Wyoming officials opposed to capping snowmobiles at 318The dog days of summer have yet to arrive, but the flurry of debate and legal wrangling over snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park is already in full swing.

On Thursday, the Department of the Interior announced that the Park Service plans to cut the number of snowmobiles allowed into the park this winter by more than half — spurring opposition from Wyoming officials.

In the 2008-09 winter season, the maximum allowable number of snowmobiles each day was 720 — a number that's been used since 2004. But for the coming two seasons, the park plans to allow up to 318 machines, a number in line with recent average use. Snowcoaches, meanwhile, would remain the same, at a maximum of 78 per day.

At the East Entrance, the allowable number of daily snowmobiles would drop from 40 to 20.

The plan is just a temporary measure while the Park Service drafts a new permanent rule to guide winter use.

“The proposed rule would allow continued access to the park in winter while ensuring the protection of this national treasure and its wildlife,” said Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior, in a statement.

Environmental organizations have called for phased removal of all snowmobiles from the park, and said the lower limits were a “step in the right direction.”

Wyoming's Republican congressional delegation saw it otherwise, blasting the plan in a released joint statement.

“Cutting the number of visitors in half is an insult to our state and gateway communities,” said Sen. John Barrasso.

The contentious issue has been tied up in multiple court cases for more than a decade.

Last September, federal Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia voided Yellowstone plans to allow up to 540 snowmobiles a day (down from the current 720). Sullivan ruled that the machines would cause undue harm to the environment and ordered the park to re-examine the issue and come up with a new plan.

Following that decision, Yellowstone had no rule to guide winter use.

So, in November, Sullivan's counterpart in the district of Wyoming, Judge Clarence Brimmer, ordered the Park Service to allow 720 snowmobiles a day “until such time as the (Park Service) can promulgate an acceptable rule to take its place.”

The goal, Brimmer said, was to “provide businesses and tourists with the certainty that is needed in this confusing litigation.”

With the winter season fast-approaching, Yellowstone quickly followed Brimmer's order, allowing up to 720 snowmobiles a day when the winter season opened in mid-December.

Yellowstone management assistant John Sacklin said that since then, the park has been discussing what it would do for the upcoming season — discussions that culminated in Thursday's announcement that the park intends to drop to a daily max of 318 snowmobiles this time around.

It didn't take long for opponents to respond.

On Friday, the state of Wyoming, snowmobile manufacturers and Park County, asked Judge Brimmer to force the Park Service to allow 720 machines a day until a new final rule is in the books.

“Nothing in the court's order suggests that it could be supplanted by a temporary rule that is sure to incite new legal challenges and create new uncertainties and delays,” wrote the Wyoming Attorney General's office in a motion to enforce judgment.

A hearing may be held next month.

Yellowstone officials have noted that, regardless of the limits, actual snowmobile use has averaged under 300 daily machines over the last three years.

The temporary 318 plan, originally proposed early last November, will be re-opened for public comment from now until Sept. 8.

The proposed rule and an electronic form to submit written comments are available online at www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp.