[Geysers] OF Cell Tower to be shortened & washed (AP)

[Freund, Udo]

Yellowstone phone tower to be shortened, hidden 
Associated Press 
A 100-foot cellular phone tower near the Old Faithful geyser in
Yellowstone National Park will be shortened and camouflaged next week,
but a government watchdog group says that's not good enough. 
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, based in Washington,
D.C., wants the tower removed completely. They and other critics say it
spoils the flavor of the area and isn't needed for communication like
park officials claim. 
"The towers are being put up for commercial reasons, not for public
safety," said Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director. 
Next week, crews will knock 20 feet off the top of the cell phone tower
and coat it with vinegar and water to reduce its silver shine, park
spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said Thursday. 
The tower, owned by Western Wireless of Bellevue, Wash., stands to the
south of Old Faithful shops and government housing but was erected in an
area badly scorched by the wildfires of 1988. The surrounding trees are
falling down, leaving the tower more fully exposed, park officials said.

Decreasing its size will reduce its visibility and bring the tower into
compliance with a 1999 environmental assessment of the area, Yellowstone
Superintendent Suzanne Lewis wrote in a memo earlier this year. 
She wrote she ordered the changes because of "negative visual impacts
and comments from the public." 
The height and location of the cell phone tower raised concerns last
year and touched off a debate about cellular phone towers in other
national parks. 
Yellowstone currently has five towers, all in developed areas, and
companies have applied to install three more. 
Ruch said his group plans to sue sometime this summer to force the Park
Service to write a detailed plan of where such towers should be allowed
in national parks. 
The Park Service urges people to commune with nature, he said, "but
they're making it impossible to escape the modern world. We think
they're taking away peace and quiet." 
Matthews said cell phone use is an important safety feature for park
visitors and employees, but Ruch argued rangers already have radios that
reach everywhere in the park and cell phones only further clutter up the
air waves. 
Radio traffic, however, can be hard to break through in busy summer
months, Matthews said, and federal laws prohibit some medical
information from being sent via radio.


Thanks,
Udo Freund
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