A year or so ago, I asked Bob Rossman of the Winter Use planning team, how exactly the 'snowcoach plan' the NPS was so very proud of would actually work.
Bob didn't have an answer. He told me the idea was to first develop the circumstance, then build the system around it. Well, I'm still not sure what he meant, but I think it's a little like selling the Brooklyn Bridge. First you sell people a 'perfect plan.' Then, after you've coaxed, cajoled and conned them into making all other alternatives illegal, you set out to find out IF your perfect plan can actually be implemented.
Not only have John Sacklin and his NPS cronies failed to develop these clean, quiet snowcoaches to populate Yellow-Topia, they have no idea about how this brave new system would or even COULD operate. They *think* it will involve little red mass-transit-mobiles, but they're not sure yet. The NPS' plan to eliminate snowmobiles in favor of the "snowcoach option" is merely a twinkle in Sacklin's eye.
But it gets worse! Without spending millions of tax dollars over the next five or ten years in research and development, Yellow-Topia will always be just another little green-dream. Meanwhile, your access to Yellowstone in winter will have forever evaporated.
If you, or somebody you know actually bought Clinton-Babbit-Finley-Sacklin's 'cleaner, quieter' bridge to National Park access, give them a copy of the Billings Gazette story that made the Associated Press rounds last week. In it, they'll find that a "state-commissioned study by consulting firm Jackson Hole Scientific Investigations showed that newer models have lower decibel levels than the family dishwasher or an acoustic guitar, the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources said. State officials said information compiled by Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas, also showed that snowcoach emissions are nearly six times higher than carbon monoxide emissions from the new generation of snowmobiles."
Take heart, friends! There are still ten days left in the Yellowstone Winter Use public comment period. Please take a moment RIGHT NOW and visit
www.saveyellowstonepark.com. There you can generate at least ONE comment letter for each member of your family. Remember, in ten short days, the decision will be passed to the hands of people who don't necessarily share your passion for the family sport of snowmobiling. Today, though, the future of your sport is up to you and at your fingertips.