Grizzlies not bothered much by snowmobiles, Forest Service says
Copyright 2000 Associated Press
December 21, 2000
CODY, Wyo. - Snowmobiles can disturb grizzly bears during hibernation and when the bears are out of their dens, but the machines are unlikely to affect the population as a whole, Gallatin National Forest officials said.
Facing a lawsuit from environmental groups, forest officials submitted to federal court in Billings, Mont., last week an assessment regarding effects of snowmobiles on grizzlies.
"The determination is that it is possible for snowmobiles to get close to a bear den site and disturb that bear, but there is no evidence that that is having a negative affect on the population as a whole," Gallatin Environmental Coordinator Steve Christiansen said Tuesday.
He said the assessment was based on a review of literature rather than studies in the field.
In October, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service to submit a written report on their "informal consultations" about the effects of snowmobiles and off-road vehicles on grizzly bears in the Gallatin National Forest, which borders Yellowstone National Park on the north.
The environmental groups are challenging what they see as federal inaction in protection of grizzly habitat.
The Sierra Club, Predator Conservation Alliance, Park County Environmental Council and Biodiversity Legal Foundation filed suit in Butte, Mont., earlier this year and asked for a preliminary injunction, or temporary ban, of off-trail snowmobile use in grizzly habitat from mid-April through mid-December.
The request was denied by U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson.
The environmental groups say use of off-road vehicles and snowmobiles has skyrocketed in the five years since the last time the two agencies formally consulted on a management plan on the Gallatin.
The government said the agencies were in continual informal contact about vehicle impacts and that requiring a more cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive formal consultation was unnecessary and premature.
Sanjay Narayan of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund said the Forest Service is making progress but has a long way to go to address off-road and off-trail travel.
"I'm pleased with their decision to go ahead and examine the effects of snowmobiles, but obviously there is a large portion of the picture that they are still ignoring," he said, noting that all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes are still allowed to travel cross-country in many areas of the forest.
Martin Knapp, owner of Cody Polaris in Cody, said he has never seen signs of grizzly bear activity during more than 20 years of snowmobiling around Cooke City.
He said the lawsuit is another attempt to remove snowmobiles from national parks and forests, and that banning off-trail riding would virtually ban use of most of the forest.
"Most of the riding up there is off-trail. You can ride all of the trails behind Cooke City in the matter of a couple of hours," Knapp said.