Wyden presses parks nominee on Crater Lake helicopter tours

Oregon's senior senator takes a stand for the quiet beauty of Crater Lake.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden this morning pressed the president's choice to lead the National Park Service over a Bend company's proposal to fly helicopter tours over Crater Lake.

"Suffice it to say, Oregonians are just up in arms about the prospect," Wyden, a Democrat, told Jonathan B. Jarvis during the nominee's appearance before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Leading Edge Aviation wants to fly 300 half-hour tours a year over Oregon's only national park, charging passengers $149 a trip. Helicopter tours are commonplace at some parks like Grand Canyon, but opponents of the proposal say the noise from the commercial flights would be an unacceptable intrusion over Crater Lake.

Both the park service and the Federal Aviation Administration would have to approve the plan, a process that could take years.

"I can't predict the final outcome on this, but I do believe it would be our responsibility to ensure that the visitor experience and ultimate quiet that you find at Crater Lake is preserved," Jarvis told Wyden.

That wasn't enough for Oregon's senior senator,

"What else can you offer me this morning besides a recitation of the current law?" he said.

At this Jarvis, who once worked as a biologist at Crater Lake, waxed poetic about the park's quiet being punctured only by the sound of wind in the pines and the chirping of Clark's Nutcrackers. (Never mind the traffic on Rim Drive.)

Jarvis said he pledged to preserve the park's quiet and other special qualities.

"We just want you to be a guardian of Oregon's fragile beauty," Wyden said. "Can I put you down as a guardian?"

"I am a guardian," Jarvis said.

-- Matthew Preusch, mattpreusch@news.oregonian.com, Twitter: mpreusch