Updated December 19, 2011
Yellowstone National Park's 2011-2012 winter season is now under way. The park and the National Park Service (NPS) have issued a 'One-Year Rule' for this winter season (Dec. 15, 2011 to mid-March 2012) to allow more time to address significant public comments about the proposed plan for long-term winter-use management of the park. Yellowstone received nearly 59,000 comments about the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) during a 60-day comment period that closed on July 18, 2011. The goal had been to have a new long-term final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and rule in effect for winter use by December 2011. However, after reviewing the public comments, the NPS wants to analyze some issues in greater detail, including:
Variable preset use limits (differing levels of snowmobile/snowcoach use on different days)
- Air quality and sound modeling assumptions
- Proposed "best available technology" (BAT) for snowcoaches
- Adaptive management framework for emerging technologies
- Sylvan Pass avalanche operations and costs
- Opportunities for non-commercially guided access
Accordingly, the NPS has issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), Record of Decision (ROD), and published a Final Rule that selected the 'transition year' portion of the preferred alternative. Under the one-year rule, use levels and restrictions will be the same as the interim rule that has governed use over the past two seasons. The rule allows for up to 318 commercially guided BAT snowmobiles and up to 78 commercially guided snowcoaches per day into Yellowstone this winter. The rule continues to provide for motorized oversnow travel on the park's East Entrance road over Sylvan Pass.
The Park Service will begin the Supplemental (S)EIS process in January 2012. It intends to have a final SEIS, ROD, and a long-term regulation in place before the start of the 2012-2013 winter season.
♦ A ONE-YEAR RULE FOR 2011-2012 WINTER SEASON
Updated December 19, 2011
Ever since we set the scope of the new winter use plan in public "scoping" meetings in 2010, thousands who care about Yellowstone National Park's unique character and appeal in winter have taken part in preparing a new, long-term blueprint for visitor access and activities in future winters. The public review period and meetings to examine and comment on the park's range of alternatives for that plan produced significant comments for further consideration. While a temporary, one-year rule allows for visitor use this winter, Yellowstone and the National Park Service will consider those questions for the next few months and prepare a new long-range plan for the 2012-2013 winter season. MORE…
♦ A PLACE OF WINTER MAGIC… AND VULNERABILITY
Updated August 8, 2011
As remarkable as Yellowstone National Park is during the rest of the year, the park in winter is a truly magical place-of earthly eruptions on a blank canvas of white, and of the park's wildlife enduring unearthly extremes of survival in a frozen landscape. For park visitors, it is an experience totally unlike that of summer. The question is: How best for them to enjoy it? MORE…
♦ WINTER USE IN YELLOWSTONE: A TIMELINE…
Updated November 14, 2011
The wintertime enjoyment of Yellowstone and its unique resources-and lively debate about how to do so-have drawn deep and passionate interest in the park for nearly 80 years. The journey from the park's earliest, snowshoed explorers to the thousands today who enjoy Yellowstone in so many more ways in winter is a long and captivating saga. MORE…
♦ YELLOWSTONE IN WINTER: THE ROLE OF SNOWMOBILES AND COACHES
For more than three decades, winter use in Yellowstone has centered on the use of snowmobiles and snowcoaches to bring many visitors into the park's interior. As the park prepares its next winter use plan, the role of motorized vehicles remains a key concern. Here is how motorized snow travel came to the park, and how the use of oversnow people movers has played in its management in winter. MORE…
♦ YOUR YELLOWSTONE WINTER USE PLANNING LIBRARY AND TOOL KIT
Updated December 19, 2011
There is a wealth of background information available to help you understand winter use issues in Yellowstone. There are scientific studies, environmental monitoring data, winter use histories, volumes of legal decisions and more. READ ON…
