Tom's Turn: Notes from our Senior Editor

Motions at 2,000 Miles: Judges at Odds Over Snowmobile Phase-Out

February 15, 2004

To review briefly: After extensive study and consultation with the public, in the fall of 2000 the National Park Service decided to phase snowmobile use out of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks because they failed to protect the park's special natural resources. The machines are noisy and smelly (rangers at West Yellowstone sometimes are forced to wear respirators and earplugs), and some of the drivers love to chase bison and other creatures. Under the 2000 phase-out plan, cleaner, quieter snowcoaches would be substituted for snowmobiles.

Yellowstone Park rangers wear respirators because of snowmobile exhaust

Photo courtesy Greater Yellowstone Coalition

The snowmobile manufacturers' association and the state of Wyoming filed suit against the 2000 plan in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Park Service -- now directed by the Bush administration -- agreed to reconsider the snowmobile phase-out. Many months later, the Bush administration authorized an increase in snowmobiling in the parks, claiming that cleaner, quieter snowmobiles would eliminate the pollution and impairment of park resources that snowmobiles have caused for years in Yellowstone.

Thereupon, Earthjustice attorneys Abbie Dillen and Doug Honnold filed suit in Washington, DC, arguing that the Park Service was neglecting its legal duty to protect the parks, and on December 16, 2003, Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the original phase-out plan to be put into effect. The snowmobile industry and the state of Wyoming lawyers asked first the DC district court and then the DC appeals court to block the injunction; the district court and three judges on the appeal court denied their requests.

So the snowmobile industry and the state of Wyoming went back to Cheyenne and asked Judge Clarence Brimmer to reopen their case and issue an injunction blocking the implementation of the snowmobile phase-out. Then, on February 10, 2004, Judge Brimmer issued a temporary restraining order blocking the snowmobile phase-out. "I don't see any reason why a judge 2,000 miles from here ought to be deciding things that the people of Wyoming can't speak to," Judge Brimmer said.

As we go to press, within hours of the Wyoming ruling, the Bush administration has responded by yet again increasing the number of snowmobiles authorized in Yellowstone. Earthjustice attorneys are busy preparing to seek reinstatement of their hard-won victory for Yellowstone. Stay tuned.

Tom Turner, Senior Editor
yourturn@earthjustice.org