Sat, Feb 11, 2012
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."
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