Snowmobilers Cross a Line in Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park officials say “hundreds, probably thousands” of snowmobilers are entering the park illegally, riding over remote terrain that would be off limits even if a ban on the machines is lifted.

In unprecedented numbers, riders are crossing the park’s western boundary into a roadless area, according to one official, “thumbing their noses” at rules against off-road snowmobiling.

Although snowmobile intrusions are nothing new at the nation’s first national park, the throngs of riders this year have startled and alarmed the National Park Service.

“We’ve never seen this volume of intrusion,” said Yellowstone West District Ranger Bob Seibert, who has worked 11 winters at the park. “What I find so disturbing is the seeming lack of responsible behavior and the total disregard of regulations.”

Marsha Karle, the park’s chief of public affairs, said ranger patrols have been increased in the area where most of the intrusions have occurred. Rangers were first alerted to the problem by finding hundreds of fresh snowmobile tracks, and then they saw snowmobile groups leaving the park.

The surge of trespassing comes as the Bush administration reconsiders a plan developed under President Clinton to phase out all snowmobile use within Yellowstone, starting next winter. Prompting the ban were concerns that snowmobiles--even along approved roads--were harassing elk, bison and other wildlife, turning the air blue with unhealthy exhaust fumes at the park gates and shattering the winter solitude for which the park is famous.

John Wright, a spokesman for Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, who called for the review of the proposed ban, said Thursday that the department will continue to uphold rules prohibiting off-road snowmobile use in the park.

“We will ensure the regulations are strongly enforced,” Wright said.

This year the park spent an extra $265,000 to add ranger patrols, reduce speed limits, monitor wildlife and groom roads along the current legal routes, including the crowded 32-mile road between West Yellowstone and Old Faithful.

But as more rangers guarded the approved snowmobile routes, off-road trespassing swelled unexpectedly five to eight miles south of the community of West Yellowstone, a popular staging area for snowmobiling in the region.

Questioned by rangers, some trespassers said they knew they were in the park, “and they just didn’t care,” Seibert said. A familiar retort: “Well, what are we hurting?”

One park service photograph shows snowmobile tracks crossing over the snow-covered roof of the South Riverside ranger cabin. No rangers were inside the cabin at the time.

Park officials say snowmobilers appear to be entering the park through adjacent national forests, where off-road use is legal, and then crossing into Yellowstone, far away from regular ranger patrol routes.

Trespassers can be hard to catch in the rugged terrain, but rangers say they have issued a number of citations.

Patrolling the hard-to-reach border area requires a full day of travel by a ranger on a snow machine. Officials say the recent incursions have caused the park to increase vigilance by diverting staff from other areas.

Seibert is puzzled at what would motivate snowmobilers to break the law. The terrain inside the park is much like that in the nearby national forests, where off-road snowmobiling is legal. Part of the thrill could simply be saying that one has snowmobiled inside Yellowstone, he said.

“There could be some blatant disregard and thumbing their noses at the National Park Service,” he said.

“We have seen a lot of hostility since the proposed ban was announced,” said Karle. “There have been some implied threats to park employees.

“People may be reacting in hostile ways because they wonder if every ride they take in the park is going to be their last, and they think their freedom is being taken away.”

Karle said snow machines have been in use in the park since 1949.

The trespassing drew measured criticism from an official of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, a national motorized recreation group supporting the continued use of snowmobiles on roads within Yellowstone.

“If, in fact, the boundary is clearly marked and these are intentional violations, I have no sympathy for snowmobilers who have been caught,” said Clark Collins, the coalition’s executive director.

“We in no way condone deliberate incursions into back-country areas in national parks or in designated wilderness areas,” he said. But if the trespassing was accidental, in areas where boundaries are not clearly marked, the park service needs to provide better markers, he said.

Supporters of the ban say they are disgusted by the reports of flagrant lawbreaking in the park.

“It’s breathtaking to watch the snowmobile industry’s snowballing self-incrimination,” said Jon Catton of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a Montana-based conservation group that has been pushing for the ban.

“One hundred and thirty years ago, Congress drew a line around Yellowstone and said, ‘In here, we choose to enjoy nature . . . ,’ ” Catton said. “It’s appalling to see a selfish attitude violating that boundary and trampling Yellowstone and the spirit of generosity that Yellowstone embodies.”

The trespassing comes at a particularly sensitive time for supporters and opponents of Yellowstone snowmobile use. After recreation groups and snowmobile makers vehemently objected to the Clinton phaseout, the Department of the Interior last month issued a supplemental environmental impact review that set forth alternative plans, from delaying the phaseout until the winter of 2003-04 to continuing snowmobile use on existing routes or requiring snowmobile equipment to reduce fumes and noise. A final version of the report is expected in November.