New Yellowstone Snowmobile Policy Released

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — The National Park Service has released a new policy that will regulate winter access to Yellowstone National Park by people riding on snowmobiles and snow coaches. The policy released Tuesday takes effect starting in the winter of 2014-2015.

The new policy gets away from the current one of strict limits on daily numbers of snowmobiles in Yellowstone. The new plan instead will regulate winter traffic through so-called "transportation events." A transportation event is defined as one snow coach or a group of up to 10 snowmobiles.

Snowmobiles will be allowed to account for no more than 50 daily transportation events. Snowmobiles in Yellowstone will need to have the best available pollution-control equipment starting in 2015. Snow coaches will need to be fitted with the best pollution controls starting in 2016.