What should National Park System units know about the PWC regulation?
In March 2000 National Park Service (NPS) issued a service-wide final regulation prohibiting personal watercraft (PWC) use in all units of the NPS unless NPS adopts unit-specific authorizations. 36 C.F.R. 3.24(a) (2000). According to the regulation, NPS must evaluate PWC use in each unit based on an analysis of the units enabling statute, resources, values, other visitor uses, and overall management objectives. Based on this analysis, each unit wishing to continue with PWC use must either create its own PWC special regulations or specify PWC use in its superintendents compendium. However, as a result of litigation (Bluewater Network v. Stanton) the NPS agreed to only authorize PWC use by adopting special regulations. NPS will revise the service-wide regulation to delete the provisions allowing authorization through the superintendents compendium. Q: Why did Bluewater Network challenge the PWC final regulation in court and what was the outcome of litigation? A: Bluewater Network filed a
