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Group seeks dismissal of 720- snowmobile rule
Less than a month after a Wyoming District Court judge instated a temporary 720-snowmobile rule for Yellowstone National Park, it has been challenged. The National Parks Conservation Association filed a motion on Dec. 3 asking Wyoming District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer to reconsider his decision and dismiss the case as moot.
After a judge in the District of Columbia voided this winter’s plans, Brimmer ordered that Yellowstone allow 720 daily snowmobiles until a new permanent rule is crafted.
The National Parks Conservation Association contends that the D.C. judge, Emmet Sullivan, should come up with the temporary rule, rather than Brimmer.
The Association’s Yellowstone program manager, Tim Stevens, said the group is not trying to disrupt this year’s plans.
“We’re not expecting this to be decided this winter season,” Stevens said, noting that “the wheels of justice do turn slowly” and “the season’s upon us.”
Yellowstone re-opens for the winter on Monday, Dec. 15. The east gate opens Dec. 22.
Stevens said the association hopes to see a different temporary rule in place for next season. The organization’s ultimate goal is to have all snowmobiles removed from the park.
The U.S. Park Service originally proposed allowing 540 snowmobiles into Yellowstone this winter season. Things got muddled when conservation groups challenged the rule in the District of Columbia as too damaging to the environment, while in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne, Park County and the state of Wyoming challenged the plan as overly restrictive.
On Sept. 15, D.C. Judge Sullivan ruled on the case first, siding with the environmentalists. In mid-November, his decision was appealed by the Park Service and snowmobile advocacy groups. That appeal now is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
In his original decision, Sullivan provided no direction as to what the Park Service should do while a new, permanent winter plan is drafted. So, on Nov. 7, Judge Brimmer ordered that 720 daily snowmobiles be used as a stop-gap solution.
The National Parks Conservation Association wants Brimmer to void his order as unnecessary, and instead allow Sullivan to go back and put together a temporary rule.
Park County Deputy Attorney Jim Davis said the county will be filing a brief in opposition to the association’s motion in coming days.
If Brimmer nixes the association’s request for dismissal, they could appeal the case to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
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