From the LA Times:The National Park Service will allow as many as 540 snowmobiles a day to enter Yellowstone National Park -- a compromise that leaves neither environmentalists nor winter recreation advocates happy.
The proposed cap is less than the current limit of 720 but nearly twice the number that have been entering the park in the last four years, and would reverse a trend of cleaner air and less noise, environmentalists and former park employees said.
The decision, issued in Denver Tuesday, will require snowmobiles to use "best available technology" to control emissions and noise, and for access to be "commercially guided."
The new limits will take effect in the winter of 2008-09. T
2 comments:
There's got to be a compromise made somewhere. Yellowstone is a huge place, and 95% of it never sees hide nor hair of any human anytime in Winter. That the animals have adapted to use the roads as pathways also demonstrates that perhaps they aren't as spooked or threatened or stressed by the presence of humans as has been claimed.
I absolutely agree with the effort to reduce noise and pollution, and guide-led trips makes sense. But I am one environmentalist who thinks that banning all snowmobiles in Yellowstone makes little sense.
Interesting picture that Dave chose...of all animals least bothered by the noice, I would assume Buffalo would be one. You see buffalo standing along side interstates with way more noise in a day then a 1000 sleds put out.
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