Otherwise, we would have to worry that park service officials are blind and deaf.

It is obvious that hundreds of noisy machines disrupt a fragile wilderness, so there must be some other explanation for why park service officials would seem to be oblivious to their mission to protect the wild places and animals under their stewardship.

Indeed, there is.

A ruling in August by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne and recent congressional action paved the way this coming winter for a maximum of 720 snowmobiles led by commercial guides in Yellowstone each day.

A total of 140 snowmobiles, with no guiding requirement, will be allowed daily in Grand Teton National Park and on the parkway connecting the parks.

Environmental groups have rightly filed a lawsuit over the proposal, saying the government failed to take into account the effect that roads groomed for snow machines have on wildlife, particularly bison. The suit doesn't mention the very real impact on other visitors who would like to see the park and its animals without the din of the machines.

As Bob Vrooman, a Montana man who has been visiting Yellowstone Park for 30 years told a Tribune reporter last winter, "I like to be able to hear the geysers bubbling, the geese taking off and the elk calves calling to their mothers. We stopped coming for a while because we couldn't breathe from all the fumes. It wasn't a wilderness experience at all."

The issue has been bandied back and forth by judges and bureaucrats for years. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., last December set aside the park service winter use plan for Yellowstone, allowing limited snowmobile use, in favor of returning to a Clinton administration rule calling for an eventual total phase-out of the machines. Brimmer overturned that ruling, saying a judge in Washington had no business telling Wyoming residents what they can and cannot do.

However, what Brimmer overlooks is that the parks are not owned by Wyoming residents, they are owned by all Americans, including those who want to enjoy their solitude.

Fortunately, the current proposal terminates after three years when the issue will be reconsidered with more data. However, three more years are likely to solidify snowmobilers' feelings of entitlement. That could make revising the plan difficult.

If the environmentalists' suit does not prevail, the damage could be irreversible.