WASHINGTON —Arctic Cat Inc. chief executive Christopher Twomey and Northern lawmakers are set to blast the Clinton administration in congressional hearings today about its plan to keep snowmobiles out of national parks.
The Interior Department last month began enforcing an existing ban on snowmobiles in national parks because of air, water and noise pollution from the machines, National Park Service spokesman Gerry Gaumer said.
Snowmobile makers and users worry the move could lead to a ban on off-road vehicles on all public lands, which would hurt sales as well as limiting people's access to parks.
"Our concern is that this is the first step in an elaborate plan to close the public lands to the public," said Chris Jourdian, executive director of the American Council of Snowmobile Associations in East Lansing, Michigan. "Already, it's had an impact on the manufacturers and their stock prices."
Since April 28, when Interior Department official Donald J. Barry announced the ban will be enforced, Arctic Cat stock has fallen about 1 percent and shares of Polaris Industries Inc., which also makes snowmobiles, have slid 2 percent.
The move immediately affects Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Pictured Rocks National Park in Michigan, two of the five parks with the most snowmobile use, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. About 42 parks allowed snowmobiles before the ban.
Yellowstone National Park, which about 60,000 snowmobiles visit each year, and Grand Teton National Park are exempt from the ban until environmental impact studies on those parks are finished and reviewed, Gaumer said.
Moreover, parks in Alaska and Voyaguers National Park in Minnesota are exempt from the ban because their enabling legislation already limits snowmobiles in certain areas, he said. Opponents complain that the Interior Department is arbitrarily clamping down on snowmobiles without really studying the issue.
"Making reasonable changes in snow machine location and numbers, as well as necessary modifications to reduce noise and air quality concerns, is wholly appropriate," Senator Craig Thomas, a Wyoming Republican, said in a recent statement. "A unilateral move to simply force visitors out is counter to the very nature of what our parks were established for."
Thomas promised that Congress will vigorously challenge the ban. His national parks subcommittee of the Senate Energy Committee will hear from Arctic Cat's Twomey and others today and would be a likely starting point for any legislation to overturn the snowmobile prohibition.
The House Resources subcommittee on national parks also plans a hearing today, with members of Congress from northern states, industry representatives, administration officials and environmentalists.
A poll of a randomly selected sample of 1,000 registered voters found that 78 percent believe snowmobiles should be allowed in restricted areas of national parks, according to the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association, which sponsored the survey by SWR Research.
Supporters of the ban disagree with the snowmobilers about what the public wants. A National Parks Conservation Association poll found that 59 percent of Americans agree that most snowmobile use in national parks should be ended.
The Wilderness Society said off-road vehicles are the fastest growing threat to U.S. wildlands, in an annual report released today. The most endangered wilderness areas in the U.S. include the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Denali National Park in Alaska; the Grand Canyon in Arizona; Greater Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho; and Sierra Nevada in California.
"Many outdoor vacations this Memorial Day weekend and throughout the summer will be less enjoyable because of the pollution, noise and destruction caused by the use of dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles," said William H. Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society.
The society also released a poll showing that 75 percent of voters favor curbing the use of off-road vehicles on public lands and 20 percent oppose a limit, before they've heard arguments on the issue.