The U.S. National Park Service on Thursday issued its final management policies on how park superintendents should regulate off-road motorized activities in parks, such as snowmobiling, dune buggying and use of personal watercraft.

After a year of pressure from Congress, NPS managers and retired park professionals as well as the public, the Park Service reversed its earlier course in a draft plan leaked in 2005 and committed itself instead to a preservation-oriented revision.

Conservationist watchdog organizations were pleased with the reversal but wary of how the policies would be actually put into effect.

"From Yellowstone to the Everglades, park managers will have guidelines that promote a healthy future for all parks," said Kristen Brengel of the Wilderness Society. "We commend the administration for finalizing this preservation-oriented version, but the true test will be their implementation, especially when it comes to wilderness designation and protection and snowmobile, Jet Ski and off-road vehicle use."

Over the past year, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, the Wilderness Society and other organizations have advocated against the attempt by conservative appointees in the Department of the Interior to rewrite the rules by which parks are managed.

The National Park Service is part of the Interior Department.

"Despite last-minute lobbying by the off-road vehicle industry, the final version issued today confirms the (Park Service's) over-arching, predominant mission of long-term preservation, and reinstates protections for park air quality, wilderness, natural quiet and other resources," said the National Parks and Conservation Association in a statement.

The NPCA is the premier watchdog organization over the health of the nations' national parks.

The new policies restore conservation as the primary mission of the Park Service, restore the natural soundscape as a protected resource and offer guidance for park superintendents in determining whether cell towers should be permitted in parks and how they have to be sited.

Bill Wade, chairman of the Coalition of NPS Retirees, said, "This is a significant victory for Americans who care deeply about their national parks and want them preserved for their children and grandchildren and not, as some have been advocating, turned into drivers for the economic gain of a few and opened up for rampant motorized recreational uses.

"We commend the National Park Service career professionals for standing up to the pressure and defeating the earlier drafts foisted on the NPS by political operatives in the Department of the Interior," he said.

More than 50,000 public comments were submitted when the draft revision was posted in the federal register, one of the greatest outpourings of public concern about a park issue in the 90-year history of the NPS.

Recently appointed Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho publicly endorsed the NPS revised draft of the policy rewrite shortly after his appointment.

"Secretary Kempthorne, the dedicated staff of the NPS, Congress and the American public deserve enormous praise for this significant victory for America's national treasures and (for future) generations of visitors," said NPCA President Tom Kiernan.