Question

Grand Teton National Park has become a popular U.S. destination for heli-skiing, with commercial helicopter operators landing to deliver and retrieve skiers and snowboarders in locations otherwise inaccessible or accessible only with great physical difficulty. Other users of the park's back country have begun to complain to the National Park Service (NPS), that the noise of the helicopters has become almost continual in some areas, where it is destroying the tranquility of the back country experience and driving the wildlife away. Analyze whether the NPS, acting on its own authority, can legally ban helicopters from landing and taking off at locations within the park? Identify the applicable governmental power and explain your legal reasoning clearly in proper legal terminology. Analyze whether the NPS, acting on its own authority, can legally ban helicopters from flying low over the park? Identify the applicable law and its source and explain your legal reasoning clearly in proper legal terminology. If you determined that the NPS could not, acting on its own authority, accomplish either of both of the foregoing, then identify the law and procedures the NPS and any other government agency involved would be required to follow in order to legally accomplish the task(s), explaining your reasoning clearly in proper legal terminology.

Answer 1

Answer 1:

When the services to promote tourism were planned, as per Air Tour Management Act, it was National Park Service (NPS) to decide how flights will impact park resources. However, in this case, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the agency that permits the helipads location as well as standards. As National Parks might require search and rescue at times of unwanted situations it is important that helicopters should be able to take off and land in remote areas.

Therefore, NPS, acting on its own authority, cannot legally ban helicopters from landing and taking off at locations within the park.

Answer 2:

As per Section 802, of Air Tour Management Act, FAA holds sole authority to control airspace over the United States and the authority to preserve, protect, and enhance the environment. And it will take care to in order to minimize, mitigate, and prevent the adverse effects of aircraft over-flights on public and tribal lands.

Therefore, the NPS, acting on its own authority, cannot legally ban helicopters from flying low over the park.

Answer 3:

As per Title 49, U.S. Code § 40128 – Over-flights of national parks, Part C of 2 i.e. Number of operations authorized; NPS has the authority to legally ban helicopters from landing and taking off at locations within the park.

Similar example is that of Rocky Mountain National Park that had completely banned scenic flights by applying eleventh-hour addition to the National Parks Air Tour Management Act.