Once upon a time, stringing wire in Grand Teton National Park might have meant running barbed wire. But these days it's all about fiber optic cable and wireless telecommunications equipment. Park staff have worked out a plan for greatly expanding the reach of Wi-Fi in the park and are seeking public comment on that proposal.
The purpose of the assessment is to consider a right-of-way permit request for updating and expanding telecommunication capabilities in developed areas of Grand Teton National Park, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, and connecting to Yellowstone National Park’s south entrance.
Not too many years ago Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility greatly derided the park's efforts to extend its communications network, calling it "the largest cellular expansion in national park history."
The environmental assessment open for comment through April 10 looks at the impacts of potential locations, design, and future needs of telecommunication facilities.
Fiber optic and wireless telecommunication services addressed in the environmental assessment include Internet, voice over internet protocol, and cellular phones.
The proposal would improve cellular and broadband services to meet mission-critical park operations, safety and emergency services, and visitor information needs and expectations in developed areas.
Park management, concessioners, and partners are increasingly relying on modern communications technology for daily operations; however, existing telecommunications services are limited or nonexistent, inadequate and outdated, park staff in announcing the public comment period.
In justifying the plan, park officials said Grand Teton’s lack of suitable telecommunications infrastructure in developed areas affects visitors and park residents as well. Visitor expectations for connectivity include park-developed educational websites, interactive mobile applications and other online tools that inform and connect them to park and local resources, they said. Employees and families living in the park do not have reliable telecommunication services that are expected and necessary for work and personal email, school responsibilities, banking and other routine needs.
Under the plan, a fiber optic cable network would be installed to connect telecommunications infrastructure and provide reliable high-speed internet access in developed areas. The cable would be installed underground in conduit adjacent to existing roads or other existing disturbed areas and would have the capacity for future expansion.
The proposal also includes installation of wireless telecommunications facilities and associated infrastructure at nine developed areas in the park that currently support critical operations and/or see a high volume of park visitors, as well as a connection to the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The proposed locations are Flagg Ranch, Colter Bay, Jackson Lake Lodge, Signal Mountain, North Jenny Lake, South Jenny Lake, Beaver Creek, Moose, and Kelly.
The telecommunications facilities would be constructed in a manner compatible with the character of the surrounding structures, or otherwise made unobtrusive with best available technologies, screening with vegetation or existing topography and/or other means, park staff said.
The intent of this plan is to provide these services in the developed areas of the park, although some spillover of wireless signals may extend into backcountry/wilderness areas, they added. The plan is not intended to provide coverage to all road sections within the park.
The park is hosting two public open houses to discuss the plan. Park staff will be at the Kelly School in Kelly, Wyoming, on Tuesday, March 19, from 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m., and at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming, on Wednesday, March 20, from 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. The public is invited to stop by anytime during those hours.
You can find the draft EA and leave comments at this page.
Comments
This new plan would be a disaster for the park and for visiters from all over the owrld They come for the release of their bodies and minds f rom such interferences. I believe that the experience with spirit that people note during their time at our park is so significant and can be disturbed by the addition on many new towers? Does this plan include the new 5G towers? My comment is NO NO NO!
DAWN COVINGTON, JACKSON RESIDENT
Dawn, turn off your phone.
The Grand Teton National Park is one of the last places in the USA where we can experience relief from the effects of cell phone wireless technology on our bodies, particularly our nervous system.
According to the Environmental Health Trust (https://ehtrust.org), "Published peer reviewed science already indicates that the current wireless technologies of 2G, 3G and 4G - in use today with our cell phones, computers and wearable tech - creates radio frequency exposures which poses a serious health risk to humans, animals and the environment.
"Over 240 scientists and doctors from 41 nations who have published research in the field have appealed to the United Nations calling for urgent action to reduce these ever growing wireless exposures and they wrote the FCC for a moratorium on the roll-out of 5G citing the serious risks that to human health and the environment."
Check out this TED talk to learn more about the impact of cell phone radiation: https://youtu.be/Pm5Oc5s4_8M.
Here is a list of documented studies on the effects cell phone radiation: https://ehtrust.org/publications/environmentalresearchspecialissue_2018/
I agree with Dawn, this is not a good idea. And ECBuck, you might want to shut off your cell phone too.
