ATVs, Jet Skis, Snowmobiles - Oh My!

by Sean Smith
Bluewater Network

An armada of five million motorized thrill-craft - jet skis, snowmobiles, and off-road/all-terrain vehicles - is assaulting America's national parks. Every day, thousands of these gas-fueled contraptions tear across some of our most precious parks, damaging air and water quality, disrupting the natural quiet, compromising public safety, disturbing local wildlife, and diminishing visitor enjoyment.

If nothing is done to halt this assault, the situation will only grow worse. Industry sales figures show that more than 500,000 new jet skis, watercraft and ORVs are sold every year. Unfortunately, the added horsepower, range and agility of these new machines means that areas previously considered inaccessible are no longer protected from the high levels of noise and pollution generated by thrill-craft.

Over the past two years, Bluewater Network has led a national campaign to protect our wilderness heritage from the motorized thrill-craft offensive. Grassroots efforts at Montana's Glacier National Park and Florida's Everglades National Park have been successful in preventing thrill-craft from becoming established. But if strong government action is not taken soon, more than 70 treasured park sites - including Yellowstone, Joshua Tree, and Biscayne - risk being irreversibly damaged by thrill-craft intrusions.

The Blue Ribbon Coalition and other well-funded motorized thrill-craft organizations are pushing this mechanized onslaught. Their publicity broadsides are aimed at confusing the public by asserting that thrill-craft riders have a "right" to ride their vehicles in the National Park because federal lands were established for the benefit and enjoyment of the people and therefore must permit such "multiple uses."

However, many citizens concerned about the future integrity of their park system are beginning to question whether this is the case. They are refusing to accept a piston-powered invasion that threatens to transform national parks into motorized amusement parks.

Unimpaired Mandate
The vast majority of America's public lands (including the National Forests) are managed under a multiple-use doctrine. In contrast, however, Congress has set aside a small portion of the US landscape - roughly 5 percent - for special protection within the National Park System (NPS). These areas were selected because they contain unique, nationally significant, ecologically sensitive and/or irreplaceable resources - such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone's Old Faithful geyser.

In the early 1900s, Congress recognized that some activities, which might be appropriate on other federal lands, could permanently damage the irreplaceable resources in the national parks. Therefore, in 1916 Congress passed the Organic Act (16 USC sec. 1), which states that, while the National Parks were established to provide public enjoyment, this enjoyment must be limited to activities that leave park resources "unimpaired for future generations."

The Organic Act not only exempts the Park Service from the multiple-use mandate, it clearly instructs the NPS to forbid forms of recreation that can cause lasting damage to park resources. Motorized thrill-craft pose precisely such a threat.

Asleep at the Switch?
Unfortunately, the exploding numbers of motorized thrill-craft appear to have caught the NPS off-guard. Thrill-craft activity already has become well entrenched in several parks. Even worse, some park managers fail to express reservations about inappropriate activities until they have become firmly established.

At the heart of this reluctance lies the fear of upsetting local thrill-craft interest groups. The public must forcefully remind these public servants that just because an inappropriate activity has become entrenched does not release them from their responsibility to enforce the Organic Act. If the public raises its voice, we stand a good chance of saving the parks. There are hopeful signs that the parks can be saved. Over the past two years, Olympic National Park and more than 14 other national parks have closed their gates to jet skis. Alaska's Denali National Park is in the process of closing its wilderness heart to snowmobiles and Lake Mead officials are initiating law enforcement actions to ensure that off-road and all-terrain vehicles are kept out of sensitive areas.

In addition to NPS' efforts to rein-in thrill-craft, the Department of Interior (DOI) is reviewing petitions asking for a ban on jet skis, snowmobiles and ORVs in national parks.

Even Congress has weighed in on the issue. Last year, more than three dozen members of Congress urged Park Service Director Robert Stanton to take strong action to protect the parks from thrill-craft. At the request of Reps. Bruce Vento (D-MN) and George Miller (D-CA), the General Accounting Office is investigating the thrill-craft management practices of the four major federal land management agencies.

Given the government's new willingness to tackle the issue, coupled with growing public support for park protection, there has never been a better time to rein in thrill-craft abuse.

What You Can Do Please send copies of this article to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt [Department of Interior, 1849 C St. NW, Room 360, Washington, DC 20240] and George Frampton, Acting Chair for the White House's Council on Environmental Quality [Old Executive Office Building, Washington DC, 20502]. Tell them that you strongly support efforts to remove motorized thrill-craft from the National Park System. The addresses of national park superintendents can be found at the government website: www.nps.gov.

Sean Smith is the Public Lands Director for Bluewater Network [300 Broadway, Suite 26, San Francisco, CA 94133, (415) 788-3666].