Cheney’s Cody friends outrank Yellowstone wildlife

The east entrance to Yellowstone National Park, from Cody, Wyo., will be kept open year-round to benefit snowmobilers, no doubt largely ridden by Cody-area friends, acquaintances or suck-ups of Dick Cheney.

The National Park Service was all set to close the entrance in winter, a policy which has been under consideration for a decade. Avalanche risk was the primary concern. But, since reintroduced wolves congregate heavily in the northeastern part of the park, closure of the entrance from Cody made sense for other reasons, too.

Guess what? Somebody – a conveniently unnamed somebody in the weakest part of the story – from NPS headquarters in DC said last November that the White House needed to vet sections of the proposed change.

Voila! Soon, Cheney’s buddies got their winter snowmobile access. Beyond needlessly disturbing wildlife, it will cost millions of dinero a year for the already strapped NPS to keep the area avalanche-safe.

But, the White House, with the usual straight-faced lie, says this was all an internal NPS action:

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the consultation between the Park Service and the White House "is standard practice." He added, "We don't comment on those internal deliberations. The Park Service rendered their decision after taking into account all pertinent factors.”

Yet other problems? The noise factor from shooting off howitzers to deliberately trigger avalanches. The occasional unexploded round left inside Yellowstone. The fact that this could set a precedent for deliberately-launched avalanches (instead of more railroad-paid snowsheds) to keep rail lines open in Glacier NP.

Read the whole story for the gory details.