CANYON DE CHELLY NATIONAL MONUMENT, Ariz. – Industrial air excursions will quickly be prohibited over Canyon de Chelly Nationwide Monument in northeastern Arizona underneath a plan accepted this week by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Nationwide Park Service.
The park service stated in a press release that the plan was was signed Thursday and can take impact in 180 days, barring any authorized challenges. It should ban the excursions over the park and inside a half mile (800 meters) outdoors its boundary.
“Prohibiting industrial air excursions protects these lands’ cultural and religious significance to the Navajo Nation,” stated park Superintendent Lyn Carranza. “Canyon de Chelly Nationwide Monument’s Air Tour Administration Plan honors the distinctive nation-to-nation relationship relating to selections affecting the park and helps to protect one of the crucial necessary archeological landscapes within the southwest.”
What’s Canyon de Chelly Nationwide Monument?
The park lies inside the 4 Corners area contained in the Navajo Nation and is among the many most visited nationwide monuments in the USA. It is recognized for its hovering sandstone cliffs and 800-foot (244-meter) excessive Spider Rock spire. Prehistoric rock artwork is discovered all through the realm, which has been dwelling to Native People for millennia.
What is the historical past of air excursions at U.S. nationwide parks and monuments?
The sightseeing flights reportedly date again to the Nineteen Thirties, when crews constructing the Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border requested helicopter pilots engaged on the venture to present flyovers to their households.
The excursions providing a singular overhead view of spectacular landscapes have lengthy been common at Grand Canyon Nationwide Park in Arizona. Among the nation’s busiest spots for tour operators have included Hawaii Volcanoes Nationwide Park, which is dwelling to one of many world’s most lively volcanoes, and Haleakala Nationwide Park.
What are some objections to to the excursions?
Supporters of the excursions say they provide an thrilling expertise to vacationers and permit older individuals and people with disabilities to see and benefit from the parks. Critics say the flights are an unnecessarily harmful strategy to view among the most beautiful public lands in the USA.
Guidelines designating routes and minimal altitudes have been set in 1986 after two tour plane collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 25 individuals. Nonetheless, there are presently quite a few choices for helicopter excursions to the Grand Canyon, departing from locations together with Las Vegas and Sedona, Arizona.
Critics additionally complain that the thrill of helicopters drowns out the sounds of nature, disrupting the experiences of tourists on the bottom and tribal members who name the land across the parks dwelling.
What laws exist to handle the excursions?
The park service works with the FAA to implement the National Park Air Tour Management Act of 2000, which requires tour operators who wish to conduct such industrial air excursions to get FAA approval. The regulation additionally requires the FAA, along with the park service, to ascertain administration plans for air excursions for these parks and close by tribal lands the place purposes are made.
What different parks have air tour laws?
Canyon de Chelly is the final of roughly two dozen nationwide park models the place the group Public Staff for Environmental Duty had fought for flyover restrictions. Different nationwide parks the place such industrial flyovers basically are or might be banned in coming years embrace Badlands Nationwide Park and Mount Rushmore Nationwide Memorial in South Dakota, Glacier Nationwide Park in Montana, and Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. Solely two air excursions per yr are allowed at Dying Valley Nationwide Park alongside the California-Nevada border.
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