Copyright 2001 Reuters
June 28, 2001
By Patrick Connole

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Park conservation groups on Thursday expressed concern the Bush administration was ready to scuttle a Clinton-era rule to phase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park by signing a deal with the industry to only limit such vehicles in the nation's oldest park.

Eleven U.S. senators joined four park protection organizations in calling on President Bush to allow the snowmobile ban proposed under the Clinton administration.

The rule has been under review by the Interior Department, as part of an administration-wide consideration of proposals pushed out late in the previous administration.

Activists say elk, buffalo and other wildlife are subjected to speeding snowmobilers racing through the park at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour).

The Clinton rule would ban snowmobiles by the winter of 2003-2004, and instead allow only slower moving snow coaches to ferry tourists to and from sites inside the park, like the Old Faithful geyser.

``Yellowstone's rangers and visitors have suffered headaches, nausea, watering eyes and sore throats from breathing snowmobile exhaust,'' said a statement from the National Parks Conservation Association in backing the ban.

Environmentalists say Bush's Interior Department is close to finalizing a plan to limit Yellowstone to cleaner and quieter snowmobiles, but not ban them.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesman for The Wilderness Society, said such a move would fly in the face of public opinion against snowmobiles in pristine lands like Yellowstone.

``The public does not want snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park,'' Brengel said.

The Interior Department was not available for comment.

The 10 Democratic senators and Rhode Island Republican Lincoln Chafee sent a letter to Bush urging him ``to eliminate the serious impacts from tens of thousands of individual snowmobiles entering the park.''

The Park Service decision to phase out snowmobile use in Yellowstone generated 50,000 comments from the public, Brengel said, most of them backing a ban.

The American Council of Snowmobile Associations, which works to protect the right to practice the sport, lists numerous references on its Web site on research showing deer and other animals suffer no ill-effects from snowmobile use. Error: Unable to read footer file.