Personal watercrafts are rapidly becoming a feature of our shorelines and coastal areas, and their speeds, loud engines, and troubling safety record raise many policy issues. Inappropriate use of personal watercraft is degrading natural resources, and the safety and enjoyment of other activities on our shores and coasts. The main purposes of the legislation instructs state resource management agencies to designate and protect shoreline areas that have environmental, commercial or recreational significance, and restrict personal watercraft use in these sensitive areas. This boundary will ensure that recreational areas and aquatic habitats close to shore will not be disturbed by personal watercraft use. Snowmobile use in the National Parks have had detrimental impacts on wildlife and other visitors.
Snowmobiles frighten, isolate, and sometimes kill wildlife in the parks where they are now used.
Heavily used snowmobile routes can cut off winter migration paths used by park wildlife. A 1996 visitor use study conducted in Yellowstone found many people who reported that encounters with snowmobiles were the least enjoyable part of their park visit because of the noise, pollution, and impact on wildlife viewing. The National Park Service and other land management agencies were directed by Presidents Nixon and later President Carter in executive orders to restrict snowmobile and other off-road vehicle use to protect natural resources and other visitors, but those orders have been largely ignored. HR1465 would comply with this generation-old mandate. I strongly urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 1382, H.R. 702, and H.R. 1382.