Bandelier Monument Helicopter Ban Upheld for Cultural Protection

The Federal Aviation Administration lawfully banned helicopter tours over the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico to protect native tribes’ cultural resources, a federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday.

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit denied a petition to review the agency’s Air Tour Management Plan brought by a local helicopter operator. The National Parks Air Tour Management Act instructs the FAA to consider noise impacts and tribal connections to sacred landscapes as “significant adverse impacts,” and the agency properly responded to concerns raised by over two dozen Native American tribes that tours “violate their privacy during the ...