the national park service claims study shows no new data

According to a recently published Associated Press article, a National Park Service study rejects claims that snowmobile makers are producing cleaner vehicles that will not disturb wildlife or pollute the air.

The report states that the Park Service study discredited almost all of the data from snowmobile makers, as well as industry-friendly information provided by Wyoming and Montana.

Throughout its analysis of the data, the AP reported that the agency offered comments such as "Information is not new,'' and "Does not add to information that already exists,'' and "Survey is not credible.''

The study was ordered by the Bush administration as part of a settlement of a lawsuit by snowmobile makers seeking to roll back the snowmobile ban in the two parks and on the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, an 82-mile road linking them.

ISMA president Ed Klim said he was stunned by the report's findings. He insisted that the Park Service must not have read the information his group provided.

"They aren't considering the new data,'' he said. "That's all it can mean to me.''
Conservation groups, many of which support the ban on snowmobiles, said the report is a waste of taxpayer money because it found what was already known.

"The Park Service study that will be released next week clearly proves that the original decision to phase out snowmobiles was the best one for Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks,'' said Chris Mehl, a spokesman for the Wilderness Society.