WASHINGTON -- The National Park Service wanted to close a section of Yellowstone Park in the wintertime because of the risk of avalanche. No way, protested businesses in Cody, Wyo., that wanted to promote more tourism.
The spat did not stay local for long. It ended up in Washington, where the White House intervened late last year and sided with the businesses, according to officials familiar with the fight.
A final decision, announced Monday by Park Service regional director Mike Snyder, will keep the park's eastern entrance open to snow-going vehicles throughout the winter. The cost to taxpayers could run into the millions of dollars for a decision to accommodate a small number of tourists.
"This clearly falls into the basket of politics and the administration trumping science and what's best for the national park system," says Tim Stevens, who manages Yellowstone issues for the National Parks Conservation Association, a private watchdog group. "It clearly shows political manipulation."
The Park Service had studied the winter closure issue for a decade, beginning in the Clinton administration. The agency was poised last fall to issue a decision that would close that part of the park for three months of the year.
But in November, just as a crucial ruling was to come out, an official in the Park Service's Washington headquarters called Yellowstone and asked that key sections of the document be faxed for review by nine White House officials, including policy advisers to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, said two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals. Cheney is a former Wyoming congressman.
The episode fits a pattern of complaints by government scientists and experts who contend the administration frequently has overruled their work and imposed politically driven policies that benefit powerful economic interests, on issues from global warming to endangered species. For example, the administration rejected scientific advice in loosening air quality standards for ground-level ozone and soot, and ignored advice to control greenhouse gas emissions.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the consultation between the Park Service and the White House "is standard practice." He added, "We don't comment on those internal deliberations. The Park Service rendered their decision after taking into account all pertinent factors."
The eastern entrance to Yellowstone is along a road that runs from Cody into the heart of the park through Sylvan Pass, a steep-sided hollow that in the winter is at severe risk for avalanches. For years a dispute has simmered between the Park Service and the business community over whether to keep the pass open to vehicles such as snowmobiles and snow coaches when the avalanche threat is highest, December through February.
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