The Billings Gazette
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Thomas joins strategy to thwart snowmobile ban

Monday, August 21, 2000

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) – Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., is among a group of lawmakers who might attempt to block a ban on snowmobiles in national parks by limiting funds for the National Park Service.

The proposed amendment to the Department of the Interior’s appropriations bill would prohibit national parks from spending money to implement the ban, which was announced earlier this year.

Also, the amendment would require parks, instead of imposing the ban, to study alternatives that would limit the environmental harm of snowmobiles.

“We’re thinking of giving a little bit of advice on snowmobiles,” Thomas said during an Aug. 11 visit to Jackson Hole.

The Senate will consider the Interior appropriations bill when lawmakers return from a recess next month.

Thomas said he is reluctant to attach such strings to a budget bill, but he feels the decision to ban snowmobiles without considering alternatives was poor management.

He will drop his support of the amendment, he said, if Interior officials assure him they will consider alternatives before proceeding with the ban.

Several conservation groups petitioned federal officials to eliminate snowmobiling in the parks. Interior officials said they found that lax management and oversight had indeed allowed snowmobiling to damage parks.

Moreover, they said, a 1978 rule states that national parks are closed to snowmobiles unless designated otherwise, allowing the agency to ban snowmobiling without bringing the issue before the public.

Park service officials had planned to invoke the rule, but later learned that 27 of 42 parks where snowmobiling is allowed had been approved for the machines.

Now the park service must go through a formal rule-making process to close the 27 parks to snowmobiles.

Thomas said the ban is an example of President Clinton’s attempts to manage federal lands through sweeping administrative actions before he leaves office.

“They found out there’s a lot more to it than what they imagined,” he said.

A proposal to ban road-building in designated roadless national forest areas is similarly flawed, he said.

Copyright 2000 Associated Press.