Photo: Zach Snavely

The Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming is a cornerstone of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and a world-class forest for wildlife habitat and backcountry recreation. Unfortunately, the forest’s new draft travel plan generally fails to minimize impacts to wildlife and, with one exception for a historic cross-country ski area on Togwotee Pass, actually proposes to exacerbate rather than reduce conflicts between motorized and non-motorized recreation.

If you only comment on one thing, we hope it’s this: The Forest should NOT extend the open snowmobile season to June 15. As fun as it is to ride sleds on the Beartooth Pass, there’s a whole season of opportunity to do so BEFORE the pass opens to cars and skiers and sight-seers, and before the grizzlies start coming out of their dens with their spring cubs. Let’s keep the pass and the headwall pleasant for non-motorized recreation (and wildlife) from April 30-June 15. Sleds and hybrid skiers get it for the rest of the winter!

Prefer to dig in and make a longer comment? Click here to dive deeper into our winter travel planning issues on the Shoshone. Or if you’re really ambitious: Read the latest (Oct 2021) Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) here. Either way, click the button below to COMMENT NOW (we’ve got some other high-level bullet points for you to reference right on the form):