In Praise of Snowmobiles

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont.
Environmentalists have savaged President Bush for overturning Clinton administration plans to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park. They conjure an image of rabid rednecks roaring around the geysers, terrifying the elk and leaving even the bison in need of gas masks.

"Yellowstone will continue to be polluted and degraded, simply to placate the snowmobile industry," the Fund for Animals declared, denouncing "the Bush administration's latest handout to industry."

But come to Yellowstone when it is covered in a dazzling blanket of snow, through which hot springs toil and trouble, and it looks as if President Bush did exactly the right thing. He fended off zealous environmentalists who would have closed off the park to most humans in winter, when Yellowstone's roads are closed to cars.

I rented snowmobiles here to see just how dreadful they are, and the bottom line is that they're the most efficient way to get around in the winter. (They're also fun, but I'm not sure I should admit that.) On one outing, while negotiating old logging roads outside West Yellowstone, I came across two bull moose. I stopped, and they were polite enough not to display any resentment at the intrusion. Should I really feel guilty that I rode a snowmobile to get to them, when otherwise I would never have seen them at all?

The campaign against snowmobiles in Yellowstone gathered momentum in the 1990's, when the snowmobiles were very loud and polluting. But faced with eviction from Yellowstone and perhaps other national parks, the manufacturers quickly developed something they had previously insisted was impossible: a more environmentally friendly snowmobile.

The new machines use smoother-running four-stroke engines like those in most cars, rather than the old two-stroke engines, and are quiet enough that you can have a conversation as several of them whiz by — and quiet enough that moose and bald eagles do not flee at the sound, as I can confirm. The four-stroke machines also do not churn out nauseating blue fumes, as two-stroke engines do.

So President Bush's compromise very sensibly will ban two-stroke machines in Yellowstone but will permit four-stroke snowmobiles, confined to the same roads that cars use in the summer. In the meantime, environmental groups are still trying to evict snowmobiles from Yellowstone by going to the courts.

But when the roads are closed in winter, the only alternative to snowmobiles is snow coaches, which are like vans on treads. Some of the snow coaches are themselves very noisy (much more so than four-stroke snowmobiles), and one study found that they are also more polluting —even per passenger — than four-stroke snowmobiles.

I took a snow coach to Old Faithful, and it's basically a bus that stops for bison and restrooms. Taking a bus through a national park and trying to peer through fogged-up windows leaves you so removed from nature that you might as well rent a Yellowstone video instead.

"We're also snow coach operators, and we advertise equally, and 95 percent of our customers take snowmobiles," said Clyde Seely, a hotelier in West Yellowstone. It's pretty clear that without snowmobiles very few Americans will get the thrill of seeing Yellowstone in winter.

"We're outdoors people," said Heidi Keller, a nurse from Illinois who came with her husband, Jim. "We camp all summer, but we don't do anything in the winter. So we thought we'd try snowmobiling. And it's great. I enjoyed every minute of it."

Sure, some snowmobilers chase elk or try to catch a bison by the tail. (That's when the bison charge and send the errant snowmobiler flying through the air; more power to the bison.) But bad behavior occurs in the summer too; there was the driver who tried to push a bear into his car for a picture beside his wife.

Some environmentalists have forgotten, I think, that our aim should be not just to preserve nature for its own sake but to give Americans a chance to enjoy the outdoors. It's fine to emphasize preserving roadless areas and fighting development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, both of which are good causes, but 99 percent of Americans will never benefit from those fights except in a psychic way.

And as for Yellowstone, the moose and bison should share it each winter with humans — even humans on snowmobiles.

The Environmental Whacko's can savage president Bush all they want, It's falling on deaf ears. When draconian Executive Orders are introduced in the final hours of a slime ball like Bill Clinton. All of them should be overturned

I agree with Bush on this, and if anybody should object to snowmobiles, I would be the one.

I'm a longtime avid XC skier and ski-mountaineer. One of my longterm goals is to take a weeklong trip thru YP in the winter.

As long as the machines are 4-cycle and confined to roads, they do no harm and allow a lot more people to enjoy the beauty of winter.

Ban snowmobiles except for the handicapped, and then make those snowmobiles to be powered by electricity or, if silent, by compressed air.

You may say snowmobiles don't bother the animals, but they still bother me.

I don't visit nature to experience the internal combustion engine.

I am a trapper, hunter,and fishermen here in Alaska and we have the same thing happening. Snow machiners being thrown out of the Refuges and USFS areas. As far as I'm concerned,they asked for it. There are a few decent ones but many of them in our area are young drunk and high punks with too much money.They'll blast you off the trail and race right by you when your ice fishing. They also run over coyotes like its a game. Alot of times their parents are right there and seem to be so proud of their little boy. (200 lb 25yr old, still at home)

Nicholas Kristof is a liberal who seems to have fallen in love with common sense. Its a surprise to find him dissenting from the enviro wackos. The revealing thing about his defense of snowmobiles is that technology and an appreciation of the wonders of nature aren't mutually incompatible. Indeed you can see more sights on a snowmobile than you would without on one in the winter. What's ironic in their rabid obsession to rid the wilderness areas of snowmobiles, the enviro wackos are making sure people never find out why its necessary to preserve our environment for the sake of future generations - so that every one can enjoy their wonder and beauty. Yes Virginia, there are liberals who love snowmobiling and won't give up the pleasure of riding out to see what's in the woods just because the enviro wackos think that's a bad idea. Kudos to Kristof for restoring a much needed sense of balance to our national environmental policy.

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