The National Park Service (NPS) announced today its decision to begin a Temporary Winter Use Plan Environmental Assessment (EA) for Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway. The temporary winter use plan would provide a management plan for winter use for an interim period, beginning with the 2004-2005 winter season, and would allow the NPS sufficient time to complete a long-term analysis of the environmental impacts of winter use in the parks.

The EA would examine the environmental impacts of a temporary winter use plan with strict limitations on snowmobiles and snowcoaches and would provide the public with some degree of certainty about winter use management for an interim period. It would also provide the NPS with sufficient time to collect additional monitoring data on strictly limited snowmobile and snowcoach use, which will be used in the long-term analysis and in a permanent regulation for winter use management in the three parks.

Alternatives considered in the EA would include allowing for strict limitations on snowmobile use through restricting the number of snowmobiles allowed and establishing technology and guiding requirements. An alternative allowing only snowcoach use would also be considered. Because a decision has not yet been reached-nor an EA published-the NPS cannot speculate what the proposed action or preferred alternative might be. Monitoring information from the winter of 2003-2004 will assist in analyzing the impacts of each of the EA's alternatives.

Public scoping is expected to begin for the EA no later than mid-June 2004 for a period of 30 days. The NPS intends to have an EA available for a 30-day public review no later than August 20, 2004, with a proposed regulation with public review to be published in the Federal Register simultaneously. A final decision and final regulation would be promulgated prior to the start of the 2004-2005 winter season on approximately December 15, 2004.

Information provided by the NPS