To: i-node who wrote (178084 ) 11/21/2003 1:55:38 AM From: Amy J Read Replies (4) | Respond to of 1578706 Hi David, RE: "This is such a crock. Who gives a sh*t if a few snowmobiles ride around Yellowstone in the wintertime? It certainly does no substantive environmental damage. " It's a huge deal. Around here, there's a group called POST (peninsula open space trust) that buys up land for preservation and when they hand off land management to the Parks system, before the Parks open these land grants to the public, they generally install a trail in order to consolidate all the public traffic downto one path, but to do this, they need get the Gov't's approval to ensure endangered wildlife are not killed when a trail is made - and usually it is made from an existing trail and other redundant trails are closed - that approval process, which involves scientists thoroughly studying the proposed area and making absolute sure endangered species are not impacted as well as other wildlife, takes several months. Snowmobiles create a lot of damage to the wildlife, even more so if it's a not consolidated to one trail. They shouldn't be allowed in Yellowstone. The fire wiped out a lot of endangered wildlife. Fires can move at a rate of 13 mph - faster than a marathon runner. People and many animals cannot outrun a fast moving fire. And the vegetation is completely killed, forever lost. They should change legislation and make it a requirement that hunters (and hikers) carry or rent beacon devices so if they get lost they can get assistance without starting a multi-billion dollar fire. REI has these devices. I don't want to pay higher insurance premiums because of some irresponsible hunter that got lost and started a fire to be found. I say fine any hunter that gets lost because he or she didn't bring or didn't know how to read a cheap $5 compass and contour map, or maybe even carry a gps of sorts. Why should we pay for irresponsible behavior? We're not a preventive society but sure like to burden those that are more responsible. Regards, Amy J