Nearly 70 environmental groups yesterday petitioned the National Park Service to ban all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, and snowmobiles in 23 parks where off-road vehicles (ORVs) are now allowed. The groups also asked for tougher enforcement in some 40 parks where bans are already in place. In a separate effort, the Wilderness Society and 90 other groups are pushing the U.S. Forest Service to ban ORVs in 64 million acres of roadless areas in national forests. The greenies say the ORVs crush plants, harm wildlife, pollute the air, and generally disrupt the calm of nature. The feds, however, indicated that they were unlikely to change present policies.
