[Eric Hansen]

I have some experience in this from other parks. In the late 1990's tour helicopters showed up at Glacier NP (MT). Ugly as could be. You'd be way off in the backcountry and ten minutes of the hour the basin sounded like a subway-- and they would hover and watch you climb. Off the record conversations with NPS personnel I knew clarified that top NPS management thought the helicopters were a good thing. Despite the fact they were de facto harassment of the wildlife.

Researching, I noticed a campaign at Rocky Mountain National Park (led by the League of Women Voters) that passed a bill through Congress making RMNP the only park in the country with a complete ban on commercial air tours overhead. In addition, FAA created a flight path to Denver International that minimized airplane noise over the park.

I'd suggest finding the League of Women Voters folks that got that done, and seeing what tactics worked in Colorado. Obviously they had a broad, powerful campaign to get a bill through Congress. Yes, RMNP is a local icon, poster child for the Denver area metro. But I suspect there is a similar fan club for ONP, MRNP, in the Puget Sound area.

Glacier NP? I wasn't a local and I didn't see a path forward on stopping the helicopters. I moved on, doing trips in the Beartooths and Wind Rivers. And eventually the North Cascades.

[Ski]

Kim - I get that part of it.
So commenting about anything "not within the scope of this project" is pointless.
Are the commercial tour flights causing that big a problem at present at MRNP or ONP?

[Kim Brown]

Given not a lot of people seem to know they have been allowed  in MRNP for years, apparently not; at least not there.

But if the two businesses that are contracted to run trips ever do run to full capacity, it would be cool to have limitations already in place.

[Kim Brown]

Good information.

[williswall]

Back in the day we used to do Rainier tours flying out of Seatac...climbing to 16,500' (to be 2000' above) then arcing around the southern part of the mountain. For passengers looking out the left side, the view was filled with glaciers and crevasses...pretty spectacular. This worked well for SEA-DEN flights.

[kiliki]

The plan has been finalized. If I'm reading it correctly, one company can do one tour per day on a defined route, staying above 3000', between 10 am and 3 pm unless they use a quieter plane (then they get extended hours). I am no fan of air tours but that seems reasonable to me. Though I'm not clear as to whether more companies could apply and there could be more flights.

https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?documentID=122176

[Anne Elk]

FWIW, National Parks ought to be areas where quiet reigns (outside of, I suppose, the tour buses & cars to the in-park concessions & THs).  They ought to be free from helicopters, tour planes, etc. ie, mandated no-fly zones. Supposedly at one time even jets out of Sea-Tac used to deliberately not fly over ONP.  I'm sure those days are gone. You want to see MRNP from the air? Book a trip to California on AAL.

I'm in a real get-off-my-lawn mood today.