Park County folks step up fight to keep East Entrance open in winter
AMY J. TRIPE Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Monday, March 5, 2007 12:00 am
CODY - As the March deadline approaches for Yellowstone's draft winter-use plan, comments and criticism regarding the proposal are heating up outside the park's east gate.
A diverse group of park winter users and others has banded together to raise awareness and their voices in opposition to park officials' proposal to close Sylvan Pass to over-snow traffic due to safety and financial concerns. Shut Out of Yellowstone, chaired by Carol Armstrong, is a coalition of snowmobilers, ice climbers, Nordic skiers, business owners, dude ranchers, sportsmen and local officials concerned about economic harm from National Park Service decisions.
"This is a multiple-use access issue for everyone," Armstrong said. "This is the people's park, and no one should be shut out."
Armstrong and her group has organized a public forum for late March with a panel to discuss the winter use issue. Confirmed panelists include Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis and Management Assistant John Sacklin, former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, Park County Commissioner Tim French, and Tim Mahieu of the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce.
"Everyone I've talked to is 100 percent for keeping this park open for multiple use," Armstrong said. "I'm not a snowmobiler, and I'm not a Nordic skier, but I believe this park needs to be open for everyone. We stand on that right to have access to our park. We are taxpayers."
Armstrong and others opposed to the pass closure found fodder for their fight in a newly released report on the Sylvan Pass avalanche hazard. Park officials commissioned the report, conducted by Bob Comey, an avalanche specialist from Jackson, in late August 2006.
"There is a paragraph in this report that says if (Sylvan) pass is not kept open, as long as there is snow up there it could delay the opening of the pass (for the summer season)," Armstrong said. "That would be devastating to a community like Cody because it would only give us three months for our tourist season."
The report states that "travel on this road should not occur when the avalanche paths of concern are snow covered (October through June) without an active avalanche hazard assessment and management program."
Keeping the pass open
The Park Service has for the past 30 years used a 105 mm howitzer to control avalanches on the pass, without incident or loss of life. But two years ago, Yellowstone officials switched from solely using the artillery program to control avalanches to contracting a specialized helicopter crew out of Missoula, Mont., that drops explosive hand charges.
Comey explains in the report that "avalanche hazard mitigation programs strive to prevent large volumes of snow from building up on unstable snow covered slopes that could result in large dangerous avalanches." He writes that this is best accomplished by triggering numerous smaller avalanches when conditions are unstable.
"The most effective time to trigger these small avalanches is during a storm when these slopes are being rapidly loaded with new snow," the report states. "The inability of helicopters to fly during periods of poor visibility and or gusty or high winds limits the ability of helicopters to trigger avalanches during storm periods."
Tonia Grdina, a Shut Out committee member, interpreted Comey's report to say the Park Service has gone to a "worse system" for avalanche control in switching to helicopter operations.
"Why eliminate a successful, recommended program that has worked for one that works marginally and which is more costly and cuts into the park budget?" Grdina asked.
'Out of business'
Park officials have received significant criticism for recent east gate closures. However, officials are adamant that "no changes are planned to shorten the season in which wheeled vehicles travel the East Entrance Road over Sylvan Pass," according to a recent Park Service press release.
The park will soon begin spring road plowing for the May 4 scheduled opening of the East Entrance Road.
In the meantime, though, one local business owner is preparing to take his concerns to court. Jon Sowerwine, owner of High Country Adventures, the only snowcoach operator from the east gate, says this winter's business has been exceptionally slow due to the continual discussion of avalanche dangers and the concern for public safety on Sylvan Pass. He plans to file a lawsuit in the next couple of weeks against the Park Service based on decisions officials have made this year.
"Their actions are deliberately against us," he said. "This has definitely been our worst year."
He said last weekend was one of the worst setbacks when officials closed the east gate and forced Sowerwine to cancel snowcoach trips for 60 Nordic skiers headed to the top of the pass for a day of skiing. When he tried to find out the reasoning behind the closure, he got a variety of excuses and explanations.
"We let (park officials) know well in advance what we're doing and when we're coming through," Sowerwine said. "They made decisions that negatively affected us and our business."
Sowerwine said he made an investment of "at least a couple hundred thousand dollars" upon the request of park officials to contract with a snowcoach company out of the East Entrance.
"They're the ones who asked us to get into this in the first place," he said. "Now with everything they're doing with misinformation and closing the pass, they are going to put us out of business."
Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said unfavorable weather kept helicopter crews from conducting an avalanche-control flight for several days last week, resulting in the Sylvan Pass closure.
Skiing concerns
Members of the Shut Out of Yellowstone group say many of their questions have yet to be answered.
Jan Hoar, a local businesswoman and president of the Park County Nordic Ski Association, questioned if the road to the park will be plowed or remain open to skiers and snowshoers - and if so, whether it will be groomed and by whom.
"The (association's) ski trails near the east gate may be affected if the gate closes in the winter," Hoar said. "I want to voice my concerns with the NPS authorities and obtain answers to my questions. The Shut Out of Yellowstone forum may help me do that."
Sharing Hoar's Nordic skiing concerns is Sharon Miller, who enjoys routine skate skiing jaunts into the park. Miller fears that closing the pass and possibly plowing the highway to the gate would harm the ski trails and endanger the local Nordic ski program.
"A reduction of this critical part of the trail system would jeopardize the annual (Wyoming high school) ski race and may lead to the elimination of the Cody High School Nordic program," Miller said. "Should Cody lose its team, the statewide Nordic ski program would fall below the minimum number of teams to sanction a sport through the Wyoming High School Activities Association."
Park Service officials will begin accepting formal public comments after their planned late March release of the draft winter use environmental impact statement. The Shut Out of Yellowstone public forum is scheduled March 22 at the Cody Auditorium, 1240 Beck Ave., from 7 to 9 p.m.
"This is a historical event, it really is," said Terry Hinkle of the Shut Out of Yellowstone committee. "Win or lose, we're taking part in history."