Thursday, April 22, 2010

Snowmobiles in Yellowstone

The snowmobile policy in Yellowstone National Park has been a topic of discussion since the 1950's. America’s national parks are meant to be relatively untouched and hold a great deal of aesthetic qualities for people to enjoy. Snowmobiles, although a favorite winter pastime to many, carry with them a number of external costs. Noise pollution, high levels of emissions, disrupted ecosystems, and damage to the surrounding areas are among some of these costs to be considered. The policy that currently exists focuses more on the moneymaking side rather than the preservation and perhaps the restoration of the park in some areas.In 1963, the first visitors entered the park on snowmobiles. Due to the popularity of the sport the park officials were forced to implement some kind of a policy. In March of 1968, park administrators convened and formulated the first winter use policy for snowmobiles. This new policy consisted of three parts:
• Formally permitting and encouraging visitation to the park’s interior by oversnow roads
• Grooming the oversnow roads to make them more comfortable for travel
• Authorizing the park concessionaire to open a lodging facility for overnight use at Old Faithful.
Snowmobiles are far more polluting than cars and produce higher noise levels that disturb animals as well as the "natural quiet" of the park. I think something needs to be done about the volume of snowmobiles allowed into the park, currently around 320 per day in the winter. I would like to see snowmobiles banned from the park. What do you think?

15 comments:

  1. I have been snowmobiling in Yellowstone. While I had a really good time, I can see the reason for your concern. Many people who go on these tours are from very distant portions of the Country and even the world. These tourists are insensitive to the problems which these vehicles are causing for the park. It would be interesting if snowmobiles were "outlawed" in the park, but surely the staff would still need the bikes to get to some areas of the park in in-climate weather. I think that possibly increase fees for this type of tourism could be used to abate the issues, that the snowmobiles generate. Also a more stringent limitation on how many bikes are allowed in the park during the winter would surely be beneficial.

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  2. I agree on having snowmobiles banned from yellowstone. Although snowmobiling is extremely fun, there are many other places outside the park which can be used. Yellow stone was set aside as a national park so as to preserve its natural beauty, and letting it be ravaged by snowmobiles doesnt make sense to me. I agree with sammy on limiting the number of sleds, but i don't think raising fees would deter tourists from going.

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  3. I believe that in America when you work and make a ton of money, or your family worked and made a ton of money you should gosh darn be able to spend it ripping up some of that fluffy white stuff. However in the same mindset as Sammy, these tourist, these moneybags, come from all over the world and it's them not the locals who are destroying the local's backyard. Lets bring it to their house! I mean it would be nice to skate in and grind some handrails in the forbidden city in Beijing or throw down a U2/Muse collaboration rock concert on the Pyramids of Giza, but these things might piss off the locals due to being national treasures and all. Well our parks are our treasures and if we protect them people can always take their money and play elsewhere. Most importantly it is beneficial to do this before areas become economically dependent on the activity. So I say except for park authorities... kick em out. They can ride somewhere else.

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  4. I am curious as to what requirements are necessary to get a license under the current policy? Is there limit to the number of licenses issued? I think that scaling back numbers may be the best way to go because I think a complete ban would be met with a lot of controversy and resistance

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  5. This is an issue in many wilderness areas within Colorado as well. Yellowstone is a huge park and it would be difficult to completely outlaw the use of snowmobiles or some areas would not be accessible in the winter. I think that the best solution is designate certain parts of the park to allow use, and others where it is banned. This has worked well in areas such as Wolf Creek Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado.

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  6. I think an all together ban could be a little durastic of a change. While snowmobiling is a money maker in the northwest part of our country...we need to instead focus first on the type of snowmobiles allowed into the park. If we can reduce the emissions and sounds of automobiles, why not on snowmobiles then. I know this sounds crazy, but maybe even a hybrid snowmobile could be made for beginner riders who stick to the groomed trails. I have done my fair share of sledding in the high country, but I also know that you need a big machine to romp up and down the sides of mountains. Unfortunately not everyone will be happy in the end, including the animals. Therefore, a middle ground policy needs to be sought in order to satisfy the desires of those pro-sledding and those against sledding. This is the only way to accomplish a long term goal.

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  7. I believe that if anything should be done, it would be to lesson the amounts of snowmobiles allowed in the park. It is going to be almost impossible to restrict such a popular sport no matter who bad they are for the environment. We have seen this over and over in the media that no matter how much we want done to prevent such damage, mostly all that can be done is restricting rather than banning. If the park only allowed 50 or so snowmobiles in the park at a time, then it would greatly reduce the damage that can be done while still having more peace in the park.

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  8. I had no idea this was such a problem. I think that snowmobiles should be outlawed in Yellowstone and pretty much any National Park. The whole reason we have notional parks is so that we can enjoy the natural beauty each one holds. Noise from snowmobiles will just ruin the natural beauty, along with scaring any animals living there. While I know that we can't straight up ban anything, I do believe that restricting snowmobiles could greatly help reduce any damage created and the noise pollution.

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  9. Snowmobiles are already banned from Glacier National Park, proving that it can be done. I agree that the park rangers should still have them, they wouldn't be able to get around if they didn't have them. Although it is fun to snowmobile, people need to preserve the natural state of national parks and respect that.

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  10. Although snowmobiling may be a tourism attraction for Yellowstone, I think that the main draw of tourists to Yellowstone will always be its status as a pristine National Park that is home to an abundance of wildlife. Therefore, I think the priority should be to conserve the pristine nature of the park. There are plenty of snowmobiling options throughout the Rocky Mountain region, but there is only one Yellowstone. Therefore, I think recreational snowmobiling should be banned.

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  11. Some people have talked about closing the park to snowmobiles, and letting the snowmobilers use land just outside the park. While this would help protect the environment within the park, the same problems would occur outside the park. It is important to keep these national parks as pristine as possible, but by simply smowmobiling right outside the park, it is only shifting the problem to a new area where other people will complain.

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  12. I believe that national parks should be a place for wildlife prservation to be implemented. Snowmobiling shouldn't be allowed even if it will happen somewhere else. There has to be better ways of transportaion and fun.

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  13. I recently wrote a paper on this topic, and the conclusion that I came to throughout my research is that Yellowstone's surrounding communities are far too dependent on the money that snowmobiling in Yellowstone brings to completely ban them, but the environmental degradation they cause is too great to let them roam freely without limit. The current cap on snowmobile allowance per day is set at 720 or so, which needs to decrease. New technologies such as biofuel based lube greatly reduce emissions, and electric snowmobiles reduce both emissions and noise levels. If such clean technologies are combined with a stricter 'cap', then there wouldnt be such a problem.

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  14. I view snowmobiling as an affront to the benefits of wilderness enjoyment and yet another manifestation of lazy Americans seeking easy recreation. We sit in a seat so much of our life, and operate an engine almost every day of our lives. Where's the escape in snowmobiling?

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  15. I view snowmobiling as an affront to the benefits of wilderness enjoyment and yet another manifestation of lazy Americans seeking easy recreation. We sit in a seat so much of our life, and operate an engine almost every day of our lives. Where's the escape in snowmobiling?

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