Office of the Assistant Secretary

For Immediate Release: April 27, 2000

David Barna,(202) 208-6843
Gerry Gaumer, (202) 208-4993

National Park Service Puts the Brakes on Escalating
Snowmobile Use in the National Park System

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- Interior Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Donald J. Barry, today announced a renewed commitment by the National Park Service (NPS) to immediately begin enforcing existing NPS national regulations regarding snowmobile use in the National Park System. The net effect of this renewed enforcement effort will be the significant reduction of recreational snowmobiling in most units of the System.

"The time has come for the National Park System to pull in its welcome mat for recreational snowmobiling," said Assistant Secretary Barry. "Snowmobiles are noisy, antiquated machines that are no longer welcome in our national parks. The snowmobile industry has had many years to clean up their act and they haven't."

The renewed enforcement effort on snowmobiling was prompted by a rulemaking petition that the Department of the Interior received last year from the Bluewater Network and over 60 other environmental organizations in the United States. The rulemaking petition requested that the NPS ban snowmobiling in all units of the Park System. In responding to the Bluewater petition, NPS first sent a questionnaire survey to the 42 units of the Park System that currently allow recreational snowmobiling. The surveys were designed to assess the extent to which affected units of the system had complied with existing Park Service regulations and past Executive Orders regulating snowmobile use.

"Quite frankly, we were surprised and disturbed by the results of the snowmobile survey," said Park Service Deputy Director Denis Galvin. "The surveys graphically demonstrated that years of inattention to our own regulatory standards on snowmobiles generated the problem we have before us today. In almost every instance, our administrative records were incomplete or inadequate to allow snowmobiling in parks to continue. Let me reaffirm for the American public that our national parks will be managed in full compliance with our environmental laws."

A wide range of Executive Orders, National Park System legislation and NPS regulations establish high environmental management standards that must be satisfied before recreational activities such as snowmobiling are to be allowed in a national park. Executive Orders No. 11644 (Feb.8, 1972) and No. 11989 (May 24, 1977) close all public lands to off-road vehicles including snowmobiles except where specifically authorized. Moreover, these Orders require agencies that allow off-road vehicle use such as snowmobiling to actively monitor the effects of these uses on the lands under their jurisdiction, and to immediately prohibit such uses whenever it is determined that further off-road vehicle use will cause, or is causing, considerable adverse effects on soil, vegetation, wildlife, wildlife habitat or cultural or historic resources.

The NPS Organic Act and General Authorities Act impose additional protective standards by requiring that the Service "…shall promote and regulate the use of Federal areas known as national parks, monuments and reservations … to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

Long-standing NPS national regulations (36 CFR 2.18) prohibit snowmobile use within units of the Park System except where designated, and only when their use is consistent with the park's natural, cultural, scenic and aesthetic values, safety considerations, park's management objectives and will not disturb wildlife or damage park resources.

The questionnaire surveys completed by those park units allowing snowmobiling revealed that virtually no monitoring of environmental effects had taken place despite this requirement under Executive Order No. 11644 (Feb. 8, 1972). The surveys also demonstrated minimal environmental information or analysis regarding possible adverse environmental effects upon park resources and values.

Deputy Director Galvin said, " there has been a growing concern within the Park Service recently regarding the appropriateness of recreational snowmobiling as a winter use in national parks. This concern has been triggered in part by the on-going winter use planning effort currently underway for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, which has focused on the significant adverse environmental effects generated by heavy snowmobile activity in those parks."

Under the Service's new snowmobile enforcement program, snowmobiling for general recreational purposes will be prohibited throughout the Park System, with a limited number of narrow exceptions. These exceptions would apply to units of the Park System in Alaska and in Voyageurs National Park, due to provisions in their enabling legislation regarding snowmobile use and Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks due to the current ongoing winter use EIS planning process. On-going planning efforts in these units would delineate the extent to which, and under what conditions, recreational snowmobiling would be allowed. In addition to park units in Alaska and Voyageurs NP, another limited set of exceptions would apply where snowmobile use was deemed necessary or essential to provide access to adjacent private lands or to inholdings within a park. The last category of exceptions involve situations where snowmobiles would be allowed to transit across a small amount of park land in order to go from one area of public or private land to another, where snowmobile use was permitted.

Under the new regulatory enforcement effort, superintendents at parks that previously allowed snowmobiling would now be expected to rigorously apply existing Executive Orders and NPS national regulatory standards and to assess whether past snowmobile activity would be consistent with any of the narrow exceptions identified by the Service. Unless the standards can be met and exception is found to apply, such activity will be terminated in the particular park.

The NPS has completed a study of the effect snowmobiles have on air quality, "Air Quality Concerns related to Snowmobile Usage in National Parks" (February 2000). The study indicated that air quality in national parks is negatively impacted by snowmobile use. Air quality degradation, videotape evidence of negative impacts on the soundscape, wildlife and air resources of Yellowstone National Park, and the compilation of public comments about the Draft winter use plan for Yellowstone NP, are all factors in the decision to uniformly enforce existing rules and to consistently apply the current standards regarding snowmobile use.

National Park Service UnitsU.S. Department of the Interior