Yellowstone winter use steps up a notch

The process for deciding on winter use within Yellowstone National Park has stepped up to the next level.

The National Park Service recently released a draft of six alternative plans being considered, one that eventually could become the law.

The final list of choices, however, will not be released until the Environmental Impact Statement has been completed, which is expected to happen in the fall.

At that point, said a park official, the draft alternatives would be open for public comment. That list could be the six alternatives or a new list, depending on the results of the EIS and further studies. The recently released list is considered a starting point. From the final list of alternatives, the eventual rules governing winter use will be decided.

The time frame, however, is a few years off.

The EIS and alternative plans will be out in the fall, but may not come out in print until the fall of 2007, "Which could put us in a very difficult position," said Clyde Seely, a local businessman in West Yellowstone, Mont.

"If we don't know the rules before the winter of 2007, then how can we make plans? We hope we can have some certainty well before the 2007-2008 season."

This past season the park operated under actions taken by Congress. An Interior appropriations bill signed in 2005 had a rider that kept in place the authorized use of up to 720 snowmobiles per day into the park and barred the federal courts from intervening.

Congress is expected to pass the same law for the 2006-2007 season, which, said Seely, will allow the park-entrance businesses to make necessary plans.

. The number of snowmobiles and/or snowcoaches on the alternative plans are daily limits. The draft plans are:

—Alternative 1 — Continue Temporary Plan

This would allow use at near historic levels of snowmobile use, but would require access into the park be with a commercial guide. This alternatives plan is very much like the current temporary use plan, but would require snowcoaches, like snowmobiles, to meet "best available technology" standards, as is now required by snowmobiles and would place a limit on snowcoaches.

Roads inside the park would be groomed on a regular basis, but not plowed.

The daily limit on snowmobiles would be 720 per day.

—Alternative 2 — Snowcoaches only.