What is the economic impact of snowmobiling for communities near Yellowstone?
Many local economies rely in part on revenues from park visitors in the winter. Some have voiced concern that eliminating over-snow travel and snowmobiles in particular or closing an entrance to the park during the winter could have a detrimental effect on local economies. The magnitude of these economic impacts is hotly debated. For example a 1993-5 study concluded that expenditures by nonresident snowmobilers spent $109 million annually in Wyoming. The University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research estimated that non-resident snowmobilers spent over $44 million dollars in Montana during the 1997-98 season. On the other hand, a 2000 economic study funded by the National Park Service concluded that economic impacts to the town of West Yellowstone from a phaseout of snowmobiling would be in the range of $5 million per year, believed by some to have inconsequential effects on the economy as a whole.
