Legislation to open up paddling opportunities in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks has been reintroduced by a Wyoming congresswoman, but it contains too many flaws the National Parks Conservation Association believes.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, on Friday has been revised a bit from a measure she introduced last year. It would give the Park Service three years to study the potential streams that could be opened to paddle sports such as packrafting, kayaking, and canoeing and assess what impacts could be created; prevent commercial paddling operations beyond what currently are in place, and; somewhat restrict where paddlers could go in Grand Teton.

“This bill would remove an outdated federal ban on paddling that was instituted because of overfishing but today imposes a barrier to the responsible enjoyment of these waterways by the public,” Rep. Lummis said in a release.  “I took great care to preserve the discretion of park managers to actually manage paddling as they do any other recreational activity in the parks, and to ensure park managers have the time and resources necessary to go through the proper studies and analysis.  The end result will be yet another way for the public to have truly unforgettable experiences enjoying the Wyoming treasures that are Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park.”

But NPCA officials did not share the congresswoman's view of her legislation, saying it "could have far-reaching negative impacts on two of our country’s most iconic national parks. At this time, NPCA believes that the bill fails to address longstanding concerns raised by conservationists, visitors, the National Park Service, and other key stakeholders."

"As currently written, the bill would eliminate critically important rules that have protected these two iconic national parks for decades," said Sharon Mader, the park advocacy group's Grand Teton program manager. "The area of untouched rivers and streams that park managers would be forced to study is approximately three and a half times the length of the entire Mississippi River.”

The three-year window for study, said Ms. Mader, simply isn't long enough in light of the thousands of stream miles. 

“In its current form, the Yellowstone and Grand Teton Paddling Act calls for consideration of hand-propelled vessel use within nearly all waterways in Yellowstone, and impacts a significant number of streams and rivers in Grand Teton National Park, within the next three years," she said in a prepared statement. "Such heavy-handed efforts may prove costly and counterproductive to the protection of park resources and enjoyment for all visitors. Current estimates of a study of this size is in the millions, similar to studies on snowmobiling."

All told, there are an estimated 7,000 or so stream miles in Yellowstone. Not all of those creeks and rivers would be deep enough, or wide enough, to be navigable. Yet the legislation would require the park to survey all those stream miles, not only to determine whether they're navigable, but to identify any resource issues, such as sensitive fisheries, critical habitat for other species, such as grizzlies that rely on trout, or thermal features.

Last year a similar measure passed the U.S. House, but died in a Senate committee.