Motorized use atop Beartooth Pass raises environmental concerns as forest travel plan stalls

Aug 27, 2023

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The slow-motion video shows a snowmobiler jumping his machine across the plowed two lanes of the Beartooth Highway, taking off and landing on the snow piled several feet high on either side. A spectator raises his arms in celebration. Another rider is filmed wearing shorts as he powers his machine across the shallow spring snow.

Snowmobile and snowbike use like this has grown steadily over the past decade atop the 11,000-foot high pass along the Montana-Wyoming border, prompting some hikers and skiers to protest.

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Wolves are hunted in the three states surrounding Yellowstone. In 2021 the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission increased the wolf-hunting quota in two hunting districts near Yellowstone's northern border.