Ten,
I like your comments in this thread. They are short, and very easy to ignore. Thanks for wasting as little time as possible.
Hangar,
Sorry I am not worthy of your time. But you are fighting an uphill battle on the PR front. As you can argue semantics all you want, and whether it is EPA standards or Bush Administration standards (ie.. Park Service), but the bottom line is, the Manufaturers did not provide cleaner 4 strokes and a Judge overturned Bush's actions. Therefore, the Private operator got hosed by the Blue Ribbers. Bummer, dude!!!
But here is some more reading, for those who want more background.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Confusion reigns on 1st day of park snowmobile season
By BRETT FRENCH
Gazette Outdoor Writer
WEST YELLOWSTONE – Norm Brunel bristled after being told Wednesday morning that his group of self-guided snowmobilers wouldn’t be allowed into Yellowstone National Park.
“This is a farce,” said Brunell, of Manitoba, his snowmobile parked in front of the West Entrance. “This is against the law.”
It was a day of confusion and anger in this self-proclaimed “snowmobile capital of the world” after a last-minute change in regulations on snowmobile use went into effect overnight. A federal judge late Tuesday issued a ruling that reversed the Bush administration regulations regarding motorized winter access to the park.
The change meant reverting to rules enacted in the Clinton era that were more restrictive. As a result, the number of people allowed to enter Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks daily decreased overnight from 950 to 439. And from this snowbound town on the park’s boundary, only 279 snowmobilers will be allowed entry each day, all of which must be accompanied by a guide.
“If they’re really concerned, then they should limit cars in the summer, too,” Brunel said. “This is like when we went from the horse and buggy days to cars, nobody liked that idea, either.”
Brunel, his wife and two friends had been in West Yellowstone for two weeks. The trip into the park was to be the grand finale before driving home for Christmas. He has been through the park three times before. Knowing that new rules would be in effect this year, he had made reservations in November to enter the park Wednesday and Thursday.
“I thought it was all said and done,” he said.
But when he pulled up his machine to the park’s entry booth at 7 a.m., rangers told him under the glare of television lights and camera flashes that he would have to turn around. Without a guide, his group would not be admitted.
“I don’t need any guidance,” Brunell told park ranger Julie Hanaford. “I probably know as much as some of these guides.”
Hanaford sympathized with the snowmobiler’s situation but said, “I’m not going to debate this with you.”
Brunel apologized for taking his anger out on Hanaford.
“Thank you,” she said. “We understand.”
Because Brunel and his party were turned back, it was a snowcoach that at 8:41 a.m. became the first motorized vehicle to enter Yellowstone’s West Entrance this winter – an indication, perhaps, of what the future holds.
Snowmobilers with guides had no problem entering. Dan Thyer, a guide for Three Bear Lodge, took 10 people into the park Wednesday morning, the first guided trip through the west gate. But not all of his customers had originally planned to go with him.
Krysti Fama, 32, of Brisbane, Australia, said, “We had an inkling we wouldn’t be able to get in on our own.”
So on Tuesday night, her group made arrangements to join Thyer’s party. It cost an extra $35 per person – in addition to the fee paid for snowmobile and snowsuit rentals.
“We’re lucky to be able to get in with these guys,” said her father, Pablo Gomez, 64, of Reno, Nev. “I feel sorry for the people next year who won’t be able to go in on snowmobiles.”
Ruth Hangartner, of Apopka, Fla., and her family also had reservations to take an unguided trip into Yellowstone Wednesday. When they went to pick up their rental snowmobiles, they were told they would need a guide to enter the park. They were lucky enough to piggyback onto another guided trip.
Although Hangartner is a member of a national animal conservation group, she said she has no qualms about entering the park on snowmobiles “as long as we follow the restrictions.”
She added, however, that how she gets into the park isn’t what’s important to her. “I come for the park,” she said.
West Yellowstone businessman Randy Roberson figured he would get a permit to guide trips into Yellowstone Park this winter, and invested $310,000 in new snowmobiles that would meet new pollution requirements for the park.
