The Bush administration wasted $2.4 million of your money
to learn - for a
second time - that the National Park Service was justified in
removing
snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grant Teton national parks.
That second study was ordered by the Bush administration when
it settled a
lawsuit brought by the snowmobile makers. The International Snowmobile
Manufacturers Association and the states of Idaho and Wyoming
launched the
suit after the Park Service planned to phase out snowmobiles by
2004 and
provide only snowcoach entry into the parks thereafter.
A draft of the second study is expected to be released to the
public within the
next two weeks. A fourth comment period on his inexcusably overhashed
proposal begins this week
Normally, federal agencies select a preference among the options
outlined in
these reports, called an Environmental Impact Statement. That
hasn't happened
in this case, and it reflects the National Park Service's apparent
intimidation by
the Interior Department's lack of commitment to banning snowmobiles.
The Park Service says it will decide by November. On the table
are these
options:
n Keep the snowmobile phaseout it proposed two years ago.
n Freeze snowmobile traffic at 80,000 units per winter.
n Permit only guided touring by a limited number of snowmobiles
driven by Park
Service personnel.
n Impose some limits on snowmobile numbers until quieter and
less polluting
machines are developed.
The Park Service should stand by its earlier decision - and
the science that
supports it. That information is so convincing that the challengers
failed to refute
it in the second study.
Neither the snowmobile manufacturers nor the two states offered
evidence to
show that snowmobiles can operate in the parks without disturbing
wildlife. The
Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the study, reported
that the Park
Service's review of the snowmobile manufacturers' claims included
comments
such as "Information is not new," "Does not add
to information that already
exists," and "Survey is not credible."
The snowmobile manufacturers did not even do much to show that
quieter, less
polluting machines were compatible with the National Park Service's
mandate to
protect the parks' natural wonders for all visitors.
And while the industry focuses on technological innovations
to control noise and
smoke, it fails to confront the core issue. This isn't about improving
the
machines. It's about protecting winter-stressed wildlife in the
parks - an
argument that a distinguished panel of 18 national biologists
underscored to the
Interior Department. And it's about preserving the park's natural
and historic
winter serenity.
If science doesn't sway the Bush administration and Secretary
of Interior Gale
Norton, perhaps practical politics will. A growing majority of
the people who
have commented on this dispute have supported snowmobile phaseout.
That's
true both at the regional and national level. People want the
parks to return to the
normal rhythms of winter. That means they also support closing
some areas of
the park to cross-country skiers to avoid wildlife encounters.
But a president who refuses to tell the public how he allowed
the oil industry to
help write the nation's energy policy behind closed doors is suspect
on the issue
of special interests. Bush has not demonstrated to date on this
issue that he
wants to forsake another industry.
So much of the controversy on banning snowmobiles in the national
parks has
focused on how the decision was made - and not the reasons it
was made. The
ban reflects the values of protecting and preserving the national
parks. When the
November deadline for its decision arrives, the Park Service must
stand fast.
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