On the 135th anniversary of the founding of Yellowstone National Park, a Democratic representative from New Jersey grilled National Park Service Director Mary Bomar Thursday about the ongoing controversy regarding snowmobiling in the park.

President Ulysses S. Grant, on March 1, 1872, signed into law a bill making an area mostly in the northwest corner of Wyoming Territory into the nation's first national park.

Bomar testified and answered questions posed by the House Natural Resources Committee's national parks subcommittee during an oversight hearing on the fiscal year 2008 budget request for the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., complained to Bomar that the Park Service is now in the midst of its fourth Yellowstone winter-use plan, all of which have come to the same conclusion: that the environmentally preferred option is to phase out the use of snowmobiles in favor of snowcoaches.

"You keep on doing the same studies, and the results all come out the same," said Holt, noting that the Park Service has spent $10 million on the scientific research underpinning the winter-use plans.

Bomar acknowledged the high degree of controversy, since the phase-out of snowmobiles was first required in the closing days of the Clinton administration in 2001. Three Park Service studies have concluded that replacing snowmobile use in Yellowstone with the more environmentally friendly snowcoach access would best preserve "the unique historic, cultural, and natural resources associated with the parks" (Yellowstone and Grand Teton) and yield "the least impacts to air quality, water quality and natural soundscapes."

However, following conflicting federal court rulings on the snowmobile issue, the Bush administration ordered a fourth study - which will be available for public comment beginning this month.

Bomar said it would be inappropriate to comment on the new study, as it is still in draft form and the public comment period hasn't yet begun.

Park officials have said that their preference is to allow up to 720 snowmobiles per day in Yellowstone and 140 per day in Grand Teton and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway; require best available technology to limit noise and air pollution; and requires commercial guides within Yellowstone itself.

Holt asked Bomar whether she agreed with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's statement that whenever conservation conflicted with public use of a national park, conservation would prevail.

"Do you agree with that position?" he asked.

"Absolutely," Bomar replied.

Holt acknowledged a point made by Rep. Stevan Pearce, R-N.M., that national parks are "to be enjoyed by the public."

While that's true, the public can't do everything and anything it enjoys in national parks, Holt said.

"You can't go hang-gliding from Teddy Roosevelt's nose," Holt countered, referring to Mount Rushmore National Park.

Holt introduced the Yellowstone Protection Act in 2003, which would have enacted the Park Service's original phase-out of snowmobiles from Yellowstone. He also introduced an amendment to an appropriations bill to accomplish the same goal, which failed by a tie vote of 210-210. The same amendment failed again in 2004.

Holt often clashed with Republicans in earlier Congresses, including Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., who has vigorously defended snowmobiling in Yellowstone.

In a June 17, 2004, debate on the House floor, Cubin said, "According to the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, a ban on snowmobiles in the parks could cost Wyoming 938 jobs and $11.8 million in lost labor income a year. That might not mean much to my friend from New Jersey, but it means a lot to us. To put it in perspective, these net job losses in Wyoming would be equivalent to 67,743 lost jobs in California; 37,952 lost jobs in New York; and 12,698 lost jobs in Massachusetts. That really does make a difference."

In a follow-up telephone interview Thursday afternoon, Holt said he has no current plans to introduce similar bills in this Congress.

"I like to think that the (Yellowstone) superintendent and the (Park Service) director will do the right thing," Holt said. "Legislation would be appropriate only if the Park Service continues to flout their own science."