MATT JOYCE Associated Press Writer | Posted: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - A federal judge in Wyoming is sharply critical of a fellow judge's rejection of the government's snowmobile plan for Yellowstone National Park but says he doesn't have the power to alter it.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer says in a ruling issued Friday that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of Washington, D.C., was wrong to throw out the National Park Service's snowmobile rules.
The Winter Use Plan would have allowed 540 snowmobiles a day in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway.
Yellowstone managers are rushing to develop a temporary plan to keep the parks open to snowmobiles this winter.
Brimmer says the Park Service should revert to a 2004 rule if it's not able to complete the temporary rule in time to allow snowmobiling in the parks this winter.