In the News gives you a glimpse of events that are shaping winter human-powered recreation across the country. Many of the reports are the result of work by organizations like Snowlands Network and the activists behind the organizations. The events listed are meant to be informative, publicize precedent setting successes, and, unfortunately, show failures that hopefully will energize us to continue our work.
In the News is compiled from several sources, but in particular, we would like to extend our thanks to Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads (www.wildlandscpr.org) for allowing us to reprint their material.
Have you seen a news item that is of interest to Snowlands Network and its members. If so, please send the information to Snowlands or to Snowlands Network, PO Box 2570, Nevada City, CA 95959.
December 2004
The Forest Service has announced that the Loon Lake area has been set aside as a non-motorized area this winter.
January 2004
The Forest Service has announced that it is increasing funding for patrols at Tahoe Meadows. See the online Reno-Gazette Journal article for more details and a quote from Gail Ferrell, Snowlands Director.
April 2002
A National Park Service study ordered by the Bush Administration rejects claims that snowmobile makers are producing cleaner vehicles that will not disturb wildlife or pollute the air. The environmental analysis was part of the settlement of a lawsuit by snowmobile makers and the states of Wyoming and Idaho seeking to roll back the snowmobile ban in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association requested the study claiming that the ban had been based on earlier Park Service research that failed to consider a new generation of cleaner and quieter machines. In analyzing new data from the industry the Park Service concluded that much of the information was largely unconvincing or dated. Still, the Park Service refuses to recommend continuing with the three-year phase out plan adopted by the Clinton Administration last year. A final decision is due mid-November. The Park Service is currently considering four different plans: two would ban snowmobiles in the park, one would limit snowmobiles entering the west gate to 500 per day, and one would limit entries there to 330 per day.
March 2002
Engineering students at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colorado have developed a new engine design that promises to cut snowmobile two-stroke engine emissions by as much as 99 percent and reduce fuel consumption by 35 percent. As reported March 20, 2002 in the Environmental News Service (http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-20-09.html), CSU students participating in the Third Annual Clean Snowmobile Challenge in Jackson, Wyoming have developed a technology for snowmobile engines that they claim will reduce emissions without diminishing performance. Currently the engine in a typical snowmobile can produce as much air pollution as 100 cars. The technology has wider application than snowmobiles. "Our new cost effective, two-stroke technology has the potential to significantly reduce pollution throughout the developing world," said CSU professor Bryan Willson. While the CSU engine technology is a positive development for overall pollution reduction and fuel efficiency, it does not address the many additional negative impacts of snowmobiles such as wildlife disturbance and conflicts with non-motorized users. Student engineer Jessica Rupp's claim, that the new technology "should appeal to the environmentalist and the snowmobiler," must be viewed in the broader context of how snowmobiles impact the winter environment overall.
March 2002
This winter hundreds, perhaps thousands, of snowmobiles have been trespassing in the wilderness backcountry of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). As reported by the Environmental News Service on March 22, 2002 (http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-22-07.html), aerial surveys by Yellowstone park rangers have documented numerous incursions into remote areas of the western region of the park where it borders popular snowmobile areas in Idaho. While hundreds of miles of groomed roads and trails are open to snowmobiles within the park, snowmobilers continue to cross well-marked park boundaries and operate their machines in closed areas, a practice park ranger Bob Seibert calls in "blatant disregard" of park rules. While ORV groups complain that park service criticism is calculated to influence current efforts to regulate snowmobiles in the park, Yellowstone spokesperson Marsha Karle responds, "What these snowmobilers did was wrong and illegal and there is nothing wrong with letting people know about it." The National Park Service has been grappling with how to control burgeoning snowmobile use in Yellowstone. Last year the park service moved to restrict snowmobile access in order to protect park wildlife from harm and respond to serious pollution problems associated with snowmobiles. However, under pressure from ORV groups and the Bush administration, the NPS has re-opened the issue and is currently considering four alternatives to a plan managing snowmobile impact, two of which would phase out snowmobile use entirely.
March 2002
The Hungry Horse News (March 14, 2002) reports that the most dramatic drop in winter activities for which people visited Montana from out of state last year was snowmobiling. The percentage of visitors to Montana that came to snowmobile dropped from 19% in 1998 to 6% in 2001. According to the hungry Horse News, 31% of all winter visitors to Montana (not just snowmobilers) visited Yellowstone National Park and 23% visited the Flathead.
