JACKSON - Calling the elimination of snowplanes on Jackson Lake "arbitrary and capricious," a group of snowplaners has filed suit against the federal government calling for a reinstatement of the activity.

"Save Our Snowplanes" and its attorney, Karen Budd-Falen of Cheyenne, filed suit in U.S. District Court Tuesday calling for, in part, an immediate elimination of the ban on snowplane use and a declaration from the National Park Service that it violated several laws in eliminating the activity.

"In making its decision to eliminate snowplane use on Jackson Lake after the 2001-2002 winter season, the National Park Service failed to supply a reasoned analysis for the total elimination of snowplane use following their historic use on Jackson Lake," the lawsuit said. "It is also apparent that members of the public, who support the use of snowplanes on Jackson Lake, were not provided sufficient notice that they may be directly affected" by the winter use plans.

Bob Zimmer, a snowplane owner and permittee on the Grand Teton National Park lake, said the group feels mistreated by the Park Service.

"There was no dialogue between the Park Service and us," he said. "They just excluded us out. We didn't discuss how to put mufflers on planes or reduce emissions. You are kicked out and gone."

Zimmer said he didn't think the agency paid much attention to the snowplaners because the issue over snowmobiles was taking up all the time.

"We're a small group, and we were not organized," he said. "They know we can't fight them. Well surprise, surprise."

There are about 125 people who hold permits for snowplane use on Jackson Lake.

There are 860 snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone and Grand Teton every day of the winter season. Forty snowmobiles are allowed per day on Jackson Lake.

The snowplaners' suit references a 2004 District Court decision in which Judge Clarence Brimmer said the Park Service failed to involve cooperating agencies, comply with National Environmental Policy Act regulations and allow meaningful public comment in its 2001 decision to ban snowmobiles from Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. That decision "vacated" the rule and called for a halt to the ban.

"Thus, although the NPS should have reinstated the permits allowing snowplane use, it has continuously and unlawfully refused to allow snowplanes on Jackson Lake," the lawsuit said.

According to the Park Service in its Federal Register posting of the final interim rule in November - in which the agency imposed temporary guidelines as more study is completed - eliminating snowplane use has never been reconsidered.

"Because the use of snowplanes was discontinued following the 2001-2002 winter season, the NPS did not address the reinstatement of their use in the (environmental analysis) and concluded that the use of snowplanes still impaired park resources," the agency document said.

Michael Scott, executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a longtime advocate of the ban on snowmobiles, said studies under the Clinton administration and Bush administration showed snowplanes impaired park resources.

"This suit disrupts what both administrations consider was settled and was the right decision to make," Scott said. "We value our parks for the quiet serenity and beauty, but snowplanes clearly were impairing them."

But the lawsuit said only two alternatives relating to snowplane use were addressed: allowing the use without restriction or eliminating it.

"Thus, the agency failed to consider valid and reasonable alternatives to the total ban," the lawsuit said.

Zimmer, whose snowplane has been sitting in his yard for the last three years, said snowplanes are "totally, totally, a vehicle used to go from A to B to go fishing." It is not used for ongoing recreation and is not used for commercial profit.

The lawsuit, too, said "the sound emitted from a snowplane is of a very transient nature."

The lawsuit names Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Park Service Director Fran Mainella, regional Park Service Director Steve Martin and Grand Teton Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott as defendants.

"The federal government has pushed a bunch of lay people around," Zimmer said. "We're just a working class bunch of folks, and they stomped on us."

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.