PRESS RELEASE

OLD FAITHFUL CELL TOWER MAKEOVER IS A BUST

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Washington, DC — Within days, the 100-foot cell phone tower overlooking
Old Faithful Historic District will be shortened by 20 feet in an attempt to
reduce “negative visual impacts and comments from the public,” according
to Park Service documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER).

Under the Freedom of Information Act, Yellowstone National Park released a
computerized simulation to PEER that shows how the new tower will look compared
to the present one—see photo(s) above.

Under the original plan, the Old Faithful cell tower was supposed to be “at
a height of not more than ten feet above the existing tree tops” and “would
be camouflaged to appear in texture and color” as the surrounding vegetation.
The resulting tower, however, is a stark, silvery pole studded with antennas,
unshielded by trees and lacking any attempt at camouflage.

In order to quell protests by historic preservation organizations, conservationists
and citizens, Yellowstone National Park ordered the tower owner, Western Wireless,
to shorten the tower by 20 feet and dull its color in an “acid wash”
by June 15. Since the hillside where the tower sits is now denuded, any tower
will remain conspicuous for another fifty years while the seedlings grow into
mature trees.

“The National Park Service is again proving itself incapable of protecting
one of the most treasured views on the planet,” stated PEER Executive
Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization has been campaigning for the removal
of the Old Faithful tower and for the adoption of a national plan to govern
placement of cell towers in parks. “The minds that brought us this latest
abomination would probably also approve a tower on Thomas Jefferson’s
forehead at Mount Rushmore or atop the Washington Monument.”

This latest decision to modify the tower has been made without public involvement,
just as the original tower permit was issued without required public notice.

“In addition to the undeniable scenic impact, the National Park Service
is willing to allow universal cell phone coverage in even the remotest backcountry,
so that soon there will be no place that Americans can go in this country and
truly be out of touch with the modern world,” Ruch added. “These
cell towers are a commercial intrusion on public lands but the responsible public
officials appear to be lost in space.”

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Read
the memo to the record on the Old Faithful tower by Yellowstone Superintendent
Lewis

View
Park Service emails about the details of the tower makeover

Find
out more about the Old Faithful tower and the proliferation of cell towers throughout
the national park system

Phone: 202-265-7337

962 Wayne Avenue, Suite 610
Silver Spring, MD 20910-4453

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Environmental Responsibility

PEER is a 501(c)(3) organization
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