Winter Use In Yellowstone
The Yellowstone Field office is working to protect Yellowstone's wildlife and restore the Park's unique winter quiet and pristine air quality by phasing out noisy and polluting snowmobiles and moving toward a park-friendly snowcoach-only winter transportation system.
Nearly 100,000 Americans (and over 15,000 NPCA members and activists!) rejected the National Park Service's plan for winter access into Yellowstone National Park that would allow for three times the past four year's average number of snowmobiles into Yellowstone's fragile winter environment, and instead called for park-friendly snowcoach access into our nation's first national park.
In doing so, these Americans have joined a growing chorus of influential and diverse voices across the country, including:
- Seven former National Park Service Directors, with a tenure that spans the past 40 years, who urged the Park Service to apply its scientific findings and respond to the public's call for winter access that provides the highest protection to Yellowstone's resources and natural conditions.
- The Environmental Protection Agency, which revealed that when compared with the snowcoach only alternative, the Park Service's latest preferred winter use plan: “…would result in five times more carbon monoxide emissions and 17 times more hydrocarbon emissions...” And, “…would double the acres in Yellowstone impacted by oversnow vehicle noise for more than 50 percent of the day.”
- The Outdoor Alliance, representing the interests of more than 100 million Americans who paddle, climb, mountain bike, hike, showshoe and ski on our nation's public lands, which recently asked NPS Director Mary Bomar to transition to cleaner, quieter snowcoaches, which “would continue and enhance the trend toward a healthier Yellowstone”.
- A coalition of organizations (including NPCA) that represents over 2 million Americans, voiced its support for ending the winter use acrimony and called on the Park Service to phase out snowmobiles and move towards snowcoach use in Yellowstone. Read NPCA and our coalition partner comments (PDF) >>
NPCA remains hopeful that the National Park Service will correct its proposed course and implement the expansion of snowcoach access and phaseout of snowmobile use that the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency have determined independently, four times in eight years, provides the best available protection of Yellowstone while continuing motorized public access to the park's many attractions.
Thank you again for voicing your support for Yellowstone.
