by Sheila Gallagher
Bluewater Network
In January, 1998, Bluewater Network sent a petition signed by 60 organizations to the National Park Service (NPS). The petition urges NPS to ban snowmobiles throughout the park system, based on their effects on air and water quality, wildlife, and public health and safety. Since we sent NPS our analysis, we have been finding increasing evidence of snowmobile damage.
We reported several endangered species threatened by snowmobile use - grizzly bear, bald eagle, and gray wolf. Recently, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declared the Canada lynx an endangered species and reported that snowmobiles are a "significant threat" to the lynx. By compacting deep snow, snowmobiles allow bobcats and coyotes into lynx habitat, decreasing lynx survival.
Snowmobile noise has also become a key issue. The National Park Service is required to protect "natural quiet," which Park regulations term a "park resource" and define as "the natural sound conditions found in National Parks when people with normal hearing can perceive nothing but sounds produced by the natural and cultural components of the parks."
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, people near snowmobiles (as cross-country skiers often are) commonly experience noise levels exceeding 100 decibels. The Park Service at Yellowstone has received complaints that snowmobiles can be heard at Shoshone Lake, about two and half miles from snowmobile traffic, and at Heart Lake, almost six miles from snowmobile access.
Snowmobiles are dangerous. A study in January's Public Health Reports found that, in 1993 and 1994, snowmobile injury/deaths in Alaska were 17 per 100 million miles driven, compared with only two injury/deaths for on-road motor vehicles. NPS contacts have commented that our petition and such new evidence have prompted NPS to consider new rules.
Snowmobilers have argued that the way snowmobiles pack trails provides easier access to prey, allows animals to travel further, and boosts wildlife populations. But studies have shown that packed trails change predator-prey relationships and energy dynamics, causing longer-term population decreases for predators, prey, and other wildlife. For example, though grizzlies den during the winter, indirect impacts of snowmobiles may reduce the food sources (mainly carrion) on which grizzly depend during their crucial feeding time after den emergence.
Snowmobile proponents have also commented that snowmobile effects are minor and leave no permanent mark. Unfortunately, as found in Denali National Park's environmental impact assessment of snowmobile use, evidence of snowmobile trails is seen in the summer. Further, the pollutants that accumulate in the snowpack from snowmobile emissions lead to springtime water pollution, high death rates for aquatic species, and other wilderness degradation.
In January we petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate snowmobile emissions. Less than one month later, the EPA announced that it would begin the rulemaking process, noting that snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles alone produce a quarter of the pollution emitted by all on-road cars and trucks in the US combined. There are more than 66 times as many on-road cars and trucks in use as there are snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles.
Bluewater Network has been fighting to stop another thrill-craft - jet skis - from destroying our parks. Besides dumping 25 to 30 percent of their fuel unburned into the water, jet skis harass wildlife and destroy natural quiet and the experience of other recreationists. Over the past year, Bluewater Network has convinced 20 park superintendents to ban jet skis, including at Grand Teton National Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Olympic National Park.
In December 1998, Bluewater Network convinced the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to effectively ban the sale of new conventional two-stroke engine craft as of 2001 in California. CARB also adopted Bluewater Network's innovative environmental label program for marine engines, and some manufacturers are expected to provide the labels nationwide.
Sheila Gallagher is Project Coordinator at Bluewater Network.
To receive our monthly email newsletter action alert send an e-mail to <jetski@earthisland.org>.
For more info, contact Bluewater Network:
Write: 300 Broadway, Suite 28, San Francisco, CA 94133
Phone: (415) 788-3666 x149
E-mail: <bluewater@earthisland.org>
Surf: http://www.earthisland.org/bw
Bluewater sparks snowmobile debate