No New Rules Planned For Snowmobilers

Authorities considering winter use recommendations have decided not to impose any major new restrictions on snowmobiles in and around Yellowstone National Park this winter.

About 20 people from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and the five national forests in the three states surrounding Yellowstone have been trying to draft recommendations for more than a year.

Future seasons may see new restrictions, Yellowstone chief planner John Sacklin said Wednesday, but what those changes will be remains undecided.

The planners will meet in Bozeman, Mont., for a work session between Dec. 3 and Dec. 13 before presenting their report to their bosses. It probably will not be a public document for several months, Sacklin said.

The interagency group was appointed after rapid growth in winter use early in the 1990s. A winter use plan completed in 1990 greatly underestimated the amount of growth; visitor numbers that weren’t expected until the year 2000 arrived in the winter of 1992-93.