Gardiner Skirmish (2007)

In 2007, Yellowstone officials teamed up with local citizens to defeat a proposed 115-foot cell tower near
 
 Yellowstone’s Historic North Entrance Gate.
the Gardiner (North) entrance to the park.  PEER was hopeful that Yellowstone’s public campaign against this cell tower represented a new level of concern about these structures and perhaps even the removal of one or more of the questionable towers that had been approved inside the park.
 
Sadly, though, the Park’s Wireless Plan of 2008 would reject any notion of further restricting cellular coverage in the park.  Indeed, it called for two additional free-standing cell towers in the Park:  one in the Lake/Fishing Bridge area (where there had never been any cellular coverage), and one for the top of majestic Mt. Washburn, where cellular antennas have been (since 1996) attached to the mountain’s historic fire tower.   
 
Thus, the Park’s campaign against the cell tower in Gardiner, Montana was an aberration and not a harbinger. Here’s how it unfolded:
 
September 28, 2007:  Alltel Corporation places a “notice” in the Livingston Enterprise alerting the public that it plans to build a 115-foot cell tower in Gardiner, Montana, just outside Yellowstone’s North Entrance.  Alltel seeks public comments on the proposal’s “potential effects” on historic properties.

October 16, 2007:  Yellowstone Superintendent Lewis writes to Alltel Corporation, expressing concern about how the proposed tower “might impact views from within and adjacent to the historic district” that includes the Roosevelt Arch and the North Entrance Road.  She states that the park “would like to discuss with you and your staff potential options and alternatives that might avoid or lessen the impacts” of the proposal. 
 
October 17, 2007:  Yellowstone Superintendent Lewis sends an e-mail to “Yellowstone Employees,” attaching a copy of her letter to Alltel.  She tells Park employees that her letter to them is intended to “help direct your responses to their most effective destination,” keeping in mind that “if you are submitting comments, other than those submitted to the Park Management, you are submitting them as a resident or area citizen.  The park will be submitting formal comments on behalf of the National Park Service.”
 
October 23, 2007:  PEER issues a press release, “Yellowstone Scrambling to Stop Cell Tower at Park Gateway,” which praises the Park’s effort to fight the Gardiner cell tower but notes the irony given Yellowstone’s own history of approving inappropriate cell towers within park boundaries. 
 
April 11, 2008:  The Billings Gazette reports in a news article (“Alltel agrees to move cell tower”) that “the company will put its cell tower on a water tank north of town.”