CODY - For the past 56 years, business and community leaders here have celebrated National Parks Day each spring, welcoming top officials from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks to mix, mingle and help kick off the summer tourist season.

As Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis attends a reception and dinner tonight and speaks Monday at a luncheon sponsored by the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, the fate of winter travel over Sylvan Pass remains an unresolved issue of concern to many.

But players in discussions between representatives from Cody, Park County, Wyoming and the National Park Service say they are optimistic a compromise can be reached that will keep the pass open to snowmobiles and snowcoaches.

"We're working on finding a way to keep the pass open in a way that goes beyond full forecasting and provides some certainty, while also improving operations and conditions up there for the people that have to do the work," said Tim French.

As a Park County commissioner, French has been part of a Sylvan Pass working group that has had several face-to-face, closed-door meetings since December. The group is expected to talk by phone Monday and work in person on a final agreement during a scheduled June 3 meeting.

The meetings, in which a professional mediator has helped the group explore options for safe and affordable avalanche mitigation along the 8,530-foot pass, were mandated by a winter-use record of decision signed by Mike Snyder, Park Service regional director in Denver.

Earlier drafts of Yellowstone's winter plan had called for the closure of Sylvan Pass to snowmobiles and snowcoaches, a proposal that drew more than 500 opponents to a March 2007 public forum in Cody and 3,000 letters of protest from area residents.

In proposing and defending the closure, park managers cited tight operating budgets and low winter visitor counts over the pass, along with the risky work of avalanche mitigation, as highlighted in a 2001 report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Locals said money shouldn't be an issue in maintaining access to a national park, and pointed to the severe setback a closure would pose to a growing movement to revitalize winter recreation in the area. Besides, they argued, the pass had been managed safely for decades.

Possible rift

The differing views threatened to create a lasting rift between the two sides.

But the mediation sessions appear to have given players a deeper understanding of one another's views, and may result in a solution that could go a long way toward healing some of the hard feelings stirred up over the last 18 months.

"I think the group has proceeded very professionally and made substantial progress," said Carl Moore, the mediator leading discussions.

Moore said Monday's conference call will be to discuss a draft agreement that will spell out "how to keep the pass open to some form of motorized, over-snow travel."

Though June 1 had been outlined earlier as a target date for reaching an agreement, group members are happy to try and finalize a deal June 3, he said.

"We're going to be very close to that date, and everyone is OK with that. The reason for June 1 was so there would be enough time for that decision to influence the next record of decision, and we'll be well within that," he said.

"The meetings have been very constructive, and one of the creations on the part of the group is a communications plan on how to communicate the agreement and future issues around this matter," he said.

"I think the talks have been extremely helpful, and have opened channels of communication between the National Park Service, the community, county and the state," said Rick Frost, a spokesman for the Park Service's regional office in Denver.

"I think it's been really good for all of us to get to know each other, and that will pay dividends in the future," he said.

Lewis did not respond to a message left seeking comment. Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman, referred questions to Frost, who has attended the mediation sessions with Lewis.

Behind closed doors

Though some technical discussions about avalanche control have been open to the public, negotiations have been closed, and group members have avoided publicly disclosing details of the talks.

Frost defended the process, saying privacy was key in helping negotiations progress.

"I'm not a fan of closed meetings, because the general public is kind of in the dark about what's going on," French said.

But opening talks "could bog the process down," he said, adding that "sometimes, to expedite negotiations, closed-door meetings help."

"In these talks, the only way to come up with consensus is for everyone to listen to each other. We've been listening to them, and they have been listening to us," French said.

The issues of risk and cost are legitimate and significant, although people may have different viewpoints on them, he said.

"Wyoming perceives risk differently than the Park Service, and it's two different things for us down here to talk about what's going on up on the pass.

"And I'm not the one digging a snow pit under a 2,000-foot avalanche chute, so I understand why they want to assess that risk for themselves," he said.

"And there's a cost no matter what you do. Just doing full forecasting costs money," French said, adding that Park Service funding is "up to the whim of Congress."

Full forecasting

The practice of full forecasting, under which crews closely analyze weather and snow conditions to determine the likelihood of avalanches, would determine which days Sylvan Pass is open, should parties fail to reach an agreement next month.

If no compromise is struck, avalanche mitigation on the pass will cease permanently, and motorized travel will be allowed only when weather conditions and forecasting indicate a minimal chance of avalanches.

"It would take no snow and a blue-ribbon day to open the pass under full forecasting. If that's what it ends up being, it's basically closed," French said.

"But we're working very hard to come up with an alternative plan that would provide a degree of certainty beyond full forecasting," he said.

Ideally, such a plan would give residents and visitors a good understanding of when they are likely to be able to travel over the pass, French said. But he declined to disclose specifics of what form that plan might take, citing pending negotiations.

"We've discussed absolutely everything you can imagine," he said, including building a tunnel, adding a bunker on the south side of the road, installing a line-and-pulley system to carry explosives up the hill and even moving the road.

French said many of those solutions were cost-prohibitive, while others would require a new round of environmental reviews.

"We've also looked at whether we should try to keep it open every day through the use of a chopper, the howitzer or both. We've looked at a structured setup where it might be open one day a week, or six out of seven days a week, and everything in between," he said.

French said no final decision has been made, but added that he was "very optimistic" the group could reach a mutually acceptable solution on June 3.

* Last we knew: Talks regarding the fate of winter access via Yellowstone National Park's east entrance have failed to produce an agreement so far.

* The latest: People involved in the talks say they're optimistic an accord will be reached.

* What's next: The group is expected to talk by phone Monday and work in person on a final agreement during a scheduled June 3 meeting.]]->