January 2002
As the public comment period on the EPA's proposed rule to set national emission standards for ATVs, off-road motorcycles, and snowmobiles draws to a close, it has drawn criticism from many directions. The proposed regulations would essentially necessitate phasing out the manufacture of all two-stroke engines for ATVs and off-road motorcycles. The type of two-stroke engine found in many snowmobiles and some ATVs emits as much smog-producing chemicals in seven hours of operation as are emitted by driving a 1998 car for 100,000 miles, according to the California Air Resources Board. In addition, according to the EPA, about 10 percent of all motorized vehicle air pollution in the U.S. comes from ATVs, off-road motorcycles, and snowmobiles. Some manufacturers claim that the EPA is overestimating the air pollution caused by ORV use, that they do not have jurisdiction to establish the new rule, and that the proposed rule tries to make changes too quickly. Conservation groups approve of imposing stricter emissions controls, but are concerned that the proposed snowmobile regulations are far too weak, that noise pollution has not been addressed, that the agency is not requiring a labeling system allowing for consumers to compare emissions, and that the implementation timeline is too slow.
December 2001
Snowmobilers visiting Yellowstone National Park this winter will face only a handful of new restrictions instead of the multi-year snowmobile phase out originally planned by the Park Service. After more than a decade of study and multiple lawsuits charging that motorized winter recreation was causing unacceptable environmental damage to the Park, and with overwhelming public support, the agency had agreed to begin the phaseout. Instead, the Park Service is now implementing a handful of new restrictions aimed at reducing some of the environmental impacts of snowmobile use. The changes include reduced speed limits, an increase in law enforcement and promotion of “low impact” snowmobiling, and requiring visitors to purchase park passes in West Yellowstone rather than at the Park entrance (to reduce congestion). The Park Service’s original plan to phase out recreational snowmobiling in Yellowstone hit a snag when the Bush Administration agreed to delay the plan for further study as a result of a lawsuit settlement with snowmobile manufacturers. A new draft Environmental Impact Statement is expected by January 21 and a new final decision by November 15.
December 2001
The National Park Serviced reversed a 1992 decision to ban snowmobiles on close to 4,700 acres of lakes in Voyageurs National Park, reported the December 6 GREENLines. Although acknowledging that wolves suffer from higher levels of stress in Voyageurs than those in the snowmobile-free Isle Royale National Park, the agency contends that it is not necessarily the result of motorized recreation.
December 2001
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is appealing a decision of the Federal Court of Canada to allow a winter road to be built through the heart of Wood Buffalo National Park. The court ruled against the Society, concluding that the Minister of Canadian Heritage has broad discretionary powers in interpreting the Act and can override the mandate to protect ecological integrity. This lawsuit is the first time that the new Canada National Parks Act, passed in October 2000, has been tested in court. Straddling the Alberta-Northwest Territories border, Wood Buffalo is a World Heritage Site as well as the world's largest area of protected boreal forest. The Society, represented by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, successfully sought an injunction halting road construction until the court issued its ruling. Although the Society’s injunction expired, a separate injunction on road construction, secured by the Mikisew Cree First Nation, is still in effect. The nation’s territory includes part of Wood Buffalo National Park.
December 2001
A conflict is brewing between snowmobilers and ATV riders in southern Maine, the Portland Press Herald reported December 6. Snowmobilers contend that ATV use has already destroyed seven miles of trails and that the damage is increasing on the thirty mile trail network near Sanford. The deep ruts, muddy holes, and other impacts irreversibly damage the trails, claims the Southern Maine Snogoers Club, and landowners are angry enough about the trespassing and the damage that they are shutting off access. Scott Ramsay of the Maine Department of Conservation notes that while ATV trail damage is occurring everywhere, the problems are worse than usual in Sanford. “(ATV riders) think they're back in the wild West days," he told the Press Herald. "And they think Sanford is the place to go to abuse the land."
September 2001
In late September a federal judge in Washington, DC rejected a challenge by timber and off-highway motor vehicle groups to the newly designated Giant Sequoia National Monument located in the southwestern Sierra Nevada. The monument protects 330,000 acres of national forest lands, including nearly half of the world’s remaining giant Sequoia groves.
The timber and off-highway motor vehicle groups claimed that the April 2000 monument designation by former President Bill Clinton under the 1906 Antiquities Act was unconstitutional because the act requires delineating the least possible area to protect the resource. But the court found that although the Sequoia groves cover only a few thousand acres, there is no evidence that Clinton’s designation violated the law by including 330,000 acres of land.
Although snowmobile use is permitted in Giant Sequoia National Monument, it is only permitted on roads — no cross-country travel is permitted.
