Impacts on Recreation

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United States citizens and people from all over the world spend more than 9 million visitor days of recreation in developed sites of the Yellowstone area each year. In YellowstoneNational Park, recreational visitation has grown by more than 25% in the last 14 years. As is common in most other western national parks, visitor use in Yellowstone is concentrated in the summer months, with 66% of the visitation in June, July, and August. By the year 2003, estimated visitation is expected to range from 3.6 million to 4.3 million visitors per year (NPS 1994). An additional nearly 2.8 million recreation visitor days on the adjacent GallatinNational Forest were logged in 1992.

Wildlife and Bison Viewing. When YellowstoneNational Park was set aside in 1872 as the world’s first national park, the “wonders of the Yellowstone” were the primary motivation — spectacular geysers, colorful hot pools, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (Meagher 1974). However, in modern times, wildlife viewing is the primary activity for many visitors who come to YellowstoneNational Park. Bison are ranked as one of the top 10 animals visitors hope to see on a visit to the park.

Increases and reductions in bison numbers in and around the park could directly affect visitor wildlife-viewing experiences. Alternative 1 would lead to growth in bison numbers over the next 10 years (42% increase in population by 2006). Alternatives 2 and 3 populations would be 14% greater than alternative 1 populations and lead to a minor to moderate increase in viewing opportunities. Alternative 4 would be expected to result in a population of 2,812 bison in 2006. This is 8% smaller than under alternative 1 and would lead to a minor decrease in viewing opportunities. Alternative 5 would lead to a 35% decrease in bison populations compared to alternative 1 by 2006 and a minor to moderate adverse impact on associated viewing opportunities. Alternative 6 would lead to very similar populations as alternative 1 through 2009 until seroprevalence stabilizes from vaccination (estimated at roughly 10 years), then would reduce them temporarily by 17%, a minor to moderate adverse impact. Alternative 7 calls for the lowest long-range (15+ years) bison population of all the alternatives. By 2006, the population would be nearly 23% lower. These reductions in population size would likely lead to minor to moderate reductions in bison viewing opportunities relative to alternative 1. The bison population would be slightly higher under the modified preferred alternative than under alternative 1 for the first 10 years of the plan and slightly lower for the remaining five years. This would have a negligible impact on bison viewing.

Winter Recreation. Winter use in the park has been growing at an accelerating rate, nearly doubling in the decade between 1984 and 1994, to 140,000 in the 1994–95 winter season. An estimated 46% of winter visitors liked viewing the scenery most, and 17% specifically identified wildlife viewing as what they liked most about the park in the winter (NPS 1990b). In addition, snowmobiling has become a popular sport in the town of West Yellowstone.

Winter recreational use of YellowstoneNational Park would be affected under alternatives 2, 5, and 6. Alternative 2 would lead to long-term closure of winter access to the park from the popular snowmobiling town of West Yellowstone and possibly restrict access from Mammoth to the park interior. Proposed alternative 2 road and trail closures would likely affect well over 50% of current winter oversnow visitors to the park, and either displace their activities to other roads and trails in the area or cause them to go to areas other than Yellowstone for winter recreation. Alternative 2 would likely have a minor to moderate effect on winter recreation users in the Yellowstone region. During the three to four years of capture and slaughter operations, alternative 5 would have a higher negative impact on winter recreation than alternative 2 in that the west, north, and east entrances would all be cut off from winter access to the popular Old Faithful area. For the first 10–12 years alternative 6 would have similar negative impacts on winter recreation to alternative 2. During the following two to three years, the impacts on winter recreation under alternative 6 would be similar to those for the capture and slaughter period of alternative 5. Additional site-specific analysis after the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement indicated that the construction of a capture facility at Seven-Mile Bridge (part of alternative 6 and possibly in the same or similar location as under alternative 5) would have a direct, short-term, moderate to major, adverse impact on visitor use and experience, and operation of the facilities would have moderate to major impacts on visitor use and experience, particularly during summer and winter months.

Hunting.The five-week elk general rifle season in the study area takes place in late October and November. Mean harvest of elk in and near the affected environment is 3,044. By comparison, deer harvest is 2,564, moose is 93, bighorn sheep is 22, mountain goat is 10, and pronghorn is 23.

The American bison is a trophy animal for big-game hunters. Bison hunting takes place on both public lands and private game ranches in North America. Private ranches charge relatively high prices (ranging from $2,250 to $4,000 in the Northern Rocky region) for hunting a trophy-sized bull.

Limited hunting of bison would be allowed under alternatives 3, 4, and 7. Under alternative 3 between 75 and 85 bison hunting permits would be issued per year. Under alternative 4 the number of permits would be approximately 35. Under alternative 7 between 25 and 35 permits would be issued. This change in hunting opportunities in the area would represent a minor increase in overall big game hunting in the Greater Yellowstone Area, but would be a minor to moderate benefit for those receiving permits. No hunting of bison would occur under alternatives 1, 2, 5, 6, or the modified preferred alternative.