Amendment Will Help Block Flights Over Crater Lake

The helicopter industry breathed a sigh of relief when New York Senator Chuck Schumer failed to get arbitrary restrictions on helicopter flights over New York amended to the FAA Reauthorization Act. A lesser-noticed amendment, however, grants the National Park Service more direct control over restricting helicopter tours near Crater Lake in Oregon.

The lake is a volcano which exploded in ancient times, leaving a large crater which filled with water. The national Park Service website says Crater Lake "has inspired people for hundreds of years. No place else on earth combines a deep, pure lake, so blue in color; sheer surrounding cliffs, almost two thousand feet high; two picturesque islands; and a violent volcanic past. It is a place of immeasurable beauty, and an outstanding outdoor laboratory and classroom."

But three years after Leading Edge Aviation of Bend, OR applied to the FAA for permission to conduct aerial tours over the landmark, the company says it is still being "stonewalled." Leading Edge VP Travis Warthens tells the Associated Press, "I think it would be great if we could do it. I think it would create jobs and bring more visitors to the park and have very little, if any, impact on anyone in the park."

Environmentalists disagree. Park Superintendent Craig Ackerman says, "There are a lot of other impacts that are not as immediately apparent to people that could be just as significant or more significant." He says past studies have demonstrated that sounds of elk snorting, owls hooting, insects buzzing and aircraft flying far overhead are readily audible, and that a tree frog stopped making its mating call when planes flew overhead.

Once President Obama signs the FAA Reauthorization Act, expected before the current temporary authorization expires on February 17, an amendment sponsored by Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley will enable the National Park Service to deny air tours over Crater Lake National Park without having to first prepare an air tour management plan, which Wyden calls "a bureaucratic hurdle that wastes park resources and is not required at any other national park in the country."

FMI: http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=83fdec5e-5dc9-44b1-a581-fff5a217d302