CHEYENNE - Dale Groutage has driven in Yellowstone National Park when the roads were so poorly maintained it reminded him of a car trip in Mexico.

"A lot of times the roads coming into the park are great, but you get into the park and there are potholes and poor roads," Groutage said.

The Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate said much has been done to repair the roads in recent years, however. He added that he supports federal funding to maintain the park roads.

"The parks are such a treasure, we cannot lose them. They are for the next generation and the generation after that," said Groutage, a retired engineer who lives in Lander. "They are something I support preserving and maintaining."

Although he and Republican incumbent Craig Thomas, who is seeking a third term in the Senate, disagree on other issues, they are in accord on federal funding for the national parks and snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park.

Thomas, who chairs the national parks subcommittee in the Senate, set the groundwork earlier for an effort to increase financing for the national park system in the next budget.

He said he has contacted President Bush and talked to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne about the national parks appropriation, but the effort is not yet finished.

"We have more and more parks and more and more demands and more and more visitors," Thomas said. "There are other ways, of course, to get finances, but still they are federal facilities and a federal responsibility."

Thomas added that the National Park Service estimated that 50 percent of the backlog of repairs in all 390 national parks has been taken care of.

As for snowmobiling in Yellowstone, Groutage, who is a snowmobiler, said he supports the sport as long as operators stick to groomed trails.

Thomas said the same rules that applied to snowmobiles in Yellowstone last year will be in effect for this year, including requirements for guides, for fewer numbers and adjustments in noise levels.

He noted the debate over the number of snowmobilers who will be allowed to go out on their own isn't over.

Groutage has been critical of Thomas for failing to get any traction on changes in the Endangered Species Act.

Thomas said a bill has been pending for two years because it was referred to a committee whose chairman is from New England and wouldn't let it go forward.

This year, he said, he is working with a senator from Idaho, and the bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Thomas is a member of that committee and thinks the bill has a chance this time.

The bill requires more scientific data before there's a listing and a defined plan for delisting.

Thomas said he wants state and local governments to be more involved in the listing process, instead of it being almost a total federal operation.

The federal government has accepted post-delisting wolf management plans submitted by the states of Idaho and Montana. Wyoming is again in court over the federal government's rejection of the Wyoming plan. That plan would classify wolves as trophy game animals subjected to controlled hunting in certain areas around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and as predators that could be shot on sight elsewhere. Wolves would be protected in the two national parks.

Federal officials have rejected Wyoming's proposal on grounds the state must set limits on how many wolves can be killed.

"The state has had a point of view, and I have no argument with the point of view," Thomas said. "This predator thing gives you a little more license. But there are other ways to eliminate the wolves outside the designated area. If that's the thing that is holding up the agreement, find something that works."

The federal government is moving to delist the grizzles, but slowly, Thomas said.

Groutage wants to rewrite the endangered species law so that wolves and grizzly bears could be shot outside the national park boundaries.

Because it is a regional problem, not just a Wyoming problem, Groutage said he would work with a coalition of senators from Western states to rewrite the act.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net