[Geysers] Snow coach Stats: Billings Gazette

[srlb at eskimo.com]

Debby Stahl wrote:

<SNIP>

> It makes me sick to think of the noise, exhaust
> fumes, and general havoc snowmobiles must create
> at YNP.

General havoc? Please describe.

> I have little sympathy for those whose need for
> adventure, or whatever it is, requires them to
> drive a private vehicle in a public park to the
> detriment of the environment as well as other
> park visitors.

Does this include winter visitors who enter through the north gate in
their cars, trucks, and SUVs? When you visit the park in the summer, do
you do so by tour bus or in your private vehicle? Why do the typical YNP
summer visitor's reasons for using a car not equally apply to snowmobiles
in the winter?

> The snowcoaches provide park access;

The tour buses provide park access in the summer.

> if some percentage of park visitors chooses not
> to use them, that does not make the policy wrong.

The fraction of winter visitors to the park's interior who chose not to
use snowcoaches prior to the changing of the rules was 90%. This includes
70% of those visitors who had never snowmobiled before.

> Like most unpopular policies (anti-smoking,
> for example)

Or prohibition?  :>)

> this one will become the norm after
> some time has passed and it becomes
> clear that it won't be reversed.

I suggest you find and read some of the media pieces on Interior Secretary
Norton's recent visit to the park. She is quoted as favoring snowmobile
access without commercial guides. The commercial guides rule, by the way,
is the only one of the new rules to which I object. I'm very much in favor
of the BAT (best available technology) rule for the snowmobiles allowed to
enter; and I don't think the daily limits on the number snowmobiles
allowed in represents a serious restriction to access on the vast majority
of days.

The problem with the guides rule is that it's illogically applied. For
example, cross-country skiers and showshoers are not required to be
guided, yet the NPS's own research indicates they may be more stressful to
the park's wildlife than snowmobilers. From the YNP/GTNP Winter Use FEIS:

On page 240:

>>   EFFECTS OF NONMOTORIZED [SKIERS, ETC]
>>   USE OF GROOMED AND DESIGNATED UNGROOMED
>>   ROUTES.
>
>>   The primary effects of nonmotorized use
>>   on ungulates are displacement from preferred
>>   habitats, especially geothermal areas that
>>   are important for winter survival in YNP,
>>   and increased energy expenditures, including
>>   physiological stress, which may reduce
>>   individuals' chances of survival. These
>>   effects are believed to be of a greater
>>   magnitude than those caused by motorized
>>   vehicles using established, predictable
>>   routes (Cole 1978; Schultz and Bailey 1978;
>>   Walter 1978; Aune 1981; Cassier 1986).

And on page 248:

>>   In contrast to motorized activities,
>>   nonmotorized recreation (e.g., cross-country
>>   skiing), especially when it occurs outside
>>   of predictable use areas or in riparian areas,
>>   may be highly disruptive to bald eagles
>>   (Harmata and Oakleaf 1992; Grubb and King 1991;
>>   Stalmaster and Newman 1978; McGarigal et al.
>>   1991; Stangl 1994).

Also, wheeled vehicles (cars, etc.) that enter the park in the winter do
not require guides, yet the FEIS tells us:

On page 239:

>>   During the winters from 1989-98, wheeled-
>>   vehicles accounted for 99% of all road-
>>   killed large mammals (predominantly ungulates)
>>   in YNP. Of the 1,090 animals killed, elk (427),
>>   mule deer (335) and bison (98) were the species
>>   most often involved in fatal collisions
>>   (Gunther et al. 1998).

And again on page 239:

>>   Overall, considering all species, the [winter]
>>   average ratio of wheeled-vehicle road-kill
>>   mortality to snowmobile road-kill mortality was
>>   17 to 1.

Now, to make this ramble of mine relevant to this geyser oriented group,
let us suppose you're paying the park a winter visit. You're staying at
the Snow Lodge, it's about noon, and there doesn't seem to be much
prospect of any especially interesting geyser activity in the UGB for the
next few hours. So, you decide to spend a little time in the Lower Geyser
Basin (or West Thumb, or wherever) seeing what's going on there. Question:
Under the current rules, how do you get there and back?

> For the record, I believe there should be a
> regularly scheduled bus shuttle service
> operating in the park during the summer season.

I totally agree. Zion National Park has an excellent, visitor friendly
mass transit system operating there that replaces most use of private
vehicles. The problem is it covers only 10 miles of the park's roads, and
cost $28 million just to implement. Yellowstone has about 200 miles of
frequently used road. The cost of such a system in YNP would be
prohibitive; while a system that's less visitor friendly by very much
isn't going to serve the visiting public's needs.

> Just one of the "armchair" rabble.
>
> Debby Stahl

Bob Berger
srlb at eskimo.com