But last month, the National Park Service announced a ban on all snowmobile traffic in nearly all of the lands where they are used in the NPS system, citing ecological damage. An estimated 2 million snowmobiles alone use public lands in North America. The snowmobile ban is only one of a series of actions by the federal land management agencies to cut back on off-road vehicle use in national parks. The NPS restricted the use of jet skis on NPS-managed waterways in March, and is expected to soon limit automobile traffic to reduce air pollution at the nation's busiest parks, such as Yellowstone National Park.
Snowmobiles are noisy, antiquated machines that are no longer welcome in our national parks.
Environmentalists have petitioned Park Service policymakers to tighten the restrictions, saying off-road vehicles are noisy, polluting, and leave lasting damage to the environment. Walder notes that when snowmobiles cross snow-covered fields, their weight can crush the delicately preserved tree seedlings and other plants under snow cover. In addition, because a traditional snowmobile engine burns only two-thirds of its fuel, spitting out the rest as exhaust, soil, air and water can be polluted. In total, the damage to the environment may be worse than that from cars. According to the Wilderness Society, the 2,000 snowmobiles that are used in Yellowstone on a peak day produce more emissions than 1 million automobiles.