Protecting Yellowstone.

Byline: The Register-Guard

If the Bush administration had been fulfilling its responsibility to protect our national parks, the current mess at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks could have been avoided.

Just hours before last week's opening of snowmobile season in the two parks, a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to halt its plan to expand snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton and called for the re-imposition of a Clinton-era policy phasing out the machines.

Hundreds of snowmobilers who had made reservations months ago to ride in the parks were turned back from park entrances. Local businesses braced for cancellations from tourists who had planned on touring the parks on their snowmobiles this winter. Communities that receive the bulk of municipal revenues from taxes that snowmobilers pay at hotels and rental outlets braced for budgetary cataclysm.

All this could have been avoided if Bush administration officials had done their job. Instead, they did the bidding of the snowmobile industry and local politicians, and ignored scientific and public opinions that made a clear case against continuing to allow large numbers of recreational snowmobiles in the parks.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's ruling that the decision to overturn the Clinton ban was "arbitrary and capricious" has become a hot topic on talk radio. Conservative hosts are ranting about the woolly-headed granola freaks who are trying to lock up the national parks. One predicted that an envirojudge would someday make it illegal to hike through national parks in order to protect plants and bugs from getting squished underfoot.

A bit of perspective is in order. In recent years, an estimated 63,000 recreational snowmobilers annually roar over 200 miles of road that run through the two parks, creating a dangerous pollution haze, shattering the winter silence and disturbing winter-stressed wildlife.

The Clinton administration approved a snowmobile ban three years ago after more than a decade of scientific analysis, which, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded, represented an ``extremely thorough and credible body of human health, environmental and wildlife science."

After entering office, the Bush administration summarily declared that the ban was based on questionable science and that local officials and businesses had not been adequately consulted. Another review was ordered, and the EPA once again supported a snowmobile ban, finding that the newer, quieter snowmobiles that the administration had cited in overturning the ban would damage the health of visitors, wildlife and park employees.

The National Park Service asked for another round of public comment. Of the more than 100,000 public comments received, 99 percent supported a total ban of snowmobiles from the parks.

No matter. Eager, as always, to appease industry interests, the Bush administration overturned the Clinton ban and substituted its own policy, which would have allowed about 35 percent more snowmobiles into the park than historical averages.

It was a blatantly political and unscientific decision, the rationale for which Judge Sullivan rightly observed was "completely politically driven and result oriented."

Sullivan's ruling calls for a 50 percent reduction in snowmobiles this winter (park officials will allow only commercially guided tours) and for a complete ban for the 2004-05 season. Beginning next year, snow coaches, a mass transit alternative, will become the primary way for tourists to visit the parks in winter.

Critics of the judge's decision have vastly exaggerated its long-term impacts. Snowmobilers will still be able to freeze their faces by riding in the millions of acres of national forest lands that surround the parks. The one-year phaseout should allow local businesses to make adjustments, including shifting from snowmobile tours to snow coaches.

The Bush administration should read the handwriting in the snow and not appeal the judge's ruling. If it appeals, Congress should impose a ban by legislation.

The Bush administration should remember that these are national parks. That means they belong to the public and that the government has a legal and moral responsibility to do whatever is necessary to protect these treasures for future generations.