Limits sought on park snowmobiles

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Members of Congress from five distant states are demanding that snowmobiling not be allowed to increase in Yellowstone National Park.

In a letter this week to National Park Service Director Mary Bomar, the lawmakers wrote an increase would put more pressure on wildlife, deplete the park's air quality and make too much noise.

Signing the letter were Reps. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.; Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.; Rush Holt, D-N.J.; Timothy Johnson, R-Ill.; and Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

The letter does not call for a certain number of allowed snowmobiles but cites repeated Park Service studies that advocate snowcoaches as an "environmentally preferred" option to snowmobiles.

"Snowcoach access ... would afford greater protection to Yellowstone's air, natural soundscapes and wildlife than a policy that allows continued snowmobile use," the letter states.

The Park Service is proposing to allow as many as 720 snowmobiles a day into the park in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. A draft environmental impact statement outlining Yellowstone's permanent winter-use plan likely will be released later this month, park spokesman Al Nash said.

Nash said Wednesday the Park Service would not comment on the congressmen's letter until it responds in writing.

Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., wants to keep snowmobiling as an option in the park, which he toured by snowmobile on Sunday.

Rehberg helped kill an amendment proposed in 2003 by Holt and Shays that would have banned snowmobiling in the park. The amendment failed on a tie vote, but only after Rehberg persuaded an Ohio congressman to switch his vote.