Superintendent Suzanne Lewis
Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott
Temporary Winter Use Plans EA
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190

RE: Keep snowmobiles out of Yellowstone and Grand Teton

Dear Superintendents Lewis and Scott,

I strongly urge you not to weaken restrictions on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Instead, the Park Service should implement the transition to snowcoaches, which your studies have consistently identified as the best protection for these magnificent places and future visitors who will come to enjoy them.

The Park Service has determined in three separate analyses since 2000 that continued snowmobile use harms park resources and employees' working conditions and impairs visitors' enjoyment of the parks. Each of these studies concludes that the parks would be significantly cleaner, quieter, less hectic and healthier if snowmobile use is ended and visitor access on snowcoaches is expanded.

The National Park Service has a statutory obligation to choose the safer, more protective form of winter access, which is Alternative 1 in the new environmental assessment. Instead you are choosing to continue snowmobile use, knowing that the consequences include exposing visitors and employees to cancer- causing chemicals and disturbing wildlife. This decision places the snowmobile industry above the broad interests of the American public and represents an appalling erosion of leadership within these two parks.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton are treasures that belong to all Americans; they are not the special property of the snowmobile industry.