Winter Use In Yellowstone National Park
National Parks Conservation Association’s Yellowstone Field Office is working to protect Yellowstone’s wildlife and restore the park's unique winter quiet and pristine air quality by moving toward a park-friendly accessible snowcoach transportation system.
February 2010: National Park Service Begins Long Term Winter Use Planning for Yellowstone National Park
A Hopeful “Do Over” in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park and the National Park Service recently began a two-year project to prepare a long-term plan for managing winter use in America’s first national park. The National Park Service is soliciting public input.
Over the next two years, the National Park Service will consider how to provide for public winter access while protecting Yellowstone's wildlife, air quality, and natural soundscapes. We anticipate this will be the last environmental study leading to a permanent plan.
Over the past decade, NPCA, our conservation partners and citizens like you have made enormous progress in our quest of providing the best possible protection for Yellowstone National Park. We’ve eliminated the noisiest and most-polluting forms of winter access and moderated disruption to wintering wildlife. We're getting somewhere and you have helped!
To date over 900,000 Americans have submitted comments to the National Park Service on winter use in Yellowstone National Park. Over 80 percent of comments submitted urged the National Park Service to end snowmobile use and adopt the “least impacting” means of visiting the Park in winter--a transition to snowcoach access that subsequent studies verified would best protect park resources.
Additionally, every living former director of the National Park Service has agreed with you that snowcoach visitation ought to replace snowmobiles; the Environmental Protection Agency and a Federal Court have agreed with you that the Park Service has not applied the best available, sound science and adopted visitation policies that best protect Yellowstone.
Yellowstone National Park has indeed become healthier as snowmobile numbers have decreased and visitors have turned increasingly to snowcoaches as their means of visiting and enjoying Yellowstone. However, we still do not have a long-term plan in place that best protects Yellowstone National Park.
Today, we have a final opportunity to urge the National Park Service to adopt a permanent plan for winter access that best protects Yellowstone National Park’s wildlife, air quality and winter quiet while providing visitors with reliable access to the park.
The National Park Service is taking comments through March 30, 2010 that will be used to develop a long-term winter use plan for Yellowstone. Here’s how you can participate:
Click here to submit comments online by March 30, 2010.
Attend an open house meeting at the following locations:
- February 16, 2010: Idaho Falls, Idaho, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, Hilton Garden Inn, 700 Lindsay Blvd
- February 18, 2010: Billings, Montana, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, Hilton Garden Inn, 2465 Grand Road
- March 15, 2010: Cheyenne, Wyoming, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, Little America Inn and Resort, 200 West Lincolnway
- March 17, 2010: Washington, D.C., 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, The Old Post Office, 12th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
You also can send in written comments by mail by March 30, 2010 to:
Yellowstone National Park
Winter Use Scoping/EIS
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY
82190-0168
Click here to learn more.
Click here for a sample letter to the National Park Service
November 2009: National Park Service Issues Temporary Two-Year Winter Use Plan for Yellowstone National Park
National Park Service Allows 318 Snowmobiles A Day in Yellowstone National Park
On Friday, November 20, 2009, the National Park Service published a final interim winter use rule to guide winter management in Yellowstone National Park. The interim rule allows 318 guided, best-available-technology snowmobiles and 78 snowcoaches per day in Yellowstone. The rule will be in effect for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 winter seasons. NPS has committed the next two years to develop and put into place a permanent winter use plan, to be implemented during the 2011-2012 season.
While the interim rule is a step in the right direction, it is not yet the best plan for Yellowstone National Park. Every major study conducted over the last decade has demonstrated that visitors can enjoy Yellowstone, while ensuring better protection of the park’s environment and wildlife, if access is provided entirely by best-available-technology snowcoaches and the use of snowmobiles are phased out.
NPCA does not support 318 snowmobiles a day in Yellowstone National Park because it is not what is best for Yellowstone. Both the National Park Service and Environmental Protection Agency have repeatedly found that modern snowcoaches, which are increasingly popular, provide greater benefits to visitors and result in fewer adverse impacts to the park. We are encouraged that the National Park Service is initiating a process to ensure that its long-term decision on winter use is based on the best science and upholds the conservation mandates that were disregarded in Yellowstone in recent winter use decisions.
