The National Park Service is seeking public comment on a proposal to suspend one component of the adaptive monitoring plan for winter use in Yellowstone National Park, which was initially put in place to evaluate effects to resources in relation to snowmobiles and Oversnow Vehicles use.
Starting in the winter of 2021 and 2022, a wildlife monitoring effort identified in Yellowstone’s 2012-2013 Winter Use Plan and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)/Record of Decision (ROD) would be suspended given the results have not substantially changed over the decade evaluated.
“This action would not affect snowmobile or OSV use in the park or impact visitors,” NPS officials said in a written statement this week. “This action is also consistent with the park’s Winter Use Adaptive Management Plan, which stated the NPS would continually re-examine and adjust winter use monitoring strategies, and management actions as new information became available.”
The NPS goes on to say that wildlife monitoring has consistently shown similar response levels over the years, indicating that wildlife are not, or are minimally, impacted. Officials say wildlife response to OSVs will likely continue to follow patterns from the last 20 years of observation.
“In the future, the park may explore other methods for monitoring wildlife impacts,” officials say.
A recent summary report combined findings from the winter monitoring programs since the 2012-2013 Winter Use Plan and SEIS/ROD was put into effect. This summary report found that:
- Winter wildlife monitoring data from 2014 to 2019 showed 95% of wildlife in proximity (within 500 feet) to the groomed road corridor demonstrated no response or a “look and resume” response to oversnow vehicles.
- Observations during this period included 1,105 groups of wildlife and 6,715 individual animals.
- Similar monitoring efforts prior to the SEIS in 2013 found roughly 91% of wildlife were observed to demonstrate no response or a “look and resume” response.
Yellowstone says they will renew the winter wildlife monitoring program if unexpected changes occur to wildlife populations or if significant adjustments are made to winter operations and use. Future winter wildlife monitoring efforts will be informed by the scientific community and may be considerably different than current monitoring methodologies.
This finding will inform the park’s interest in conducting visitor use impact monitoring in the summer due to record-breaking visitation.
Comments must be received by November 1, 2021. Comments may be submitted online at: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/winterwildlifemonitoring or by mail.
Comments will not be accepted by fax, email, or other means.
Mail comments to:
Compliance Office, Attention: Winter Use Adaptive Management
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190.
Public Comment Considerations
- Bulk comments in any format submitted on behalf of others will not be accepted.
- Before including your address, phone number, email, or other personal information, be aware that your entire comment – including your personally identifiable information – may be made public at any time. You may ask us to withhold your personally identifiable information from public review, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.