Date: 2004-06-17
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I move to strike the requisite number of words. I rise in support of the amendment. This has been an interesting discussion about the difference between twocycle and fourcycle engines. and that is very important because the industry has made remarkable improvements in snowmobiles. in the skidoos and the watercraft industry and the motorcycle industry and the offtheroad vehicles of all different types because -they recognize that people wefe having a very serious problem with the invasive nature of these vehicles but also recognizing that this is a very large economy. Many. many people use and enjoy. as family recreation. offtheroad biking. offtheroad vehicle travel. snowmobiling. skidooing. and the rest of that. But because we can do that does not mean we can do it everywhere. we can do it. There are some places in this country that are in fact very special. And there are places that do not necessarily need to be invaded by a snowmobile whether it is twocycle or fourcycle. One can use their cell phone almost every place but there are places we would prefer they not do it. They can but we choose to say no. The gentleman just asked the question about Yosemite. In the wintertime. one could take a snowmobile and go out to the end of Glacier Point. It would be a beautiful. marvelous trip. In a full moon people go out and they travel on skis and they go out. It is one of the great pleasures in Yosemite National Park in the wintertime. Would people want to run a snowmobile out to the end of Glacier Point? It is a paved road. It is covered with snow in the wintertime. It is not plowed. The answer is probably not because it is a very special place. and I do not think one would want to be out there listening to twocycle or fourcycle engines for that matter. Yellowstone is one of those very special places. and we should not be taking this very special place and submit-. ting it to this pollution and to the noise factor in this park. Its impact on the people who have to work there. ita impact on the wildlife have been well d6cumented in the reports. Some people say. well. then we should not allow the snowcoaches in. No. The snowcoaches should continue to strive to be better. to improve their efficiencies. their pollution. and the rest of that. I am not for banning people in Yellowstone in the wintertime. But to have 750 people zipping around on snowmobiles recognizing that they are on the paved road. and that has been a big victory to get them out of the back country. to get them out of the nonpaved areas. but the fact of the matter is that this park should not be invaded in that fashion. I have been to West Yellowstone. I have talked to the snowmobilers. They are having a great time and I understand all of that. But I think there are many miles of trail that they can ride adjacent to the park in the area and across this country. There are tens of thousands. hundreds of thousands of miles of trails that people can use that are official and unofficial trails :that they use in the various States and the various regions where they can snowmobile. But we recognize. as the previous Congresses did when they set aside these great natural assets for this country. there are a lot of things we could do in the Grand Canyon but we would not. There are a lot of things we could do in Canyon Lands. but we would not because we recognize the integrity and the struggle that we have to maintain the integrity of these national parks. And in this particular one we are trying to make a decision that snowmobiling will not be allowed. The gentleman from Minnesota who spoke said we can ride them in Voyagers. That is fine. Maybe -that works in Voyagers. But we do not think it works. and it is incompatible with the protection and the use and enjoyment of Yellowstone National Park. and for that reason I would hope that people would support the Holt amendment.