A Yellowstone traffic jam.

The National Park Service finally announced YNP’s new Winter Use Plan yesterday, detailing how snowmobile and snowcoach use will be managed over the next few years.

Soctt McMillon of the Bozeman daily Chronicle wrote a nice summary of the related press conference held by the Park yesterday….

It was a day late, but that didn’t mean it was a dollar short.

That’s how National Park Service officials characterized their Tuesday announcement outlining permanent snowmobile and snowcoach rules for Yellowstone National Park.

The announcement spelled out only one major change from the latest NPS rules: Instead of locking the gates on Sylvan Pass, along the route to the park’s east entrance, the Park Service will play the situation by ear and let snow and avalanche conditions determine when and for how long to open that route.

“When we believe the danger is too high, the pass will be closed,” NPS Intermountain Regional Director Mike Snyder said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “We will not take unacceptable risks for our employees. It’s going to be up to Mother Nature to determine when it’s open and when it’s not.”

The Park Service had previously said it planned to close the pass to motorized traffic for the entire season, which elicited controversy in Cody, Wyo., the closest town to the east gate. Snyder said federal officials will sit down with Wyoming and local officials next year to determine other potential options.

 As for the rest of Yellowstone, the agency is sticking to a plan it announced earlier this fall, in which as many as 540 snowmobiles and 83 snowcoaches, all of them using “cleaner, greener,” noise and pollution technology, will be allowed on guided tours into the park every day.

All administrative machines will use the new technology as well.

You can read the official Park news release here. Our neighbors in Cody are pleased, no doubt.  You can also bet there will be some wailing and gnashing of teeth by some groups who opposed winter motorized access in the Park whatsoever. 

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