The first scholarly study of winter use in any national park examines the history of the conflict between the National Park Service and various interest groups over snowmobile use in Yellowstone--a highly-politicized, value-driven battle that has taken a serious toll on the NPS's ability to protect the park.

Examines the conflict surrounding public land management, revealing how problematic language in public land laws, scarcity of resources, and mistrust cloud the debates, and offering a range of solutions to help move beyond the dysfunctional status quo management.

Four case studies, all drawn from Yellowstone National Park's recent history, examine the relationship between interest groups and the National Park Service (NPS) in park policy-making. The NPS initiates and controls most policy-making efforts, with political influence common. Major interest groups include environmentalists, recreation advocates, business groups, and scientists. Differing motivations and perspectives on park purpose create controversies that usually result in compromises. / Case studies begin with, first, an NPS effort about 1960 to zone portions of Yellowstone Lake as non-motorized; conservationists and the NPS contested boating groups and some powerful politicians. The second study details efforts to close the Fishing Bridge village amid concerns that grizzly bears were dying in unacceptable numbers in that area. Business and recreatioinal interests contested the NPS, who received little support from environmental groups. The third study details the fire policy review that took place after the historic 1988 wildfires. Widespread scientist support for allowing wildfires to burn natually overcame economic and political opposition. The final study examines the ongoing snowmobile controversy, finding that all four primary interest groups are involved, strongly engaging the debate through litigation and political maneuvering. / Throughout, conservationists believe parks to be sacred nature preserves, and have the most supportive relationship with the NPS. Recreational groups cherish individual freedoms and strive to retain park access; they often contest NPS intentions. Business groups envision parks as exonomic generators, with a primary purpose being the promotion of local and regional economies; they are effective at compelling the NPS to compromise. Scientists lead in promoting science-based park management, but sometimes fail to provide consistent or timely direction. All interest groups assume that park resource exploitation is inappropriate, and find the NPS relatively open to their input. POlitical influence is pervasive, and in Yellowstone's case, generally favorable to economic enhancement and public access. / The compromise settlements may weaken overall park protections, but preserve Yellowstone as one of America's wildest places. Such controversies are the medium through which Americans contest core values that reflect conflicting relationships between people and nature, and by which Yellowstone is defined as a wild place.

This book focuses on the American system of National Parks wherein the people of the United States own and protect mountains, deserts, forests, wetlands, tundra and tropical reefs. All American citizens are, in a sense, stewards of sites where the Founding Fathers envisioned a new nation and where ancient peoples built cities. Americans are protectors of the tallest living things on Earth and of hundreds of rare species that enliven a subtropical wilderness. The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) presides over a sprawling system of parks, seashores, trails, monuments, and battlefields that encompass 3.6 percent of the nation's entire landmass. The land and its life forms are set apart, preserved, and spared from the asphalt, sprawl, and neon that creep across the modern world. National parkland -- over 34 million hectares -- is to remain unimpaired for future generations, according to the law that established the Park Service in 1916. The NPS statutory mission is multifaceted: to conserve, preserve, protect and interpret the natural, cultural, and historic resources of the nation for the public, and to provide for their use and enjoyment by the public. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.