National Park Service Prohibits Unsafe, Environmentally Damaging Jet Skis from Most Parks

On November 6, the National Park Service will officially prohibit jet ski use from virtually all units of the National Park system with the exception of Lake Mead National Recreation Area on the Nevada/Arizona border. This represents a major victory for our National Parks, however the Park Service has already, or will continue to issue environmental assessments and proposed rules that would reintroduce jet ski use. The Park Service can only reopen parks to jet skis if it can demonstrate that these dangerous and polluting machines do not cause environmental damage and public safety hazards.

The Bush Administration, in an effort to get jet skis back into the parks, took some short cuts to produce quick and dirty assessments that were poor to say the least. At six parks-Assateague (Maryland), Fire Island (New York), Glen Canyon, (Utah/Arizona), Lake Mead (Nevada/Arizona), Big Thicket (Texas), Pictured Rocks (Michigan), studies clearly fell short of the mark and are missing important information to adequately determine the negative impacts of jet skis in National Parks. It was discovered after careful review, that many studies lack site-specific information as well as, analyses of the safety issues for other park visitors.

On November 6, the Park Service will be closing seven parks to jet ski use. This means that almost every Park Service unit in the United States will be officially closed to jet ski use until the Service studies the impacts of jet skis in those units and completes individual regulations:

• Amistad National Recreation Area, Del Rio, Texas;
• Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Lowell, Wyoming;
• Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Sulphur, Oklahoma;
• Curecanti National Recreation Area, Gunnison, Colorado;
• Glen Canyon (Lake Powell) Recreation Area, Page, Arizona;
• Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Fritch, Texas; and
• Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area in Washington.

At Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, the Park Service has until January 1, 2003 to complete its final regulation.