But now he believes his new machines will get little use. And he worries about his bottom line.
“You spend six months getting ready to do business a certain way, and this changes everything,” he said Wednesday.
“Townwise, it’s going to be devastating to our economy, no doubt about it,” said West Yellowstone Mayor Jerry Johnson, who also has a snowmobile rental business.
Marysue Costello, president of the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce, said the office was set to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony, complete with the mayor, to welcome the first visitors to the park for the 2003-2004 winter season. But those plans went out the window after the judge’s ruling.
On Wednesday morning, she and her staff were scrambling to make sure visitors and the contingent of news reporters understood what the changes mean.
She said her office will continue to inform visitors and prospective visitors of the change, but she’s also worried.
“There’s that dance of how far you want to spread that information,” she said, since a stay of the judge’s ruling could once again throw a wrench into the already confusing process. “This is, if nothing else, a lesson in fluidity.”
In other communities near the park, reaction was similar.
Bob Coe, owner of the Pahaska Tepee lodge a couple miles east of Yellowstone, said he is considering closing down for the winter if the ruling is not reversed.
His lodge employs about two dozen workers in the winter.
“We got a lot of people worrying about losing their jobs,” he said.
The main problem is 90 percent of those who rent the lodge’s 27 snowmobiles and stay overnight at the lodge go into the park without a guide. How many are willing to convert to guided tours will determine whether Pahaska can stay open, Coe said.
“Right now our guided trips won’t even pay our insurance,” he said.
Cheryl Matthews, a spokeswoman at Yellowstone, said visitors who had advance reservations were being told of other options. “We’re trying to work with them, to link them with guides or snowcoaches and tell them about trails outside the park,” she said.
About 1,700 park entrance reservations had been made for the season before the judge’s ruling, with bookings heavy at the west entrance over the Christmas holiday, said Jim McCaleb, general manager for Xanterra Parks & Resorts at Yellowstone.
Diane Shober, director of Wyoming Travel and Tourism, said officials were deciding how to handle the situation.
“What we focus on in travel to Wyoming in all seasons is a hassle-free vacation and this contradicts that on many levels right now,” she said.
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And some reading about the Blue Ribbers next move, and some more insight into the Judge admonishing the Blue Ribbers and the Park Service.....
A funnier than hell statement from the supporters of snowmobiles in the park...
“It’s outrageous that the environmental lobby continues to insist that decisions on how best to use our public lands should be made by liberal courts on the East Coast and not by the people who depend on our public lands to make a living,” said Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., in a statement.
Yeppers, the decisions on how to use Public Lands should be made by the people who use the public lands to make a living... As if they would look out for the best interest of anything...
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Opponents of snowmobile ruling plan appeals
By Gazette Staff
And Associated Press
In the wake of Tuesday’s ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., overturning the Park Service’s plan for snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Teton national parks, Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank hustled Wednesday to appeal the court order.
The ruling came the day before the start of the parks’ winter season. With a Clinton-era plan to phase out snowmobiles revived, the number of snowmobiles allowed this winter will be limited to 493 in Yellowstone and 50 in Grand Teton before they are banned completely next winter.
Crank said Wyoming disagrees with the finding by U.S. District Appeals Judge Emmet Sullivan that extra fact-finding was needed for the National Park Service to change course from the Clinton-era plan without the changes being arbitrary and capricious.
“We believe that the record of decision here is sufficient and it does show why there has been a change in the winter use plan,” Crank said. “The change is that we have new technology. We have snowmobiles that are less offensive to the environment.”
The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association Inc. and BlueRibbon Coalition also filed a request Wednesday for a stay of Sullivan’s decision, saying it would prevent thousands of visitors from seeing Yellowstone and would devastate local economies.
“The fight’s not over,” said Bill Dart, public lands director with BlueRibbon Coalition.
Sullivan said he would take written arguments. If Sullivan rejects the request for an emergency stay, as seemed likely Wednesday, the industry would request that the Appellate Court review his decision.
