FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, May 20, 1997
CONTACT:
D.J. Schubert, (202) 588-5206, DJSchubert@aol.com
Mike Markarian, (301) 585-2591, MikeM@fund.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Led by The Fund for Animals, a coalition of environmental organizations and Montana and Wyoming residents today filed suit in federal court against Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and other government officials for violating several federal laws in permitting winter use activities in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
The lawsuit alleges that the National Park Service has never properly evaluated the substantial adverse impacts caused by winter use, particularly snowmobile use and snowmobile trail grooming, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. In addition, the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have failed to assess the impacts of winter use on the threatened grizzly bear and the endangered gray wolf as required by the Endangered Species Act.
Impacts associated with winter use activities, particularly snowmobiling, include impacts to the behavior, distribution, movements, and habitat use of many wildlife species. For example, Dr. Mary Meagher, Yellowstone's bison expert, has stated that the groomed snowmobile trails are the largest factor contributing to bison movements outside of the park where nearly 1,100 were killed this past winter. In addition, impacts to air quality, predators, threatened and endangered species, and other park users have escalated due to the uncontrolled use of the parks in winter.
"Secretary Babbitt has decried the slaughter of Yellowstone bison, yet his own agency is actually aiding and abetting that slaughter by grooming the trails that bison use to walk to their deaths," says D.J. Schubert, wildlife biologist for the public interest law firm Meyer and Glitzenstein, which is representing The Fund for Animals and other plaintiffs in the case.
The suit asks the court to require the Park Service to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on its winter use program, and in the interim, to prohibit snowmobile trail grooming in Yellowstone and Grand Teton to prevent further environmental impacts to animals and ecology.
The Fund for Animals is a national animal protection organization headquartered in New York City. Click here to view a fact sheet on the legal claims and winter use impacts.