manufacturers file lawsuit against national park service for closing parks to snowmobiles

The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA) and other parties filed a lawsuit December 6, against the National Park Service to stop a planned ban of snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Citing that the ban would reverse decades of environmentally acceptable snowmobile use in the parks, ISMA said it had no choice but to pursue legal action on behalf of four million American snowmobilers and others who hope to visit the park in the future.

"The federal government's decision is flawed. There is no basis in fact or law to totally eliminate snowmobile use," said ISMA President Ed Klim. "Hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks and RVs flow through these parks every summer and the wildlife has suffered no ill effects. Snowmobilers use the exact same roads automobiles use - except in far smaller numbers - and they have the same non-effect on wildlife."

While radical special interest groups argue that snowmobile emissions and sound are detrimental to the parks, snowmobiles have always met all national air quality standards. Furthermore, there have been no independent scientific studies that have demonstrated snowmobiles cause significant harm to humans, animals or the environment.

"Concerns regarding emissions and sound fail to account for new generations of cleaner and quieter snowmobiles and manufacturers' voluntary actions that have eliminated most air quality issues," said Klim.

Nearly eight of ten (78%) of Americans believe snowmobiles should be allowed in national parks, according to a recent poll conducted by SWR Research.

Last year snowmobilers won a lawsuit in which Federal Judge John Sedwick invalidated the Park Service's previous attempt to ban snowmobiles in large portions of Alaska's Denali National Park.

The Yellowstone lawsuit challenges the decision, arising in part from intervention by Administration political appointees, to reverse decades of traditional activity and terminate regulated snowmobile use for winter recreation on the road systems of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway. For years, this traditional activity was carefully managed and encouraged by the National Park Service and provided thousands of Americans an opportunity to enjoy the winter wonders of the Yellowstone plateau and the Grand Tetons. Instead of continuing this reasonable approach, the effort to update winter use management plans was hijacked, the environmental impact statement process corrupted, new anti-snowmobile alternatives injected at the last moment, meaningful participation by cooperating states, communities, and citizens cut off, and critical facts and science disregarded. Statutory duties and obligations were cast aside and accepted interpretations of law twisted to stage a grand political gesture - the banning of snowmobiles from National Parks including Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

ISMA is an organization representing the four-snowmobile manufacturers. ISMA maintains strong partnerships with the American Council of Snowmobile Associations and the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations.