Nonsense, says head of snowmobile advocacy group
TED MONOSON Star-Tribune Washington bureau | Posted: Friday, April 16, 2004 12:00 am
WASHINGTON - New snowmobiles are almost as loud as the older models they are suppose to replace, according to statement made by Yellowstone National Park's chief of maintenance during a Jan. 27 meeting.
Brandon Gauthier was referring to noise tests that he conducted at the West Entrance, Madison Warming Hut, Madison Shop, at ranger bays, and with rangers stationed at Old Faithful.
"The immediate results were the presence of noise," Gauthier told his co-workers, according to a copy of the minutes of the meeting. "Four-stroke snowmobiles are almost as loud as two-stroke machines for the operator."
Gauthier also recommended that park employees wear earplugs while riding the four-stroke snowmobiles.
The copy of the meeting minutes and some of Gauthier's data from testing the snowmobiles were released by the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees. The group is composed of 230 retired National Park Service employees.
National Park Service officials verified that the copy of the meeting minutes and the test information are authentic.
Snowmobile industry officials said the new four-stroke machines are quieter than the older two-stroke machines.
"It is an absolute unequivocal lie," International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association president Ed Klim said of the idea that there is little difference in the amount of noise produced by the different types of snowmobiles. "It does not make any sense. They are quieter. Significantly quieter."
Klim dismissed the organization of retired NPS employees as a marginal group that is vehemently opposed to snowmobiles in Yellowstone.
"They are the old retired guys who don't know anything," Klim said. "I wish they had done as much work when they were employed."
The organization makes no secret of its desire to keep snowmobiles out of Yellowstone.
"Instead of being candid with the public, this Administration continues to suppress or misrepresent information in order to benefit the snowmobile industry," the group's coordinator, Bill Wade, said in a statement. "Snowmobiles loud enough to make earplugs necessary have no place in a national park where the emphasis is supposed to be on preserving the natural quiet."
Klim said the test and Gauthier's statements about them are meaningless because the test did not meet scientific standards.
"Sound testing is very difficult to do," Klim said. "It is a very challenging field. It is not something to be dealt with lightly. People go to school to learn how to do this. Having a maintenance guy do it may be junk science."
Yellowstone National Park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said the majority of the samples were to test the noise level at locations rather than the impact of the noise on individual rangers.
Of the 20 noise samples that were taken, only two were from rangers on snowmobiles, according to Matthews.
"It was a test looking at employee exposure to a variety of things," Matthews said.
The past snowmobile season was thrown into turmoil because of contradictory rulings by a federal judge in Wyoming and another in Washington, D.C., concerning whether snowmobiles should be allowed in the park.
The Park Service is waiting on final rulings by the judges before going forward with plans for next winter.
"It's a little hard for us to plot a course for next year with some judicial decisions," National Park Service spokesman Al Nash said.