It is the world's best-known national park, with a controversy that no amount of snow can bury. Rosy-cheeked snowmobilers extol the glories of riding through a winter wonderland, while environmentalists decry the noise, the air pollution, and the harm to wildlife. There seems to be no room for compromise.
In this first book-length study of winter use in any national park, Michael Yochim examines the longstanding conflict between the National Park Service and groups who favor or object to snowmobiles in Yellowstone. By illuminating the fundamental drivers of the controversy—American values, community identity, industry influence, and political tampering with policy—he doesn't merely document the debate but shows how increasingly politicized battles have taken a toll on the autonomy of the NPS and its ability to protect the park.
The debate itself, Yochim observes, is not over whether one mode of transportation is more appropriate than another, but whether it is more important to embrace nature's sacredness or one's personal liberties. With motorized snow travel sanctioned for forty years, snowmobilers see their sport as an expression of freedom and rugged individualism, and attempts to curtail their activity as un-American. Conversely, environmentalists see parks as sacred space, so snowmobiles to them are inappropriate in what they regard as a temple. Yochim discusses the political and legal intricacies of arguments on both sides in a balanced presentation—one that does not spare the NPS from close scrutiny—and he examines influence on the Park Service from both political parties. Along the way, he teases out the role of science as a policy guide, the place of values in the controversy, and the influence of strident personalities in the debate.
In tracing the history of motorized winter recreational use of the park from the earliest days of winter visitation in the 1930s to the present, Yochim shows that what is at stake is more than recreation in one park but the very mission of the NPS—and whether political machinations will keep it from protecting the park and accomplishing that mission. Yellowstone and the Snowmobile allows readers to better understand this controversy, one that is unlikely to go away any time soon.
Protecting Small Business and National Parks: The Goals are Not Mutually Exclusive : Field Hearing Before the Committee on Small...
Snowmobile Activities in the National Park System and Miscellaneous National Heritage Bills: Hearing and Workshop Before the Subcommittee on National...
Below is the Reading Levels Guide for this book: Grade Levels: 3-6 Accelerated Reader Reading Level: 5.8 Accelerated Reader Points: 3 Accelerated Reader Quiz Number: 135934 Lexile Measure: 920 Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Level: Q ...
Full color guide to skiing, snowmobiling, and lodging in a winter wonderland.
In addition, Yochim considers how park managers may best work within the contemporary policy-making context to preserve national parks.
Presents the distinctive story of West Yellowstone, Montana, with vintage photographs provided by the Yellowstone Historic Center, the Wyoming State Archives, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the Merrill G. Burlingame Special ...
... The Geysers of Yellowstone (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2001); and Paul Rubinstein, Lee H. Whittlesey, and Mike Stevens, The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery (Englewood, CO: Westcliffe Publishers, ...
Impact of Banning Snowmobiles Inside National Parks on Small Business: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Tax, Finance, and Exports of...
The effects of winter vehicle exhaust, primarily from snowmobiles, on air quality became an issue in the later 1990's at Yellowstone National Park, WY. For the last several years, ambient air quality monitoring has been conducted at two ...
This report provides information about the extent to which personal watercraft and snowmobiles are used on federal lands, the process by which decisions about their use are made, and the extent of monitoring being done in areas where their ...