Tally up another one for the National Park
Service cell of the Eco-tally-ban. They scored a major public
relations coup
by their announcement that they have acquired respirators for
the workers at the West Yellowstone
National Park entrance.
A brilliant idea to further their bogus self-serving agenda
to remove snowmobiles from Yellowstone depriving nearly a quarter
of a million Americans a year the opportunity to see Yellowstone
in winter.
Their announcement was met with the hoped for media frenzy
timed perfectly for the busiest weekend of the winter (Presidents
Day Holiday) coincidentally the seventh anniversary of the
first time I saw a ranger with an exhaust meter in his hand.
The attending reporters were treated to the
9 am rush for the Yellowstone gate on the busiest day of
the year, and they
will leave thinking that West Yellowstone is always like that.
The gate workers paraded their show apparatus proudly for the
reporters and their boss Ranger Curmudgeon an avid snowmobile
ban advocate. These media pawns for the Eco-tally-ban are now
spreading the message of the Eco-tally-ban as if it were fact
to an America that lacks the information they need to form
an educated opinion.
20 years ago the rangers had Yellowstone Park
nearly to themselves, and they would like to turn back the
clock and heck so would
I if I were them, imagine a peaceful gem of nature all to yourself
with not much to do but enjoy nature and collect your government
check and now they have to work all winter. Of all the nerve!
As a former granola head, hippie, dog musher
from Alaska I understand their hate of noisy machinery in
nature. Idealism
drives their mania to deprive America access to the peoples
first national park and when you have passion it's easy to
justify junk science as a means
to their end. What I don't understand is their unwillingness
to share. The Yellowstone
region is wealthy with roadless non-motorized areas, places
you can get off the beaten path to where snowmobiles aren't
allowed, places to get that dose of serenity as I do in the
non-motorized area I cross country ski near my home. I understand
that serenity is food for the soul. I also understand that
Yellowstone in winter is a very special place, an experience that should
be shared with as many Americans as possible as it is their
park. I don't have a vested interest in this fight except as
an ex snowmobile guide 1994 -1997 I truly loved sharing my
backyard with my guests from around the world. Winter in Yellowstone shouldn't be reserved for the serenity hoarders of the park
service, our public servants. Yellowstone should be used by
those who pay for it dearly with their taxes
The Tuesday after Presidents Weekend when snowmobile traffic
returns to normal and the reporters are long gone the respirators
will find a home in a closet until they are needed again for
Yellowstone's next media outing. Yes junk science has provided
an argument that is very easy to swallow but as a fair minded
American I don't like to ask anyone to swallow. |