“We are always hopeful,” snowmobile industry attorney Barbara A. Miller said, when asked about the prospect that Sullivan would grant the request. “The rules of the court require us to file it in front of him before it goes to the Appellate Court.”
“We’re definitely going to appeal it,” Miller said. “We think the judge’s conclusion that the (National Environmental Policy Act) was violated is not correct.”
If the Wyoming officials and snowmobile industry lawyers are unable to overturn Sullivan’s ruling, lawmakers may try to pass legislation overturning it.
“It’s outrageous that the environmental lobby continues to insist that decisions on how best to use our public lands should be made by liberal courts on the East Coast and not by the people who depend on our public lands to make a living,” said Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., in a statement.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said he is asking Interior Secretary Gale Norton to have her department immediately appeal and request a stay of the decision.
“The courts need to hold up on this until the appeal process is over,” Burns said. “The impact of this decision is far ranging and potentially very damaging.”
Other issues
While reaction to Sullivan’s ruling has focused on reverting back to the ban, the judge also told the federal government to re-examine the question of grooming roads in Yellowstone and to respond to an earlier petition to prohibit snowmobiles in all national parks.
Sullivan said the National Park Service must further study the environmental impacts of packing snow on the 25-foot-wide roads for snowmobiles and snowcoaches. Specifically, the judge said park officials need to look at how grooming affects bison and other wildlife.
The ruling responded to a lawsuit by the Fund for Animals and Bluewater Network, which claimed that road grooming facilitates the movement of bison outside Yellowstone, where they can be captured and slaughtered as part of a regional program to reduce the spread of brucellosis.
They also claimed grooming is harmful to bears, wolves and Canada lynx.
In his ruling Tuesday night, Sullivan chastised the Park Service for not fully considering a ban on grooming roads.
“It defies logic that an option considering the cessation of trail grooming was not considered,” he wrote.
Additionally, Sullivan ordered the Park Service to respond to a 1999 petition from Bluewater Network to ban snowmobiles from all national parks.
Given the studies of snowmobiling in Yellowstone – particularly those that led to the decision in 2000 to ban them – Sullivan said a decision is needed on whether they can remain elsewhere in the national park system.
“It is clear that the impacts of snowmobiling in other parks could also be severe,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the Park Service’s delay in responding to the 1999 petition was “unreasonable.” He said he would not advocate for one position or another in terms of banning the machines in all national parks, but the petitioners have a right to a response “in a reasonable amount of time.”
The judge gave the Park Service until Feb. 17 to file its response to the group’s request.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
And some more reading, including some businessman who made a bad business decision, and is now whining....
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Sled ruling hits home to outfitters
By TED MONOSON – Lee Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON – Early Wednesday morning Jackson Hole Snowmobile Tours office manager Stacey Chapman called two people and told them that because of a judge’s ruling Tuesday night they would not be able to rent snowmobiles.
“They were irate,” said Chapman, who is the office manager. “They did not understand. That’s how it’s going to be. We are going to have a lot of angry people.”
The judge’s ruling cut the number of snowmobiles that the company can operate inside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks from 20 to eight per day.
Wyoming officials and snowmobile industry attorneys are trying to keep Chapman from having to speak with more angry customers. Both are working to overturn U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s ruling that cuts in half the number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone and Grand Teton this winter and would eliminate snowmobiles from the park next winter.
The state of Wyoming has filed an appeal and attorneys for the state and the snowmobile industry have filed an emergency request to prevent implementation of the judge’s ruling. It is unclear how quickly the courts will act on the appeal or the emergency request.
On Tuesday evening, Sullivan struck down Bush administration rules that would have allowed snowmobiling to continue in the park. Under his ruling, the Bush rules would be replaced with rules written during the Clinton administration that phase out snowmobile use in the parks.
The industry’s request for the emergency stay was filed with Sullivan, but his written opinion makes it unlikely he will grant the request.
