Ban on Snowmobiles

Snowmobiles should be banned from Yellowstone National Park. The use of recreational snowmobiles contributes to a steady degradation of America’s first National Park. The relationship between the environment and snowmobiles is not based on symbiotic criteria. Air pollution, stress to wildlife, and trail damage are a Ã¥few examples of the contributors of snowmobiles in Yellowstone Nation Park.

Snowmobiles are environmentally unsound vehicles. According to a National Park Service report, snowmobiles use a highly inefficient two-stroke engine, which produce one hundred times more carbon monoxide and five hundred times more hydrocarbon than automobiles. The noxious exhaust from idling snowmobiles poses a health threat to the National Park Service employees of Yellowstone. Employees at Yellowstone’s west entrance, the winter gateway into the park, exhibit symptoms of dizziness, nausea, and headaches. Although ranger stations are equipped with fresh air circulation systems, the noxious exhaust is over bearing. In an attempt to combat these symptoms, personal respirators are issued to all west entrance employees.

An average of 67 thousand snowmobiles enter Yellowstone each winter. Upon the season’s end, and average of sixty thousand gallons of unburned fuel is left in the snow. The spring thaw carries the melted snow and fuel mixture of the Park’s natural springs and streams. This fuel does not enhance the quality of the Yellowstone’s freshwater ecosystems. Unfortunately, snowmobile related pollution does not end with what one can see with the eye. Noise pollution is another factor.

The drone of snowmobiles is upsetting to Yellowstone’s rangers as well as the Park’s wildlife populations. Earplugs are distributed to the rangers, in order to combat the whine of snowmobiles. Unfortunately for the park’s wildlife, the distribution of earplugs is reserved for the human poplulation. Wildlife migrations are effected by the noise emitted by snowmobiles. This has an impact on breeding, grazing, and forging patterns.

Snowmobiles have no business in Yellowstong’s National Park. National parks are supposed to promote and protect an overall harmony with the natural environment. The use of these recreational vehicles in one of America’s greatest treasures defies every aspect of harmony.