Should snowmobiling be allowed in national parks? The government has decided that, with new restrictions, snowmobiling can continue at national parks. Environmentalists say it's harmful.

• Position: Opinion - Column

YES The winter in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks is raw and powerful. Steam rises up in great clouds from hot springs bubbling to the surface in the subzero cold. Herds of elk and bison wade through the heavy snow. Here you can see the world as it has been for thousands of years.

Our challenge is to make this experience available to people now, while ensuring that it remains so long into the future. As part of an agreement signed a year and a half ago to settle a lawsuit, the National Park Service has re-examined the issue of whether snowmobiles should be entirely banned from these two parks. A major factor in this review has been the substantial improvements made in snowmobile technology. New machines now in production are quieter and 90 percent less polluting.

In light of this new technology, the park service has developed a balanced plan that would allow limited snowmobile use, and still preserve the natural resources of our national parks. Snowmobiling provides a unique way to experience the parks, and the money these people spend is an important contribution to local economies.

The plan would ban older, dirtier snowmobiles, and would set, for the first time, strict limits on their numbers. During hob days, when the number of snowmobiles is highest, the number of machines entering the parks would be cut from 1,650 a day to 1,100. And these will be vastly cleaner machines. Also, all snowmobilers allowed in the parks must have a trained guide and stick to groomed roads, so that wildlife would be protected.

To be sure this plan works, monitoring stations would be established around the parks to keep careful records on air quality, water quality, noise, and wildlife. These data would tell park managers if the resources were being harmed and allow them to adjust the number of snowmobiles accordingly.

The National Park Service is dedicated to preserving our parks and to helping Americans understand and enjoy these magnificent places. Banning the old snowmobiles, and allowing limited numbers of cleaner, quieter machines does both.

--RICK FROST Communications Director, Intermountain Region National Park Service

NO Snowmobiles should not be allowed in our national parks, because they are too loud and produce air pollution dangerous to people and to the parks. Besides, snowmobilers have plenty of...