[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5826-5827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     SNOWMOBILES IN NATIONAL PARKS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing, with 17 of my 
colleagues, a bill to protect America's national parks from what is 
expected to be the next environmental rollback by the Bush 
Administration--an effort to overturn the National Park Service (NPS) 
decision to phase out snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton 
national parks.
  In response to a 1997 lawsuit, the NPS prepared an environmental 
impact statement (EIS) on the 100,000 snowmobiles entering Yellowstone 
and Grand Teton each winter. The NPS determined that those snowmobiles 
produce noise that can be heard by other visitors as much as 95% of the 
time, produce more air pollution than all other motor vehicles in 
Yellowstone throughout the year, and disturb bison and wildlife when 
they already face the stresses of brutal winter conditions. Because of 
these and other impacts, the NPS adopted a new rule to phase out by the 
winter of 2003-2004 all snowmobile use in Yellowstone and most of that 
use in Grand Teton, with expanded service by snowcoaches (multi-
passenger vehicles) to provide continued wintertime access to the 
parks. The rule, the culmination of a 3\1/2\ year process, was 
published in the Federal Register on January 22, 2001.
  Three key facts about the Yellowstone-Grand Teton snowmobile rule:
  First, it is strongly supported by the public--by most public 
comments on the EIS, and fully 85% of the public comments on the 
proposed rule.
  Second, the National Park Service determined not only that the 
snowmobile use in these parks is inappropriate, but also that it is 
unlawful. The Service determined that it violates the basic NPS 
mandate, in its Organic Act of 1916, to keep the scenery, natural and 
historic objects, and wildlife of national parks ``unimpaired for the 
enjoyment of future generations.'' The Park Service determines that the 
snowmobile use violates the Clean Air Act. The Service determined that 
the snowmobile use violates two Executive Orders, one by President 
Nixon and one by President Carter, setting standards for snowmobile use 
in national parks. And the Service determined that

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it violates the NPS's own general regulation on snowmobile use, in 
effect since 1983, that prohibits snowmobile use in parks that disturbs 
wildlife or damages other park resources.
  Third, this is the first time in the NPS's 84-year history that it 
has determined that a use it has authorized in parks has gotten so out 
of control that it has ended up violating the mandate of the Service's 
Organic Act. In that sense alone, the NPS decision to end all 
snowmobile use in Yellowstone and most use in Grand Teton is historic.
  Still, the Bush Administration has this rule in its sights. It has 
already delayed its effective date. Now there are published reports 
that the Administration wants to settle a legal challenge from 
snowmobile groups, in a backdoor attempt to overturn the rule without 
going through a new, public process.
  Yellowstone and Grand Teton are not the only national parks where 
inappropriate and unlawful snowmobile use is occurring.
  Last year, in response to a petition by 60 environmental 
organizations, the NPS acknowledged that much of the snowmobile use it 
has allowed to occur in other national parks violates, in four separate 
ways, some of the same requirements that are being violated in 
Yellowstone and Grand Teton. First, in nearly every instance, the Park 
Service merely allowed areas that were already open to snowmobile use 
to stay open, without reviewing them to determine if that use is 
consistent with protection of park resources, as required by President 
Nixon's Executive Order.
  Second, the NPS has allowed snowmobile use to occur in two parks and 
on some trails without designating them for that use through a public 
rulemaking process, which is required by the NPS's general regulations.
  Third, the NPS has consistently failed to monitor the effects of the 
snowmobile use it has allowed to occur, as required by President 
Nixon's Executive Order.
  Finally, the NPS concluded that it has allowed snowmobile use to 
continue that violates the substantive standards of the two applicable 
Executive Orders and its general regulations. The Park Service 
concluded that in many instances snowmobiles disrupt the natural 
wintertime quiet of the parks, disturb the enjoyment of other visitors, 
adversey affect wildlife, and otherwise harm the resources, values, and 
management objectives of the parks, all of which is prohibited by the 
standards of the Executive Orders and the NPS's own regulations. Based 
on these impacts, the NPS determined that, in general, recreational 
snowmobile use is not an appropriate use of most national parks.
  The NPS developed a plan to end inappropriate snowmobile use and to 
come into compliance with the standards governing snowmobile use in 
national parks. That plan would limit snowmobile use in national parks 
(other than in Alaska and in Voyageurs National Park, where special 
statutes apply) to short crossing routes providing access to adjacent 
public lands open to snowmobile use, and to routes providing necessary 
access to private lands in or adjacent to parks. Under this approach, 
of the 43 units of the national park system where some snowmobile use 
is now occurring, that use would be ended in 12 (including 
Yellowstone), would be allowed to continue but in more limited fashion 
in 10 (including Grand Teton), and would be allowed to continue without 
change in 21.
  However, in addition to reviewing the Yellowstone-Grand Teton rule, 
the Bush Administration has halted the rulemaking process to implement 
this overall NPS approach to snowmobiles in other parks. Because of the 
Administration's policy, the NPS has not yet been able to finalize a 
rule proposed last December to restrict snowmobile use in Rocky 
Mountain National Park, and has not been able to propose other 
regulatory changes with respect to other parks.
  The legislation my colleagues and I are introducing would 
legislatively adopt the sound approach the National Park Service 
developed last year to end inappropriate snowmobile use in national 
parks and come into compliance with the long-established standards of 
law that are supposed to govern that use. The bill would allow 
continued snowmobile use in parks when that use meets the current 
standards of law and is necessary to provide snowmobile access to 
adjacent public lands that are open to snowmobile use, or to provide 
access to private lands within or next to the parks. The bill would 
continue to allow snowmobile use without change next winter, to provide 
time for new regulations to be adopted under the bill. And in 
Yellowstone and Grand Teton, the bill would allow an extra year before 
it takes effect, to accommodate the phase-out period established by the 
Park Service in its recent rulemaking. Finally, the bill would affect 
only a portion of the 670 miles of snowmobile trails in all national 
parks--or a mere one-half of one percent of all 130,000 miles of trails 
in the United States.
  Let's end inappropriate snowmobile use that shatters the wintertime 
quiet of the national parks, pollutes their air, disturbs wildlife, and 
bothers other visitors to the parks. Let's keep our national parks, our 
most special lands, unimpaired for the enjoyment of today's Americans 
and future generations.

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