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10/31 deadline for comments on Yellowstone plan

Please urge Yellowstone to adopt Alternative B in its Environmental Assessment: Reduction in Wireless Services. Comments are due by midnight October 31 and can be e-mailed through this portal.

November 21, 2009

Subject:

The National Park Service is proposing to significantly increase cell phone coverage, wi-fi access and wireless webcams throughout Yellowstone.  This will mean more large, ugly cell towers marring park vistas, more “spill-over” coverage in park wilderness and backcountry and a forfeiture of serenity and the ability to be in a place totally unplugged from the modern world. Visitors come to national parks in search of serenity and unspoiled vistas, but the proliferation of cell phone towers throughout our park system means that it is increasingly difficult to escape the electronic tendrils of society and commune with nature while someone is jabbering on a cell phone or receiving a text message next to you.

What are the proposed impacts? At least one new cell tower in the Yellowstone Lake area, a massive new tower array that will dwarf the fire lookout atop Mount Washburn (the highest point in the park) and expanded coverage in Canyon and Tower-Roosevelt as well as wireless internet access in all lodges, stores and “administrative facilities”. Thereafter, additional new towers could be approved without limit by an internal park committee lacking any representatives of the public. Wireless web cameras would be allowed in all “developed areas of the park” and could be placed in the backcountry for unspecified “resource monitoring or... safety concerns.”

If you are as concerned as I am about the proliferation of technology in our vast, unspoiled spaces, I urge you to take action today. Please urge Yellowstone to adopt Alternative B in its Environmental Assessment: Reduction in Wireless Services. You will find the link to send comments via e-mail below my signature. Act now and forward this message to those who share your concerns.

Sincerely,

Jeff Ruch
Executive Director

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You can see the plan to wire Yellowstone here. Please urge Yellowstone to adopt Alternative B in its Environmental Assessment: Reduction in Wireless Services. Comments are due by midnight October 31 and can be e-mailed through this portal. You can mail them to: Yellowstone Center for Resources , Wireless Communication Plan EA, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY82190