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Conservation groups join snowmobile litigation


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CHEYENNE (AP) -- Another legal challenge has been filed to the National Park Service's plan to allow snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks for the next three winters.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and others are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to order the Park Service to do the monitoring and "adaptive management" necessary to protect the park and its resources.

Friday's action followed a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association, which claims the federal government failed to provide a "reasoned explanation" for its decision requiring guided trips in Yellowstone and limiting the number of snowmobiles.

Beginning this winter, the Park Service plans to allow up to 720 guided snowmobiles each day into Yellowstone and 140 snowmobiles, with no guiding requirement, in Grand Teton National Park and on the parkway connecting the parks. Nearly all snowmobiles would have to meet standards as cleaner, quieter machines. The plan would be in place through the winter of 2006-07.

Abigail Dillen, an attorney for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said coalition groups aren't seeking to have the recently announced plans scratched, given that the winter season is just a month away.

"But we want to make sure we're not living with a park that's too noisy and polluted for the next three years," she said. "If we do see snowmobiles impairing the park this winter, we want the Park Service to put in place more protective measures next season."

The coalition has supported the use of mass-transit snowcoaches in Yellowstone rather than snowmobiles.

Last week, environmental groups and individuals sued over the snowmobile plan, claiming the government failed to take into account the effect that roads groomed for snow machines have on Yellowstone wildlife, particularly bison.


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