WSSA is the Only Group Working Fulltime to Protect Your Snowmobiling Access in Wyoming – You Need to Support Them

Kim Raap, Trails Work Consulting
If you snowmobile in Wyoming today, it’s because the Wyoming State Snowmobile Association has been working for around 40 years to build snowmobile trails and promote snowmobiling access. And if you hope to continue snowmobiling in Wyoming in the future, you’ll only be able to continue riding because WSSA is working hard to protect your access. As a snowmobiler, you need to recognize that state snowmobile associations like WSSA are the only organizations working hard fulltime for snowmobiling access. And they’re working hard for you regardless of whether you’re a member or not.
Make no mistake about it – in today’s world you must ‘buy’ access to our public lands by bringing money, volunteer resources, and partnerships to the table. Without such efforts – whether you like it or not – we would not have the snowmobiling access and trails we enjoy today. Thanks to the foresight and long-standing work by WSSA, we have a funding program in Wyoming based upon snowmobile registrations and user fees that pays our way and helps facilitate our access. We need to thank WSSA for providing this important leadership, and if you snowmobile in Wyoming, you need to join a local club or WSSA to help support their work.
Environmental groups are working like never before to have snowmobiling kicked out of many great riding areas across Wyoming, so the stakes are higher than ever. New groups like the Winter Wildlands Alliance have formed and exist solely for one reason – they “hate” snowmobiles and continue to push the Forest Service for exclusive “quiet use” areas where snowmobiling would become prohibited. We simply can’t let that happen – WSSA needs your support now like never before.
WSSA established the ACCESS WYOMING Program in 2005 to respond to a growing number of attacks on snowmobiling and entered into an agreement with Trails Work Consulting to provide professional assistance to help navigate the numerous Forest Service, BLM, and National Park Service planning efforts across the state. These planning processes are complex and revolve around the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The good news is that agencies like the Forest Service can’t just close riding areas without first following NEPA. This generally requires that agencies must complete an Environmental Assessment (EA) or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) – both which are complex and time-consuming – before they can make their decisions about closing access. The bad news is that environmental groups are extremely skilled at working these processes and have many fulltime employees to work against us – so we have to be targeted to be effective against their attacks.
Since starting the ACCESS WYOMING Program, WSSA has actively participated in the following public lands planning processes on behalf of snowmobiling: the Bighorn National Forest Management Plan revision; the Black Hills National Forest Phase II Forest Management Plan Amendment; the BLM Casper Resource Management Plan revision; the BLM Kemmerer Resource Management Plan revision; the BLM Pinedale Resource Management Plan revision; and the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks Winter Use Plan EIS. Except for Yellowstone, all of these planning processes are closed and continued snowmobiling access fared extremely well thanks to WSSA’s focused involvement.
While Yellowstone has been the lightning rod, and continues to be the most frustrating snowmobile access issue nationally, it appears to be a battle that will likely continue for a long time given the many lawsuits which seem to drive winter park management. The latest is that the Park Service will be releasing an emergency EA in early November for a 15-day comment period. If this emergency process is not successful by December 15, there will likely be no public motorized access by snowmobiles or snowcoaches into Yellowstone’s interior this winter – so it in effect would be open to only those on cross-country skis and snowshoes. Keep your fingers crossed that this emergency process works – and don’t expect anything other than 100% commercially guided access, that all snowmobiles will have to meet BAT requirements, and daily limits will likely be as low as 250 to 290 sleds per day.
Current ACCESS WYOMING efforts revolve around Forest Management Plan revision processes for both the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton National Forests. The Shoshone’s draft plan is scheduled to be out for public comment this fall – so watch for information that we’ll be putting together soon to help snowmobilers participate with focused comments. The Bridger-Teton’s process seems to be proceeding very slowly and might in fact being switching focus – again, stay tuned for updates as this develops.
There are two themes common to both the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton plan revision discussions: 1) environmental groups continue to advocate for more Wilderness designation – which we will continue to staunchly oppose, and 2) backcountry skiers and environmental groups continue to propose that nearly everything north of the Togwotee Pass highway (which involves both forests) be designated as a backcountry ski area/quiet use area – and be closed to snowmobiles. This is something we have been working to vigorously oppose over the past two years and an issue that will remain one of our primary focuses as both planning processes proceed. This is a world-class snowmobiling area that we won’t give up.
If you appreciate the opportunity to snowmobile in Wyoming, I urge you to support WSSA and local clubs. And if you’re not concerned about the future of snowmobiling access – you need to be. Consider supporting ACCESS WYOMING by making a contribution to help WSSA protect your access. Watch the WSSA Wrangler or visit www.snowmobilewyoming.org to stay in touch with WSSA’s public lands access issues. If you have questions or would like more information on current issues, feel free to contact me at Trailswork@aol.com . Ride smart and be safe. .

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