While I disagree with Interior
Secretary Gale Norton’s agenda for Yellowstone National Park,
I have to admire her political smarts. She showed great form during
her recent snowmobile and snow coach tour of the park this winter.
Secretary Norton charmed reporters with her grit, gamely
bouncing through sub-zero temperatures on a three-hour snowmobile
excursion, and her wit, as she pointed to rising steam from one of
the park’s many geysers and quipped, “It’s not all that
different from Washington. I mean, look at all the hot air around
here.”
But the best example of her political savvy came
in the way she stacked the deck in her framing of the debate over
snowmobiles in the park. In addition to her snowmobile tour, Norton
took a short ride in a snow coach, the other motorized option for
getting inside the park. Afterwards, she said to an Associated
Press reporter, “This is a much more ordinary kind of experience.”
Then, with an unenthusiastic shrug, she added, “It’s not as
special as a snowmobile.”
I am less disturbed by the
secretary’s unabashed plug for snowmobiles than I am by the
fact that in pitting the struggle as snowmobile vs. snow coach,
Norton deftly changed the terms of the debate to exclude
Yellowstone’s other major winter constituencies: skiers,
snowshoers and other quiet recreationists. Norton would have us
believe the only way to experience Yellowstone in winter is with a
motor, and that our only choice is which kind.
Long
before snowmobiles and snow coaches vied for Yellowstone’s
tourist dollars, cross-country skiers and snowshoers were going to
the park to enjoy the natural beauty, wintering wildlife and
solitude of Yellowstone’s quiet season.
Though the
experience has changed, skiers and snowshoers still go to the park.
We stay in local motels, eat at local restaurants and happily spend
our money supporting Yellowstone’s gateway communities. A lot
more of us would visit if we could enjoy Yellowstone free of the
noise and pollution Gale Norton and her supporters so
wholeheartedly promote. Events such as the annual Rendezvous Ski
Race, which last season attracted 826 competitors and hundreds of
spectators to West Yellowstone, contribute significantly to the
local economy.
The park administration and local
businesses are reaching out more than ever to human-powered
recreationists. Last season, the park began pulling a grooming sled
to lay down track for cross-country skiers. Local businesses offer
special promotions to members of organized ski and snowshoe clubs.
Human-powered access is also part of the Yellowstone’s winter
use plan. But Norton passed up an opportunity to support local
businesses and the National Park Service in their efforts to
maintain diversity. Instead, she ignored science and overwhelming
public opinion, both of which have concluded that snowmobiles are
bad for Yellowstone.
Despite the Bush
administration’s steadfast endorsement of snowmobiles and
their well-funded lobby, the face of Yellowstone’s winter is
changing. More and more people are seeking a quiet, harmonious way
to enjoy the splendor of a Yellowstone winter.
Snowmobile
use is down — off 49 percent last season and another 25
percent so far this season — while snow coach use is up 28
percent this season. Several long-time snowmobile concessionaires
have seen the light and invested heavily in snow coaches. And yes,
given the choice between the two, skiers and snowshoers would much
rather share trails with the cleaner and quieter snow coaches than
with lines of snowmobiles. Snowcoaches create less environmental
impact, produce less noise and exhaust and put less stress on
wildlife. That is why Gale Norton and the Bush administration are
on the wrong side of this argument.
But that’s not
my point. Any discussion of how best to experience Yellowstone in
winter should include not only what’s best for the park but
also the range of what’s available to visitors. A motor is
not required to experience winter in Yellowstone or, for that
matter, the millions of acres of public land across the American
Snow Belt.
Touring on skis or snowshoes allows one to
see, hear, smell, taste and touch the wildness and magic of winter.
It’s healthy. It’s healing. I hope next time Gale
Norton visits Yellowstone for a winter photo op, she’ll strap
on a pair of skis or snowshoes and experience the park on its own
terms, under her own power.
Mark Menlove is a
contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High
Country News (hcn.org). He lives in Park City, Utah,
where he is an avid backcountry skier and the executive director of
Winter Wildlands Alliance, a national organization working to
promote and preserve winter wildlands.
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