Washington – New Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne signaled Monday that he wants fewer snowmobiles, off-road vehicles and cellphone towers in America’s national parks.
It was a reversal of a proposal developed under his predecessor, Gale Norton, to loosen standards used by local managers in deciding what park uses to allow, such as motorized recreation.
That philosophy had ignited a furor among environmentalists and parks advocates who said it would boost recreation at the expense of preservation.
But Kempthorne used his first major policy announcement to endorse a “no impairment” standard that emphasizes protecting the parks’ natural features.
“When there is a conflict between conserving resources unimpaired for future generations and the use of those resources, conservation will be predominant,” said Kempthorne, whose department oversees the National Park Service and its 390 units nationwide.
Kempthorne declined to contrast his parks policy with Norton’s. But he noted as he spoke that he was standing with leaders of the National Parks Conservation Association and the Outdoor Industry Association. Both groups had criticized Norton and the park management guidelines proposed on her watch.
Assistant Deputy Interior Secretary Paul Hoffman, a Norton aide who last year sought more freedom for snowmobiles and off-road vehicles in the parks, was not at Monday’s ceremony.
The announcement was hailed by environmentalists and parks advocates.
“This is as good as, and in a couple of cases better than, current policies,” said NPCA president Thomas Kiernan.
But motorized-recreation advocates called Monday’s announcement a setback for their cause. They vowed to fight the changes, which don’t become official for about three weeks.
“We’re getting the short end of the stick,” said Greg Mumm, executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, which backs snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park. “They need to get recreation up there on par with conservation.”
The parks policy won’t dictate how local managers must decide specific park-use issues. Instead, it will offer guidance on those decisions.
But Park Service deputy director Steve Martin, who played a key role in drafting the guidelines, said that under the policies proposed Monday, there wouldn’t be a cellphone tower in view of Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser.
“We would not do that in the same manner,” Martin said.
The rules could also serve to limit air tours in parks like Glacier and grazing in Dinosaur National Monument on the Colorado-Utah border, environmentalists said.
The highly charged issue of snowmobiles in Yellowstone is being handled as a separate issue that comes up for another decision in the fall. But environmentalists say they hope the new parks plan may signal that Kempthorne would be willing to restore a snowmobile ban sought by the Clinton administration.
Critics said that the policies developed under Norton subtly tilted the balance of recreational uses toward snowmobiles. For example, park tradition and rules published in 2001 said uses should not “impair” the parks. The Hoffman proposal would have banned only uses that caused permanent damage. Since the noise of snowmobiles is temporary, allowing their use would have been more likely.
Even a more formal draft, developed by the department after the Hoffman proposal ignited a furor, would have made it harder for park superintendents to eliminate harmful uses, said Kristen Brengel of the Wilderness Society.
But the policies announced Monday say that “a key tenet of park management is preventing the impairment of natural and cultural resources.”
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who sought hearings on the policies after Hoffman’s proposed changes to the parks rule book published in 2001, said he was pleased with Kempthorne’s announcement.
“Today’s draft restores the stronger protection of sound scapes, air quality and clear skies contained in the 2001 policies,” Salazar said.
Staff writer Mike Soraghan can be reached at 202-662-8730 or msoraghan@denverpost.com.
