Wyden decries Crater Lake helicopter tour plan

Senator plans to press Park Service nominee to step up to the plate to protect Oregon's only National Park.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on Monday criticized a request by a Bend company to offer helicopter tours of Crater Lake.

In a meeting with Jonathan Jarvis, the nominee to head the National Park Service, which manages Crater Lake, Wyden said he would do everything in his power to prevent helicopters from circling the park in Southern Oregon.

“Allowing helicopter tours of Crater Lake is just plain bad policy. It would forever change the character of this beloved natural treasure, putting the priority on commercial activity over the protection of pristine beauty,” Wyden said in a release. “Further, the vibrations from these flights would almost certainly have impacts on wildlife in the park, and wildlife in truly natural conditions are a natural resource that are part and parcel of the very best our national parks have to offer.”

Leading Edge Aviation of Ben announced it would like to offer helicopter tours over the nation's deepest lake. The company applied for permission to fly over the lake 300 times per year, with the number of daily flights dependent upon demand.

Under the company's plan, helicopters would pick up passengers at an airport outside the park and then fly over Rim Drive, maintaining a flying elevation of 1,500 feet. Company officials earlier told the Associated Press that at that height, the sound on the ground would be quieter than a car driving by.

Helicopter tours have proven controversial in other national parks, including the Grand Canyon, Wyden said. Some visitors there report the prescience of helicopters ruin their enjoyment of the park, he said.

“Oregonians chose Crater Lake to put on the Oregon quarter for all the nation to see because we have done such a phenomenal job to this point of protecting the wonder of its natural experience. We cannot allow our state identity to be so thoroughly diminished for so little potential gain,” Wyden said.

Wyden, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on public lands and forests, said he plans to question Jarvis on the subject at his confirmation hearing Tuesday.

“I want to make sure he understands the importance of Crater Lake to Oregonians,” Wyden said. “If he's to be confirmed as director, I want to know he's going to be a guardian of Oregon's fragile beauty.”

The Federal Aviation Administration, which would have to approve any plans to fly over the lake in consultation with the National Park Service, said it could take several years to consider the proposal.

Park officials have said they would want to ensure flights would not disturb Northern spotted owls and peregrine falcons nesting near the lake.

Tour boats that offer rides around Crater Lake are already regulated for noise.

You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@nrtoday.com.