Yellowstone disputes it waived $1.2M in right of way fees for telecom company

BILLINGS – Yellowstone National Park’s superintendent disputes a group’s contention the agency has waived $1.2 million in right-of-way fees for a company that is installing 187 miles of fiber -optic cable in the park, recently released documents show.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility published excerpts from documents it received under the Freedom of Information Act detailing how the park went from outlining annual fees starting at more than $90,000 in 2024-25 and climbing to $233,650 by 2033, to dropping all use and occupancy fees.

Over the 10-year period, the fees would have generated more than $1.2 million for the U.S. Treasury.

“National parks should not be subsidizing telecom companies,” said Tim Whitehouse, PEER executive director, in a news release. “Nor do national parks have an obligation to wire every square inch of park grounds.”

Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly called the information “about as inaccurate as it is imaginable.”

“PEER once again has not done their due diligence and has severely misled the American public,” he wrote in a text message. “We will be charging them appropriate fees and already have.”

He added the Park Service has billed Diamond more than $80,000 to date and when the company makes its first connection to a nongovernment agency its exemption will be revoked and a new permit will be issued requiring Diamond to pay the full amount, which will climb annually.

Yellowstone’s reasoning

In the documents PEER received in its FOIA request, the Park Service said the fees were dropped because the project was “clearly in the public interest and consistent with the purposes and values of the park area.”

PEER argued the fees could only be dropped if the cable was for “exclusive park use,” according to regulations in effect at the time the company requested the right of way. But the rule governing rights of way was modified late in 2024, in part to “reflect current policies and practices,” adding the new exemption.

In publishing the rule change, the Department of Interior specifically noted the Park Service, “to the greatest extent possible seeks to minimize impacts to resources, visitors, and employees from the construction, installation, maintenance and operation of infrastructure in System units. For this reason, it only issues (right -of -way) permits when there is no practicable alternative to the use of lands and waters within a System unit.”

The modified section of the rule applying to exemptions was used in the past to spare nonprofit and Rural Electrification Administration projects.

Under the rule, fee exemptions for companies requesting a right of way in parks is considered discretionary.

Falling federal revenue

PEER also pointed to a 2024 report by the Inspector General at the Interior Department that found the agency was mismanaging national park telecom facilities, partly because the agency wasn’t collecting “the appropriate land use fees and recovering (right -of -way) permit costs.”

During the review period, the Inspector General found National Park Service right -of -way fees dropping from more than $25.8 million in 2019 to $4.2 million by 2023. Other Interior agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation, saw their fees climb during the same period.

Diamond Communications

The company seeking the right of way, Florida-based Diamond Communications LLC, had protested the fees in 2023. Notes from a Nov. 14, 2023, Yellowstone meeting noted, “The applicant’s response to the fees was not positive.”

Since its founding in 2006, Diamond Communications has grown to the second largest privately held wireless infrastructure company in the United States, according to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which has invested in the company. Diamond touts more than 2,000 wireless communication sites in the U.S.

Many of Diamond’s executives have investment banking backgrounds from such top firms as Citibank, Bear Stearns and Credit Suisse.

In 2021, the company partnered with an investment company to pay $1.62 billion to acquire another wireless business.

Grand Teton goes wireless

Last year, Diamond Communications finished a similar fiber -optic project in Grand Teton National Park that installed 62 miles of main line and 21 miles of lateral lines. The project also constructed seven “stealth communication towers” as high as 85 feet and “outdoor distributed antenna systems” with 26-foot-tall poles and backup diesel generators in nine developed areas.

In Grand Teton’s Finding of No Significant Impact, the agency touted the infrastructure as meeting “mission critical business operations” as well as meeting “visitor expectations for connectivity.”

During a 2024 dedication to the system, Rusty Mizelle, chief of facility management for Grand Teton, said to a gathering of telecommunications officials and park staff that the new system was already saving lives.

“We had an incident with an individual,” Mizelle said in the video posted on Diamond Communications website. “He was able to call out on a cell signal that would not have existed without your effort. He was able to be located by rangers who were able to get guided in by him talking on his cellphone and communicating. And that is just one of many stories for people whose lives have been saved in this national park by having access to 911, having access to a cellular service and a connectivity that didn’t exist before.”

Sholly said Yellowstone has similar reasons for upgrading its telecommunications as annual visitation continues to climb.

“I appreciate PEER’s deep concerns for Yellowstone and them not wanting improved communications infrastructure, however PEER isn’t responsible for managing nearly 5 million people per year,” Sholly said.

“The park relies on a series of antiquated mountaintop antennas and repeaters which fail repeatedly throughout the year,” he added. “Installation of fiber will allow for improved and reliable communications within the park’s road corridors and also allow for outdated infrastructure to be removed from mountaintops and backcountry sites.”

In 2019, PEER criticized Grand Teton’s cellular expansion plans saying the park’s environmental assessment didn’t “provide sufficient justification for a project of this magnitude” and conflicted with the purpose of the park to provide an “atmosphere of peace and tranquility.”

In Yellowstone, another concern cited by PEER and a 2014 science panel is installation of underground infrastructure, such as a fiber -optic cable, in geothermal areas. Sholly said in thermal areas a special design is being required that will allow the conduits to be buried no deeper than 10 inches within areas previously disturbed by roads.

“Yellowstone became America’s first park to preserve its unique thermal features,” Whitehouse said. “Today, the unique nature of Yellowstone is being threatened by the telecom industry.”