CHEYENNE - An environmental group says a 100-foot cell-phone tower overlooking Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park is an unnecessary eyesore, and may signal the beginning of "the death of solitude" in America's national parks.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog group of government employees, said cell towers also have popped up at other national parks, including Grand Canyon and Death Valley. It has asked the National Park Service whether any national policy on erecting antennas in parks has been adopted.

"Apart from all the legalities and technicalities, one of the other issues we're looking at going on is what we call the death of solitude, whether there will be any place too remote for cell phone access," PEER's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said Thursday.

But a Yellowstone spokeswoman said the Old Faithful antenna is necessary for safety. However, she said the park will consider camouflaging measures such as painting the tower so it blends in more with its surroundings.

PEER, a Washington, D.C.-based group, said it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Park Service to try to find out where cell towers have been erected in national parks.

Ruch said the Yellowstone tower is more than twice as high as originally planned and that the public was not fully informed of the plans for the structure before it was built.

"It's on a little rise overlooking the geysers and because it's on the rise it can be seen from virtually everyplace in the historic district," Ruch said, referring to the complex of rustic lodges, restaurants and shops near the landmark geyser.

Park officials say the tower is needed to improve communication during emergencies.

"Our radio system is really overwhelmed during the summer season. It's critical that we have the ability to respond to emergency situations," Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said. "Much of the traffic on the radio can be alleviated with the use of cell phones."

The tower replaced two antennas in the Old Faithful area.

Ruch said the park's original 1999 plan called for the new tower to be no more than 10 feet above treetops, or a total of no more than 40 feet. Later that year, however, the plan was modified to allow a tower up to 100 feet high.

Western Wireless Corp. was granted permission to build the tower on a hill in the summer of 2001, according to Ruch.

He said PEER did not complain earlier because it only learned of the tower recently, from the federal employees it represents.

"Currently it's a public safety justification," he said. "But they provide no specifics or no explanation why the previously existing towers could not provide the same sort of coverage - why alternatives like walkie-talkies aren't considered and whether by this rationale they want cell-phone coverage in even the most remote parts of Yellowstone."

He said that, contrary to the preferred alternative, no attempt has been made to camouflage the silver-colored tower, which has three antennas branching off at the top.

Moreover, the environmental report on the tower proposal was provided only to a "very limited" number of people, he said, mainly employees of federal agencies.

Matthews acknowledged that the tower proposal was not widely circulated to the general public but it did receive a full and public environmental review.

The Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources is also criticizing the tower. "It wasn't what we had thought was going to be done up there," said Richard Curritt, the department's review and compliance program manager.

Curritt said simply painting the tower to blend in with the landscape would probably not be adequate. "We'd have to see their proposals," he said.