One For Them
by Daryl L. Hunter

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 to the Associated Press 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 X-C 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 a former 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.

Your Comments