A federal judge ruled Monday that plans to allow 540 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone National Park this winter was excessive, and would “cause major adverse impacts to the natural soundscape in Yellowstone.”

Wyoming’s Senators are already furious, and Montana’s won’t be far behind - there aren’t many ways to make money in that area during the winter, and they’re awfully protective of the ones that they’ve got…namely tours of the park.

As it stands there will be no winter vehicle access to the park, although state officials are attempting to work out a more moderate deal with the courts. To give you a rough idea of the increase, the park averaged 290 snowmobiles a day in 2006.

I happened to be in Yellowstone last winter and was both amazed and appalled by what I saw there. I’ve got a fairly good understanding about the problems there, and a couple of ideas about how to alleviate them as well. I’ll have another post up about this later in the day, with my personal photos to illustrate. Stay tuned.

photo by GGeter

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