The National Park Service has begun developing Backcountry Management Plans for Denali, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier Bay and Wrangell St. Elias National Parks. Together, these great places encompass 21 million acres of designated Wilderness and another 9 million acres of potential wilderness.

Among the most important plans is the one pending for Denali National Park. It will tell us much about how this administration will respond to its legal obligations under both the National Park Service Organic Act and the Wilderness Act of 1964, and will tell us, as well, whether it will listen to the voice of the American public.

In the current climate, Alaska conservationists are fearful that the National Park Service will authorize snowmobile use in areas of Denali National Park that have been found suitable for wilderness designation.

The agency is likely to claim that snowmobile use will not impair wilderness values in candidate areas and will not impede future wilderness designation. Common sense and a long history of wilderness politics in the Lower 48 make both claims absurd.