JUDGE THROWS OUT SNOWMOBILE PLAN; ORDERS CLEANER AND QUIETER YELLOWSTONE

Text of CNPSR's Media Release follows. Also, you can access the actual Federal Court Decision by going to http://www.npsretirees.org/files/press_attach/snowmobile.pdf.

NPS RETIREES: YELLOWSTONE SHOULD COMPLY WITH COURT ORDER BY PROVIDING MORE SNOWCOACH ACCESS AND PHASING OUT SNOWMOBILE USE IN TWO YEARS

TUCSON, AZ///September 15, 2008///The 670-member Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) today welcomed a federal court order that Yellowstone National Park cannot backslide and must instead move forward in providing winter access that protects opportunities for visitors to enjoy the park’s clean air, tranquility and wildlife.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down a Bush Administration decision authorizing snowmobile use that the National Park Service itself determined would have permitted Yellowstone’s improving air quality to deteriorate, the Park’s problems with disruptive motorized noise to grow significantly worse, and traffic-caused harassment of animals to exceed a level that biologists believed could be withstood by Yellowstone’s wildlife without jeopardizing their health.

“This decision reaffirms the most essential value of our national parks—that these are among the most special places in our country where Americans are supposed to be able to enjoy the nation’s cleanest air, undisturbed sounds and quiet of nature, and wildlife living as free as possible from the pressures of our modern society,” said Bill Wade, Executive Council Chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

Wade added: “The court’s ruling strongly echoes the caution submitted to this Administration by every living former Director of the National Park Service—that Yellowstone’s managers have a fundamental responsibility to provide stewardship on behalf of all visitors and future generations, rather than catering to special interests in a manner that damages Yellowstone’s resources and erodes the unique values and qualities of our oldest national park.”

Last year, when the Administration proposed to increase rather than further reduce snowmobile use in Yellowstone, four additional former Directors of the National Park Service—including Fran P. Mainella, who served President George W. Bush for six years—stepped forward with concerns. In all, eight former directors, who oversaw stewardship of America’s national parks for every president stretching back to 1964, cautioned that the Administration’s choice on snowmobiling in Yellowstone ignored science and would not uphold the founding principle and overarching duty of the National Park Service to conserve national park resources and values.

Today the federal court made the same determination, stating: “…the Court finds that the Winter Use Plan, as codified in the Final Rule and explained in the 2007 ROD, is arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by the record, and contrary to law. In contravention of the Organic Act, the Plan clearly elevates use over conservation of park resources and values and fails to articulate why the Plan’s “major adverse impacts” are “necessary and appropriate to fulfill the purposes of the park.’”

Maureen Finnerty, a member of the Coalition’s Executive Council and former National Park Service Associate Director for Operations said: “After two rulings by the same court that their plan to continue snowmobile use in Yellowstone is not consistent with the law, it is time for the National Park Service to stand up and do what’s right. Yellowstone and all national parks were established to provide visitor enjoyment – not recreation using motorized vehicles – but enjoyment of scenery unimpaired by polluted air, wildlife in a natural setting, unmolested by traffic, and tranquility that isn’t compromised by ever-present manmade noise.”

The development of four-stroke snowmobiles has brought reductions in air and noise emission compared to traditional two-stroke snowmobiles. But emissions from the newer snowmobiles remain significantly greater than those of modern automobiles. Moreover, in the context of Yellowstone’s winter season, impacts from four-stroke snowmobiles are frequently accentuated by inversions, lack of breeze, the park’s intrinsic quiet and the fact that wildlife in a weakened condition tend to concentrate where thermally influenced rivers and thinner snow cover provide more accessible food. These areas are precisely where Yellowstone’s roads are located.

In each of four separate studies since 1998, costing a cumulative $10 million, the National Park Service has verified conclusively that greater volumes of traffic required by an emphasis on snowmobiling add dramatically to air and noise pollution and disturbance of Yellowstone’s wildlife. Because of these facts, the National Park Service has repeatedly concluded that motorized oversnow access to the Park’s various attractions provided by modern snowcoaches rather than snowmobiles, can “attain the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment without degradation.”

“Americans deserve the best possible protection of this national treasure,” said Wade. “The Judge recognizes that when, in his decision he says, ‘The Winter Use Plan, 2007 ROD [Record of Decision], and 2007 FEIS [Final Environmental Impact Statement] are vacated and remanded to the agency for proceedings consistent with this opinion.’ We urge the National Park Service to act promptly to complete Yellowstone’s transition to the least-impacting winter access, which it has conclusively determined incorporates more snowcoaches and a phase-out of the park’s remaining snowmobile use. To do otherwise is depriving visitors of opportunities to enjoy Yellowstone as free from pollution and commotion as possible. That is not in the spirit of our national parks and it is clearly against the law.”

CONTACT: Patrick Mitchell, (7030 276-3266 or .