Date: 09/03/2009 pOnly a few days remain to have your voice heard on the Winter Use issue in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.nbsp; The Park Service is asking for additional comments on the proposed rule, which would replace the 2004 rule reinstated last fall by the US District Court for the District of Wyoming.nbsp; This rule governed snowmobile and snowcoach access in the parks during the 2008-2009 winter season./ppThe Proposed Rule would only allow up to 318 commercially guided, Best Available Technology (BAT) snowmobiles and up to 78 commercially guided snowcoaches per day in Yellowstone for the 2009-2010 winter season and running through the 2010-2011 winter season. It would also govern long-term snowmobile access in Grand Teton and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, including access along Grassy Lake Road and on Jackson Lake for licensed anglers./ppIt is important to comment on your personal experiences in Yellowstone over the last 10 years.nbsp; It should be pointed out that the Environmental Assessment (EA), from which the proposed rule is being written, clearly states that snowmobiles have been an appropriate and important form of transport in Yellowstone for over 45 years.nbsp; Also, individual travel by snowmobile provides one of the best ways to experience the magnificent natural features of the Parks in the winter.nbsp; In addition, imposing a daily limit of only 318 snowmobile entries for Yellowstone is not the correct decision.nbsp; In the EA, the NPS quot;believes that it could legally permit significantly higher levels of snowmobiles in the parkquot;./ppYou need to ask the Park Service to consider not applying the 318 as an average daily entry, but use historical data from the last four years to arrive at more flexibility for the daily entries which would be a higher number between 400 and 540.nbsp; And finally, ask the Park Service to use Adaptive Management for daily limit adjustments. We propose that the final rule include a provision whereby adaptive management could be used to adjust daily entrance limits, with due notice at the discretion of the Park Service. This is very important so that certain peak periods of the season may be taken into consideration./ppThe proposed rule and an electronic form to submit written comments are available on the Internet at http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=09000064809fa1b8/ppWritten comments may be submitted through this website, in person, or by mail. Comments will not be accepted by phone, fax, or e-mail. All public comments on the proposed rule must be received or postmarked by midnight, Eastern Time, September 8, 2009./ppThe National Park Service intends to analyze the comments submitted last fall and during the next 45 days before making a decision on the proposed interim winter use plan. Depending on this process, NPS is planning to issue a final rule to implement the decision on or beforebr /November 15, 2009./ppThe proposed rule is available on CD or in hard copy by written request to Yellowstone National Park, Management Assistants Office, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190. Document requests may also be made by sending an e-mail to yell_winter_use@nps.gov, by calling 307-344-2019 during normal business hours, or by sending a request via fax to 307-344-2025./ppstrongBackground:/strong/ppOn September 15, 2008, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion that vacated and remanded to the NPS the 2007 Final Environmental Impact Statement, 2007 Record of Decision, and 2007 Final Rule./ppBecause the Court's ruling left no provision in place for snowmobile or snowcoach use, the National Park Service issued the Winter Use Plans Environmental Assessment Part 1 (1.9 MB pdf), Part 2 (745 Kb pdf) on November 3, 2008. The preferred alternative would have allowed up tobr /318 snowmobiles and 78 snowcoaches per day into Yellowstone for 3 winters. All snowmobiles would have been commercially guided and would have needed to conform to Best Available Technology (BAT) emission and sound level requirements. During the life of the plan, snowcoach operators would have been required to implement BAT for their vehicles (BAT requirements for snowcoaches go into effect in 2011)./ppOn November 7, 2008, however, the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming issued an order directing the National Park Service to reinstate the 2004 rule for snowmobile and snowcoach use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. This rule allows up to 720 commercially-guided, BAT snowmobiles into Yellowstone, and up to 78 snowcoaches per day./ppJUST REMEMBER: PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IS CRUCIAL TO KEEP RECREATION AREASbr /OPEN; PLEASE GET INVOLVED!/ppThanks in advance for your support,br /Jack Welchbr /Special Project Consultantbr /BlueRibbon Coalitionbr /303-324-7185/pp style="text-align: center"em______________________________________________________________________________/em/pp style="text-align: center"emThe BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible recreation, and encourages individual environmental stewardship. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1,200 organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. 1-800-258-3742. /ememhttp://www.sharetrails.org/em/ppnbsp;/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlueRibbonCoalition/~4/wiYA-vlQBFQ" height="1" width="1"/
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