October 2001
According to the National Park Service, 82 percent of those who submitted comments on banning snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park supported the Clinton administration's decision to phase them out. The Billings Gazette reports that respondents oppose the current supplemental environmental impact statement reviewing the earlier decision. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition notes that this is the fourth time public comments have favored phasing out snowmobiles from Yellowstone as well as Grand Teton National Park and John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway. The Park Service settlement with the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association requires that a new decision be made by November 2002, just before the phase-out goes into effect. Environmentalists question plans to spend an estimated $2.4 million on the new study. Meanwhile, the snowmobile industry so far has failed to provide substantive new information on cleaner and quieter machines that could change the outcome of earlier modeling. A draft version of the new study must be available to the public by January.
September 2001
According to the Casper Star-Tribune, a draft document shared among Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and National Park Service officials on September 25 indicates that a proposed snowmobile study will look at three options, two of which would keep Yellowstone National Park trails open to snowmobiles. The three alternatives include:
1. A no-change alternative, meaning January's federal ban on snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would stand.
2. Patterned after legislation proposed by Wyoming's US Sen. Craig Thomas, park trails would be limited to "clean and quiet" snowmobiles only, but with no caps on numbers of snowmobilers and no requirement that snowmobilers follow guides.
3. "Clean and quiet" snowmobiles would still be required, but there would be limits on numbers of snowmobiles allowed in the parks at any one time, plus requirements for groups to follow National Park Service guides.
The National Park Service is still planning for a final decision by November 2002.
September 2001
On September 14, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new emissions standards for new non-road engines including snowmobiles, off-road vehicles, dirtbikes, inboard boats, on-highway motorcycles, and small industrial and airport equipment. The EPA's proposed standard for snowmobiles would reduce hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by 30 percent in 2006 and 50 percent in 2010. Katy Rexford, a public lands expert with Bluewater Network, believes the snowmobile industry received favored treatment from the EPA, compared to other segments of the motorized recreation industry. "The engines in snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles are essentially identical," Rexford said, "yet the ATV industry is being asked to meet emission reductions six times over what the EPA is requiring of the snowmobile industry." Further, snowmobiles won't be required to be any quieter, according to the proposed EPA regulations.
The EPA will hold public hearings on the proposed regulations in Washington, DC on Oct. 24 and in Denver, Colorado on Oct. 30. The EPA is accepting public comments until December 19. For more information contact Ms. Margaret Borushko at nranprm@epa.gov.
Based on California Air Resource Board data and a late model automobile traveling 60 mph, current snowmobiles are 238 times more polluting than an auto. A 50 percent reduction in snowmobile pollution would still leave them 119 times more polluting!
September 2001
Governor Gray Davis has signed SB 477, which makes one significant change that will benefit human-powered winter recreationists, along with a host of small but positive changes to the California Sno-Park Program. The program provides parking, sanitation and other facilities for winter recreationists who purchase a Sno-Park permit.
The significant change will provide funding for non-motorized, non-SnoPark projects such as shelters or marked trails. Prior to this legislation there were no Department of Parks and Recreation funds to provide non-motorized winter recreation amenities. This is in contrast to the millions of dollars available for motorized winter recreation through the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Grant Program.
Under the new legislation, any "balance" of funds in the Winter Recreation Fund shall be spent for a host of purposes including "facilities designed to promote the safety and well-being of persons engaged in winter recreation." Currently there is a balance of approximately $300,000, and David Widell, Deputy Director of the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division, which oversees Sno-Park, sees this as an opportunity to fund non-motorized projects.
The legislation also requires the Director of Parks and Recreation to appoint a committee, to be known as the ''Winter Recreation Committee,'' to advise the director on the location of designated parking areas. The bill also authorizes the department to enter into long-range agreements for the utilization of private and public lands for the program. In addition, the department will have more flexibility for contracting for services such as snow removal, signing, etc. and permit the expenditure of funds to inform and educate the public about the program.
August 2001
National Park Service officials are unimpressed with information recently released by the snowmobile industry, according to an August 17 Associated Press report. Despite industry claims to the contrary, the study provides no clear evidence that improved snowmobile technology will sufficiently reduce pollution and noise levels in Yellowstone National Park.
The industry study received a similarly cool reception from the Idaho Falls Post Register Editorial Board on August 17: "For months, [the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association] has applied the 'junk science' label to the National Park Service's reason for phasing out snowmobile trips into Yellowstone National Park. So what does the industry offer as its own evidence that better, more advanced snowmobiles can solve the problems in the park? Letters of assurance from engineers and a couple of advertising brochures. What kind of science is this?"
The study was part of an effort by industry and other snowmobile supporters to overturn the Park Service's plan to phase out snowmobiles by 2004. The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association and the state of Wyoming sued the Park Service over the plan. The Bush Administration settled the lawsuit, agreeing to consider new data on snowmobile pollution and noise before issuing a second, final decision. Under the settlement, the Park Service is scheduled to release a new Environmental Impact Statement next year and issue a final decision by November 2002.
