Editorial: A scientific snow job

Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

The Bush administration is seeking to allow 720 snowmobiles into Yellowstone National Park daily, despite scientific studies showing that detrimental effects occur with far fewer snowmobiles and that banning them is in the best interests of wildlife and visitors.

The National Park Service issued the proposal in December, as The New York Times reminded us in a recent story, to gather comments from agencies and businesses in Yellowstone's vicinity before releasing a final draft to the public for further comment.

The use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone wasn't regulated until 2000, when the Clinton administration banned them. A study in the late 1990s had shown that an average of 795 motorized sleds were entering the park daily. Their deafening buzz was audible almost constantly, and riders routinely ignored speed limits and harassed wildlife, park officials said at the time. Emission fumes sickened rangers working the fee booths.

When President Bush took office, he reversed the Clinton ban. About 250 snowmobiles have been allowed into Yellowstone daily since then, while the Park Service performed more studies. In true Bush administration form, these studies ignored scientific data and concluded that snowmobiling is an appropriate use for the park.

Michael Finley, who was Yellowstone superintendent during the 1990s, told the Times that the Bush administration's Park Service officials "softened, twisted and contorted the science" in order to arrive at this new proposal.

In issuing the proposed rule, the Park Service even contradicts its own 2003-04 study in which the agency examined whether snowmobiles were audible more than 50 percent of the time to people at Old Faithful geyser. The study determined that even 250 of the newer, quieter models of snowmobiles exceeded that threshold, the Times reports. Two more studies eased the threshold to 75 percent, and 250 sleds exceeded even that.

The new rule would require that professional guides accompany all snowmobilers.

But the whine and presence of engines still would distress wildlife, which struggles to survive in winter. And visitors - many of whom will have one lifetime opportunity to hear a geyser's whoosh or the call of an elk - instead would hear the rumble of gasoline-powered sleds. This is a bad rule based on a shoddy interpretation of science. America's first national park, its wildlife and its visitors deserve better.