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YELLOWSTONE WINTER ACCESS Republicans want more time to talk about park policy YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (AP) - Republican lawmakers from the states surrounding Yellowstone National Park are asking for more time for local and state agencies to comment on a proposal to begin plowing the road from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful in the winter. The proposal, which comes as the park is developing a winter-use plan, would allow people to drive to Old Faithful and could end West Yellowstone's role as a snowmobile gateway to the park. The move might be the first step toward "an overall visitation limiting plot," Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., claimed this week. The proposal amounts to putting people on buses "who will drive down a tunnel of snow," he said. "When they get to Old Faithful what they will have seen is a wall of snow on each side of the bus." Enzi said the National Park Service "didn't even have the courtesy to give us a call" to indicate that the plan was "drastically changing." In Montana, Gallatin County commissioner Bill Murdock said he was angry because the Park Service had ignored the input of the local governments, which are supposed to be "cooperating agencies" involved in drafting the winter-use plan. The proposal calls for all comments by local governments to be completed and submitted within the next 2 1/2 weeks, by May 24. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Rep. Rick Hill, R-Mont., on Wednesday asked the regional director of the Park Service, John Cook, to give local governments until July 24 to submit comments. Enzi and Idaho congressmen are also asking for an extension. "Since the preferred alternative isn't based on one of the original proposals it only makes sense to give the cooperating agencies more time to see how their communities will be affected before the EIS decision is finalized," Burns said. "It's important that gateway communities be considered in this process," said Hill. However, granting the extension may require the permission of a federal judge and an animal-rights group. The completed draft of the plan is due Aug. 1 by court order, and a July 24 comment deadline means the agency "would have to go back to the court and obtain concurrence from the court and the Fund for Animals," Yellowstone planner John Sacklin said Wednesday. Meeting the Aug. 1 deadline would be impossible if the comment deadline is only a week earlier, Sacklin said. The National Park Service agreed to write the plan as partial settlement of a suit filed by the Fund For Animals, which contended the park allowed large scale winter use, especially snowmobiling, without knowing the impacts to water, air and wildlife. Sacklin said he was surprised to learn that county officials felt their input had been ignored. At a meeting last fall in Idaho Falls, a number of alternatives were discussed and "at least a couple of those alternatives included plowing the road from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful," he said. While the plowing proposal is "a long ways from a done deal," park officials favor that idea because it opens the park's interior to a wider variety of visitors and greatly lowers their costs, he said. People now must rent a snowmobile or hire a snowcoach to see Old Faithful in the winter and that makes for an expensive trip. Under the park proposal, people would still be able to take snowmobiles or snowcoaches from other entrances but the option of taking a bus or car to Old Faithful would become available. Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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