August 2001
The Fair Trails Coalition claimed victory in persuading the Washington State Legislature to approve a recreational fuel use study in late July. The study will determine the percentage of fuel consumed on non-highway roads and trails by different user groups in order to establish new parameters for allocating gas tax revenues. The state distributes a portion of state gas tax revenues for the development of motorized and non-motorized routes and facilities. Of the money set aside for this program, the state currently allocates 80 percent of the gas tax funding to motorized recreation and 20 percent to non-motorized recreation. Members of the Washington conservation community sought the study because of concerns that this allocation unfairly favors the motorized recreationists.
July 2001
The Bush Administration agreed to reconsider a National Park Service decision to phase out snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and prepare a new environmental impact statement. The move settled a lawsuit challenging the phaseout filed last year by snowmobile manufacturers and the Wyoming State Snowmobile Association. "This administration feels strongly that greater local input, new information, scientific data and economic analysis, and wider public involvement can only lead to better, more informed decisions," said Mark Pfeifle, an Interior Department spokesman.
Conservation groups roundly criticized the move as the first step toward reversing the original decision. "It is clear that the Bush Administration is more interested in protecting the interests of the snowmobile industry and those who enjoy trashing America's most treasured parks from the seat of a snowmobile than in protecting park wildlife, air quality, and natural quiet," said D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist representing The Fund for Animals, which was part of the original lawsuit forcing the Park Service to address snowmobile impacts.
Under the settlement, the National Park Service will prepare a new environmental impact statement on the issue. The original analysis, completed in 2000 following years of study, led to the Clinton administration's decision to phase out snowmobiles by 2004.
June 2001
In a precedent-setting legal victory, a U.S. District Court judge in Utah ruled on Monday that several southern Utah counties do not have rights-of-way over a dirt road network crisscrossing federal lands. In their lawsuit, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Sierra Club contended that San Juan, Garfield and Kane counties acted illegally when they bladed roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other areas under review for wilderness protection. The counties claimed the dirt roads under an 1866 law known as R.S. 2477, which establishes rights-of-way for highways across federal lands not already reserved for public uses.
The court concluded that the counties' R.S. 2477 claims were invalid because: 1) the roads had never been constructed, 2) the roads were not highways because they did not access any particular destination, and 3) in some cases the roads were on land that had been set aside for coal development.
"This decision should restore some common sense to the R.S. 2477 issue," said SUWA attorney Heidi McIntosh. "We do need sensible transportation; we don't need a morass of jeep and ORV trails snaking through fragile landscapes." Federal agencies across the western United States have witnessed an increasing number of rights-of-way claims under the 1866 law.
This decision is applicable to snowmobile access issues in some areas.
June 2001
The Bush Administration is close to reversing the National Park Service's recent decision to prohibit snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park, reported the New York Times on Sunday. The Park Service late last year adopted the provision, which included phasing out personal snowmobile use over a two-year period and replacing them with 15- passenger snow coaches. The decision, after years of litigation and high-profile controversy, was driven by concerns about snowmobile pollution and impacts to wildlife. The Departments of Interior and Justice are currently negotiating with snowmobile manufacturers who sued the Park Service hoping to negate the ban.
February 2001
The Chenoa City Council unanimously voted to prohibit the use of snowmobiles within town limits, reported the Pantagraph, of Bloomington, Illinois, on January 23. The Council issued the ban in response to complaints of people driving through yards, driving too fast, and making noise after curfew hours.
February 2001
Fourteen Park Service employees working at Yellowstone National Park's west entrance reported headaches, burning eyes, and other health problems, according to a January 17 Associated Press story. Although the Park Service improved ventilation in the ticket booths and established a snowmobile express lane in response to earlier health complaints, the improvements were apparently insufficient to compensate for heavy visitor traffic, estimated at 1,300 per day. The Park Service plans to phase snowmobile use out of the Park over the next several years.
February 2001
Despite President Bush's executive order banning new agency rules, final rules phasing out snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park were published in the January 22 Federal Register. The rules, which became final upon publication, include a gradual elimination of snowmobiles in the Park, eventually eliminating their use altogether in the winter 2003-2004. Winter visitors could access the Park by way of skis, snowshoes, and motorized snowcoaches. Opponents are continuing their efforts to overturn the ban. Most recently, Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas (R) introduced a bill to reverse the ban and instead charge the Environmental Protection Agency with establishing emissions and noise standards.
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