Snowmobiles

Here is an ironclad rule for selling snowmobiles: You need snow. Warmer weather and thin snowfalls since the late 1990s have melted sales at Polaris Industries Inc. and Arctic Cat Inc., the only snowmobile makers in the U.S. After one more wimpy winter in a long string of them, some dealers say they are struggling to clear out last year's sleds, let alone sell out of this year's. Some gave up months ago.

The National Park Service will allow as many as 540 snowmobiles a day to enter Yellowstone National Park -- a compromise that leaves neither environmentalists nor winter recreation advocates happy. The proposed cap is less than the current limit of 720 but nearly twice the number that have been entering the park in the last four years, and would reverse a trend of cleaner air and less noise, environmentalists and former park employees said.

Despite the conclusions from its own scientists that snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park continue to create unacceptable noise levels, the National Park Service released a draft plan Monday that would allow up to 720 snow machines in the park per day. The plan would maintain the current maximum daily numbers, or about three times as many snowmobiles as entered the park each day over the last three winters.

Re "Camp? Outside? Um, no thanks," Nov. 24 The Times seems to paint a bleak picture in its article on the 10-year decline of national park visitors. But it seems like just yesterday that articles were touting our parks as being overpopulated and overrun. Although I think it is important that everyone gets in touch with the majesty of nature in our awesome national parks, I am grateful that the crowds are thinning. Let the boomers take their cruises and families hit the themed commercial parks.

Before heading for the sunshine in Las Vegas this week, NASCAR Sprint Cup star Bobby Labonte and new crew chief Jeff Meendering spent some time playing in the snow. Following the extended race weekend in Fontana, Labonte and Meendering, hired away from Hendrick Motorsports by Petty Enterprises over the winter, broke away from racing to spend a little time bonding. The pair, along with team owner Richard Petty, visited the stock car King's ranch in Alpine, Wyo., to ride snowmobiles and get to know each other better before heading to Las Vegas for this week's UAW-Dodge 400. Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion, is entering his third season with the Petty team and this is the second time he has taken part in a "team-building" exercise at the Wyoming getaway.

The number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be reduced 39% under a judge's ruling that the vehicles dirty the air and displace wildlife. The National Park Service proposed that 318 snowmobiles be allowed in Yellowstone per day and 50 be given access to Grand Teton. The public can comment until Nov. 17.

The number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone National Park would be cut by more than half under an Obama administration proposal that would allow 318 snowmobiles and 78 multipassenger snowcoaches daily for the next two winters. That's down from 720 snowmobiles a day allowed last winter. During the two years the rule would be in effect, the Interior Department would conduct an environmental analysis and try to craft a permanent cap. The question of an appropriate number of the vehicles for the park has sparked political and legal skirmishing since the Clinton administration.

The National Park Service in Cheyenne approved a plan to restrict the number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park to less than half of last winter's limit. As many as 318 snowmobiles and 78 snow coaches will be allowed into the park per day for the next two winter seasons. The park has allowed up to 720 snowmobiles a day into the park over the past five winters, but actual use has been far less.

The trees of Hope Valley are flocked and stately. All along Forestdale Creek Road, about a dozen miles south of Lake Tahoe, the scenery is straight out of the Hallmark winter collection. But don't be deceived. In the nationwide scuffle between snowmobilers and those who scorn them, this is contested territory. "You can hear them for miles," says Debbi Waldear, a champion cross-country skier and longtime local crusader against snowmobile traffic.

Regarding "A Line in the Snow" [Feb. 15]: As times and circumstances have changed, activities that were once considered acceptable have been banned because of their deleterious effects. Sheep grazing has been forbidden in the San Bernardino National Forest since the early 1900s. Duck hunting was allowed on Lake Arrowhead until the 1950s. The keeping of pigs in the lower part of Manhattan was outlawed in the 1840s over the strong objections of the poor, who valued the animals for food and garbage disposal.