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Snowmobile-Friendly Plan for National Parks Rejected

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Times Staff Writer

The Bush administration on Monday reversed a proposed policy that would have opened some of America’s national parks to snowmobiles and other motorized recreation and permitted increased commercialization.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne -- who has been on the job less than a month -- threw out a draft of the National Park Service Management Policies that would have weakened protections for wildlife and natural resources, instead restoring the longtime standard that national parks must emphasize preservation over any other activity.

“That is the heart of these policies and the lifeblood of our nation’s commitment to care for these special places and provide for their enjoyment,” Kempthorne said during a ceremony in Washington.

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The new policy, which is to become final in three weeks, explicitly instructs park managers to maintain clean air, water and natural sounds, and not allow any activities that might damage park resources.

The revised management plan also contains sections that acknowledge the impact of global climate change in the parks and encourage cultural diversity.

The guidelines scrapped most of the changes called for last year by former Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Paul Hoffman, a political appointee who sought to include recreation as a core park mission.

Hoffman’s draft -- which downplayed the role of science in managing the nation’s parks and allowed for religious references to be placed inside their borders -- drew 45,000 comments from the public and an angry reaction from congressional critics.

Of particular concern were policy changes that would have allowed snowmobiles to travel over any paved road in any national park in the winter, protected livestock grazing and mining, and weakened air quality standards.

Interior officials at the time said the revisions were intended as a starting point to facilitate discussion.

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According to a park service manager who worked on the latest version, the draft that Kempthorne presented came directly from the service, not the Interior Department.

Traditionally, park service policies have afforded the highest level of natural resource protection of any federally managed land.

National parks do not have a mandate to offer recreational opportunities to the public; rather, they were established to protect wildlife and cultural and historic resources and to provide educational programs to visitors.

The policies -- which many park superintendents call “the bible” -- instruct officials to balance visitor use with wildlife needs, resource protection and historic preservation, generally holding protection and preservation as their highest goals.

Ron Tipton of the National Parks Conservation Assn. said Monday that recreation groups long had petitioned for more access to national parks -- and had pushed for language included in the Hoffman management plan.

“The impetus had come from some elements of the motorized recreation industry,” he said. “We welcome a strong, clear statement that says that park resources should be protected.”

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