All four snowmobile manufacturers and leaders of the snowmobile community representing four million North American snowmobilers met on May 9 in Haslett, Michigan, to develop a plan to combat the Department of Interior's proposal to ban snowmobiles from most national parks.
"The entire sport and everyone it affects is rallying around this issue," said Chis Twomey, CEO of Arctic Cat. "We're going to work together to protect the freedom of hundreds of thousands of families in this country who have enjoyed wintertime getaways in the parks for more than 30 years."
The nine-hour meeting resulted in a unified organization and an action plan to attack the Park ban on three fronts: legislative, legal and public opinion. Snowmobile industry executives in attendance included Chris Twomey , CEO of Arctic Cat; Tom Tiller, president and CEO of Polaris Industries; Pierre Beaudoin, president and COO of Bombardier Recreational Products; and Jim Gentz, motorsports group company president of Yamaha Motorsports Corporation, USA.
"In the recreational products industry, we compete aggressively with one another," said Gentz. "But we all love the sport of snowmobiling and we want to work together to fight the irrational policy set forth by the National Park Service and the Department of Interior."
The snowmobile industry believes the National Park Service was irresponsible in its decision to ban snowmobiles from 27 national parks across the nation.
"As an industry, we are appalled by the actions taken to ban snowmobiles in national parks," said Beaudoin. "There is no scientific evidence to support a ban and certainly no due process in creating the snowmobile ban policy."
Last week Senator Rod Grams, R-Minn., blasted the decision saying, "This quick, overreaching action by the National Park Service was unwarranted. It did not allow time for federal, state or local officials to work together on the issue. It didn't bring snowmobile users to the table to discuss the impact of the decision. It didn't allow time for Congress and the Administration to look at all of the available options or to differentiate between parks with heavy snowmobile usage and those with occasional usage. This decision stands as a dramatic example of how not to conduct policy formulation and is an affront to the consideration American citizens deserve from their government." Twomey has been invited to testify at a U.S. Congressional hearing on the snowmobile ban issue in Washington D.C. on May 25.
"We are looking forward to telling Congress our side of the story," said Tiller. "They need to hear first-hand the full effects of a ban, how it would infringe on the freedom of millions of Americans and the economic disaster it will create in hundreds of small towns nationwide."
To voice your concerns, you should contact your United States House member by clicking
here , your United States Senator by clicking
here and/or Assistant Interior Secretary Donald Barry at
Donald_Barry@ios.doi.gov or call him directly at 202/208-5347.