WASHINGTON - Congressional critics of a National Park Service plan to ban snowmobile use in most parks blasted the agency Thursday, calling the ban an unjustified move to please environmentalists by further restricting federal land use.
''It really is crazy what they're trying to do here,'' said Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.
The Park Service announced last month it was banning nearly all snowmobile traffic in 25 national parks, recreation areas and other Park Service lands where snowmachines had been allowed. Conservationists estimated about 180,000 snowmobilers used Park Service land last year.
Hearings in both the House and Senate Thursday gave snowmobilers a chance to vent their anger at the agency and lawmakers a chance to grill the Interior Department official who announced the ban.
That official, Assistant Interior Secretary Donald Barry, stood his ground. Barry said the snowmobile ban merely enforces regulations the Park Service had not been following and will protect parks from pollution.
''This is not about closure of national parks to the American public. This is about restricting a form of access to national parks,'' Barry said. He compared the snowmobile ban to rules preventing people from riding motorcycles up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Chris Twomey, president of snowmobile maker Arctic Cat, said Barry maligned the industry last month when he called snowmobiles ''noisy, antiquated machines that are no longer welcome in our national parks.'' Twomey said manufacturers were making cleaner, quieter machines in response to customer demands.
Twomey said the snowmobile business generates $6 billion a year and is responsible for 65,000 jobs, including 10,000 in snowmobile manufacturing. Surveys show snowmobilers are mostly middle-class families who enjoy the outdoors, Twomey said.
''We're mad because our access has now been denied to our national parks,'' added Bill Manson of the American Council of Snowmobile Associations. ''Mr. Barry has painted us to be an antiquated bunch of wild people.''
The ban does not apply to parks in Alaska and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota because Congress specifically allowed snowmobile use in those parks. It also does not apply to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks in northwestern Wyoming because the Park Service is considering a separate snowmobile ban for those two heavily used parks.
The snowmobile ban is one of a series of moves by federal land management agencies to restrict motorized traffic in national parks. In March, the agency announced new restrictions on the use of Jet Skis and similar motorized watercraft in some parks, and efforts also are under way to limit private automobile traffic to reduce congestion and air pollution at some of the busiest parks.
Critics say the agencies are bypassing Congress and the public by taking administrative actions which do not require new laws.
''When I have to tell a snowmobiler that this administration doesn't care what Congress has to say about snowmobiling in national parks, I am really telling him or her that the administration doesn't care what the American people have to say about snowmobiling in national parks,'' said Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn.
