According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, snowmobiles are highly polluting vehicles that expel 25 to 30 percent of their oil and gasoline directly into the environment. The noise they make destroys natural quiet and disrupts wildlife that visitors come to parks to experience. They are inappropriate for recreational use in wilderness. The established tradition is of a quiet non-motorized wilderness. There is also a proposal for a 10-mile road through sensitive wildlife habitat in Denali that would lead to a new resort that would be built there.
Experience shows that once such roads or rail lines are constructed, development quickly follows.
Another threat to the park comes from a coal-fired power plant located just nine miles away. The Wilderness Society fears that Bush administration environmental rollbacks that would allow dirty utility plants to operate might result in the approval of a request by the manager of The Healy Clean Coal plant to save money by retrofitting the plant with old, highly polluting technology. It refers to the towering peak of Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America that rises nearly four vertical miles to 20,320 feet. Denali's vast open spaces and wildlife roaming free have made it the most heavily visited national park in Alaska. Denali is home to some of North America's most splendid large mammals including grizzlies, black bears, wolves, Dall sheep, moose, and caribou.