmental Impact Study completed just last year. The Administration's two-year study confirmed earlier scientific studies that found that continued snowmobile use would cause significantly more risk and harm to human health and park resources. The study determined that replacing snowmobile use in Yellowstone with visitor access on snowcoaches, "yields the lowest levels of impacts to air quality, water quality, natural soundscapes, and wildlife" while attaining "the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment without degradation and risk of health or safety."
Michael Finley, a former superintendent of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Everglades National Parks, said: "If the Administration goes through with this, it will mark a new low in its pattern of ignoring science to benefit a special interest at the public's expense. Boxed in by its own first study, the Administration is now using a superficial process to sweep under the rug what 10 years of science have demonstrated conclusively is best for our nation's first national park and the health and safety of its visitors."
The CCNPSR also has learned that monitoring of snowmobile use in Yellowstone last winter revealed greater than expected noise impacts even with an average of 262 snowmobiles per day. New standards established to assure visitor enjoyment of the park's natural sounds and natural quiet were frequently exceeded. The CCNPSR has learned that the Administration's intention, instead of enforcing the standards it has often highlighted as "strict limitations" on snowmobile use, will be to weaken the standards in order to accommodate more snowmobiles.
Rick Smith, a former acting superintendent of Yellowstone and 31-year veteran of the National Park Service said: "We're seeing another example of the Administration's reassuring language hiding its damaging actions. The Administration promised 'adaptive management' and gave the impression that this meant it would apply new scientific findings to strengthen protection of Yellowstone's resources. Instead, its first move will apparently be to weaken its own standards on behalf of the snowmobile industry. That's certainly 'adaptive.' But it's not in the public interest."
CCNPSR Spokesman Bill Wade, another former national park superintendent, said: "The full Environmental Impact Statement process was correctly used earlier because this is a significant and controversial federal action. By resorting now to a more superficial process with an accompanying 'finding,' the Administration is thumbing its nose at the American public. The Yellowstone snowmobile issue is a matter of great concern to those of us who proudly served in the National Park Service. Laws, park policies, scientific studies, and the unprecedented outpouring of public opinion on this issue have all made abundantly clear that ending snowmobile use within the park offers the fullest protection and healthiest enjoyment of our first national park."
[Souce: Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees]