In his ruling, Sullivan questioned how the Bush administration had dramatically rejected the Clinton administration rules.
“The gap between the decision made in 2001, and the decision made in 2003 is stark,” Sullivan wrote. “In 2001, the rule-making process culminated in a finding that snowmobiling so adversely impacted the wildlife and resources of the parks that all snowmobile use must be halted. A scant three years later, the rule-making process culminated in the conclusion that nearly 1,000 snowmobiles will be allowed to enter the park each day.”
If Sullivan rejects the emergency stay, the industry would request that the Appellate Court review his decision.
“We are always hopeful,” snowmobile industry attorney Barbara A. Miller said, when asked about the prospect that Sullivan would grant the request. “The rules of the court require us to file it in front of him before it goes to the Appellate Court.”
Regardless of the success of the emergency stay, lawyers for the snowmobile industry plan to appeal the Tuesday ruling.
“We’re definitely going to appeal it,” Miller said. “We think the judge’s conclusion that the (National Environmental Policy Act) was violated is not correct.”
If the Wyoming officials and snowmobile industry lawyers are unable to overturn Sullivan’s ruling, lawmakers may try to pass legislation overturning it. Members of Montana and Wyoming’s congressional delegations harshly criticized the Tuesday ruling.
“It’s outrageous that the environmental lobby continues to insist that decisions on how best to use our public lands should be made by liberal courts on the East Coast and not by the people who depend on our public lands to make a living,” Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., said in a statement.
Although Republican President Ronald Reagan appointed Sullivan, the judge has issued several rulings that have angered Western Republicans.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., was also angry but his comments were not as sharp as Cubin’s. “This decision is a blow to all Yellowstone visitors and the communities who serve them,” Burns said. “There is a way to manage for multiple uses of Yellowstone, and this decision doesn’t recognize that reality.
“With the season set to open today this will have a severe impact on the economy of our gateway communities.”
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., also criticized Sullivan’s ruling.
“I’m disappointed by this ruling because I don’t think an outright ban is necessary,” Baucus said. “We must continue to work together to balance existing uses, protect the park and enhance the visitor experience, while creating and protecting jobs in the surrounding communities.”
Pombo joined the Montana delegation in criticizing the ruling and his spokeswoman said that he might try to pass a bill allowing snowmobiles in the park if Sullivan’s ruling is not overturned.
If there is an effort to overturn Sullivan the vote is likely to be close. Earlier this year, Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., tried to attach an amendment to the Interior Department’s 2004 spending bill that would have banned snowmobiling in the parks. The House voted 210 to 210 to reject the amendment. According to House rules if there is a tie the proposal is defeated.
“I am not prepared to say we have the votes, but it is something we are considering,” Pombo spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said.
Ron Gatheridge who rents snowmobiles in West Yellowstone is not optimistic. He moved to Montana from Humboldt, Minn., 10 years. He had been a snowmobile dealer in Humboldt, but business there was meager.
“I was going broke in Minnesota,” Gatheridge said. “I finally got something where I can pay the bills, but someone else has decided I can’t do it. I thought I was set for the rest of my life, but here I am at 51 and I have to find something else to do.”
Gatheridge noted that although there are a plethora of snowmobile trails outside the park, the majority of folks who rent snowmobiles prefer to use them in the park. He said that the people who use the trails outside the park generally own their own snowmobiles.
“The people who rent snowmobiles are not coming here for the snowmobiling experience,” Gatheridge said. “They are coming here to see the park.”
He gets no argument from Greater Yellowstone Coalition executive director Michael Scott. The organization is one of the environmental groups whose lawsuit led Sullivan to overturn the Bush administration rules.
“I think it is important to remember that the park is still there,” Scott said. “It was there yesterday and it will be there tomorrow. The park, not the means of transportation to get into it, has always been the attraction.”
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hangar, I read some more, and it doesn't seem to matter how much I read, there will still not be any Private Snowmobiles in YNP Tomorrow morning....
Looks like the Blue Ribbers really didn't protect access to the Park, after all...