My usual plea to folks making their comments on NPT, whether you agree with me or not: to make your comments count and not just be venting, you have to also go to the park planning PEPC website linked by Kurt above and make your comment there. NPS folks must read & account for comments at the PEPC site, they don't look for comments here, and comments here don't matter. Then again, PEPC along with IRMA and several other "critical" computer systems are current offline because the NPS Denver Data Center was closed down due to the high winds and unstable power to the building. [I don't know why critical systems aren't mirrored in Reston, Denver, and maybe San Francico like businesses do, but they aren't, and there hasn't been a PEPC comment period on NPS IT decisions. Good thing I skirt the rules about keeping "all" of my files on servers in the data center.] PEPC should be up again by late Thursday or Friday.
you might want to shut off your cell phone too.
I do when I am in the backcountry. And the overwhelming evidence shows that cellular radio waves eminating from towers are harmless.
I have owned cell phones since 2002. My smartphone spends its days in a holder on my dining room wall, except when I need it with me such as when I'm traveling or hiking. It has helped me out of jams on a couple occasions. The proposed plan seems reasonable to me. I suspect 5G won't work well in a place like Grand Teton because of its short range (high frequency) and thus need for many many small towers.
To blanket this park with telecom infrastructure is not merely irresponsilbe but criminal given the science. Our own Dept. of the Interior states cell tower radiation is "killing birds, wildlife and foliage" - that is a direct quote and our own National Toxicology program found 7 different types of cancers with background wirelss radiation exposure including but not limited to brain, heart, live, pancreas, prostate, adrenal and pituitary gland. So there goes your "theory" that wirelss is safe, ecbuck. Also would be nice if you diclosed your funding sources as in do you now or have you ever been funded by the wireless industry? Below are links to back up the damning science. NO to more wireless in national parks and YES to hardline emergency phones and hard line access for employees and any residences.
https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/us_doi_comments.pdf
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/results/areas/cellphones/index.html
I, my husband (both teachers) and my family are life long National Park travelers and have enjoyed long camping/hiking stays in the Tetons more times than I can count. Once summer hits, we pack up our jeep with our camping gear and get into the National Parks, where we spend our summers. Essentially, we are your people. We are very disheartened to hear of your plans to expand wireless tech infrustructure in the park (or National Parks) for many reasons. First and formost, 5G and wirless technogies are making the news daily due to expanded medical and scientific concerns about an impending public health crisis resulting from increased exposures to the Radio Frequency Radiation that these technolgoies create. In the last few weeks alone, Brussles, Switzerland and the EU Parliment have halted expansion of these infrastructures and/or have issued extensive resports calling their safety into serious question. There are hundreds of reports of the clear biogical harm to humans and all life caused by current wireless frequencies (within the FCC guidelines) and any serious inquiry into the matter, exposes this information quickly. This provides us reasons to pause, as more cities and countries are doing each day, rather than expand until fully vetted. The true safety for all bilological life is essential and we expect our National Parks recoginze this and to lead the way by ways of committment towards healthy, sustained futures for all of life by their example.
Also many people look to our natural areas and National Parks for a true experience in the natural world. We understand that people will want safety systems, which can be accomplised more effectively and reliably by fiber/cable. We also realize that many will want access to wifi and cell reception which is accomplished and can be maintained at current levels of insfrustucture in designated places as it is now. Not expanding will also allow for a safer (with regards to RF), truly natural experience for those who value this. An important role the parks play is essentailly teaching the reasons to value the nature that goes beyond man made things. This involves a natural and unpluged experience. If it doesn't, the National Parks become just like any other park and in some ways more of a natural zoo, where we view nature but are far less likely to meaninfully experience it. This will will ultimelay impact the value of preserving nature in our future generations who will have those difficult decisons to make. That value depends on them experiencing nature and falling in love with it enough to continue to preserve it in the meaninful ways we do today.
Lastly- there are many people who have immediate and strong physical effects from exposure to wirelss frequencies (simliar to those allergic to gluten or peanuts) and that number of people is growing each day and expected to continue to grow- due to ever increasing cumlulative exposures. Wireless expansion in the parks will mean that these folks, who could one day soon amount to many more of us, will no longer be able to access the National Parks as they will join urban and other areas as unsafe places for them visit.
There are a lot of comments about the harmlessness of RF. Interestingly enough it is the very scientists and medical professionals that have specialized in the study of RF for decades that are continuely rasing the alarms about the safety of the wirless technologies- something to be both noted and looked further into.
What makes you great are the differences you bring and these differences become more essential each day. Keep this in tact, lead the way, provide the experience, distinguish youselves and preserve your value in the eyes of today and tomorrow.