But greater and greater demands are being inflicted on the few areas left unsullied by human impact. As a result, the great debate over public land rages on. Snowmobiles are an especially controversial issue, evidenced by responses in ENN's features forum to a recent story on the topic. As a follow-up to those responses, ENN invited representatives on both sides of the issue to address questions and statements raised in the forum. ENN does not endorse the views of either contributor.
Snowmobiles scare wildlife, create air pollution and are noisy.
They have no place on public lands. Too many snowmobiles and the whole wilderness concept has been destroyed. Even the 'official' air quality report released by the park service last fall was eventually retracted because it was proven to be erroneous and incomplete. There may, indeed, be impacts. Air and water quality experts working with the snowmobile industry continue to seek answers but, at this writing, no hard evidence of resource damage exists.