Decision : CONF 208 VIII.59-60
Yellowstone National Park (United States of America)
VIII.59 The State Party has updated the comprehensive report it submitted at the time of the twenty-fifth session of the Bureau on this site. The Committee noted the following specific improvements, achieved between June and December 2001:
- The number of predatory lake trout fish removed through intensive gill netting and liberal angling regulations have increased from 28,000 (in the June 2001 report) to more that 43,000 in December 2001;
- Wooden water tanks at Indian Creek Campground were replaced in fall 2001; work in the contract awarded, in 2000, to line sewer lines at Lake and Mammoth Lewis Lake has started. But a backlog of work with regard to replacement or updating of smaller wastewater facilities remains to be attended to;
- The decision to ban the use of snowmobiles in place of multi-passenger snowcoaches, reported at the twenty-fifth session of the Bureau in June 2001, has been challenged by the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association and the Department of Interior has entered into a settlement agreement with the Association. As part of the settlement the National Park Service will prepare a supplemental EIS to analyze the ban on snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the John D. Rockefeller Jr., Memorial Parkway and the alternatives to the ban. The process to prepare the supplemental EIS, invite public comment, carry out new research that may be needed, finalize, publish and begin execution of decisions would have await until the end of 2002. The outcome of the analysis will result either in the continuation of the ban or some form of continued snowmobile use.
VIII.60 The Committee recommended that the State Party, IUCN and the Centre discuss and develop action plans for the two sites including benchmarks and conditions for monitoring progress in the restoration of the integrity of the two sites and for guiding the Committee's decisions concerning the eventual removal of the two sites from the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Committee requested that the outcome of the discussions between State Party, IUCN and the Centre be reported to the twenty-sixth session of the Committee in June 2002. The Committee decide that both Everglades and Yellowstone be retained in the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Decisions Report2001 Yellowstone National Park
