Yellowstone Snowmobile Ban?

Ok at first this article made no sense.

"The House voted 224-198 against the ban, originally pushed by the Clinton administration. The Bush administration decided to allow the machines to stay in the park, most of which is in Wyoming."

www.cnn.com...

Then I remembered the interview by Vallhall...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This quote from the USGS rep caught my attention. "In general, there are many, many things that can contribute to the signals on seismograms. These include of course earthquakes, but also wind, passing cars, snowmobiles that we call cultural noise."

Perhaps thats the reason for not approving a ban. 900 jobs. Who would actually believe that? I believe the reason is to cause distortions in the data. To make it more difficult for joe average to spot trouble lurking. The USGS could just say that any apparent swarm was just "noise".

The 2nd part of the CNN story should be just as disturbing.

"The House also defeated an attempt to halt the killing of bison from Yellowstone each year to stop the spread of disease to cattle if the bison wander outside the park."

You have to be kidding me. If there are problems with diseased bison they should be taken care of before they spread it to other bison in the park. I do not believe for a moment that this is the real reason they are killing the animals. I think this is to hide problems in the park. People are going to notice if animals that size are leaving the park. A potential warning sign that time may be up.

Maybe I'm off on this but these two items concern me.

Those snowmobiles in Yellowstone are a HUGE money maker for the local economy, that's why they keep them. Most winter visitors to the park would not go if they did not have snowmobile access. Much of the park is closed to automobiles in the winter, snowmobiles are the only practical way for soft, out of shape americans to to see the park in the off season. Realize that Yellowstone is a huge part of the area's economy, and that folks are gonna go hungry if they cut off winter access.

Money talks........

So you are saying there are no other places in the state of Wyoming that you can go snowmobiling? Money talks. Great. But this is a national park and not a race track.

No. I am saying that Yellowstone is the biggest tourist attraction in three states, no way are they gonna cut off access for half the year.

If you ran a grocery store, you wouldn't want to close half the year either, you would get pretty hungry.

By banning snowmobiles [which I personally support, iyam a rabid environmentalist] the park would essentially lose almost all revenue for half of the year. It is not a race track, the machines do a lot of harm to the environment. But most people are unwilling to ski 20 miles a day to see some buffalo, and no one is willing to give up those tourist dollars.

It is always about the money....

Unfortunately everything seems to be for sale in this country. But Yellowstone isn't just a park anymore. It is a dangerous volcano and there are sensors set up all over it. You don't want to contaminate the data collected at these stations so some people can make a profit. Whats a few hundred jobs compared to millions of lives that may be lost if people are unable to prepare for an erruption because all the data is being corrupted by snowmobiles.

That data is also corrupted by cars in the summer.

Unfortunately, management of this super-volcano is left up to persons to whom making a profit is paramount. I actually agree with you, the park would be better off with out the snowmobiles.

It isn't just that "some" people make a profit, it is an area of hundreds of square miles that depends on the tourists to earn a living. Everyone that lives there is emeshed into the tourist economy. They won't restrict access untill the lava reaches Idaho. You are suggesting that several thousand or more people simply go hungry all winter, or move away.

It won't happen, even if it is a good idea. Once again, it's about money....