FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 25, 2025
Contact:
Paula Dinerstein | (301) 580-4020 | [email protected]
Jeff Ruch | (510) 213-7028 | [email protected]
Court Declines to Limit SF Bay Area Park Overflights
2,700 Flights Across Golden Gate, Pt. Reyes, SF Maritime & Muir Woods
Washington, DC — The number of tourist overflights across San Francisco parks will remain unchanged and will not be subject to environmental evaluation, according to a decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of groups led by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The decision leaves in place voluntary agreements between the National Park Service (NPS) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and air tour operators to allow up to 2,700 flights annually over four Bay Area parks.
That agreement governs the number, timing, and routes for helicopters and fixed wing tours over: Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument, and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. It was entered into late last year after the same Court threw out an earlier plan which authorized fewer overflights but had been entered into without compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires the two agencies to conduct evaluations of impacts on wildlife and the visitor experience as well as the consideration of alternatives.
In reaction to that 2025 Court ruling, the two agencies chose a different path. Rather than undertaking NEPA review, they entered into voluntary agreements with tour operators. PEER and its allies then challenged that agreement as an illegal evasion of the court’s order and NEPA, but, in a cryptic order issued without explanation, the Court dismissed the challenge, in essence leaving the agreements, which went into effect this past March, undisturbed.
“This unfortunate ruling means that the impacts of noisy disruptive air traffic over sensitive park areas will not be assessed, let alone mitigated,” stated PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein, noting that a voluntary agreement as an alternative to a formal air tour management plan is authorized under the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000. “The question before the Court was whether its previous order to comply with NEPA in fashioning the air tour management plan for these parks could be met by switching to voluntary agreements that do not require NEPA compliance.”
The management plan the Court invalidated was based on the three-year average of such flights (around 2,400 flights per year). The agreement allows a slightly higher total than the current invalidated plan, upping allowable flights over the four parks to more than 2.700 per year.
“It is ironic that the even greater environmental impact of hundreds of additional flights would trigger even less environmental scrutiny,” added Dinerstein, who represented the petitioners in the case. “This is a case where the court’s ruling and common sense do not match.”
This ruling culminates a multi-year campaign by PEER to enforce the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000 which requires the NPS and FAA to jointly adopt air tour management plans for all parks with more than 50 tourist overflights a year (with the exception of Grand Canyon which has its own statute). For two decades, the two agencies failed to adopt a single management plan until a PEER-led suit resulted in a court-supervised schedule to adopt plans for more than 20 national parks. In the ensuing months, the two agencies decided to end further overflights across Mount Rushmore National Monument and Badlands National Park and to soon end them over Glacier National Park, while greatly reducing air tours across Hawaii Volcanoes and Haleakalā, among other parks.
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View the voluntary agreement governing regional overflights
Revisit 2025 court ruling striking down previous plan
Look at the PEER legal campaign to enforce the National Park Air Tour Management Act of 2000
See latest status report on national park air tour management across the U,S.
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment. We are a service organization for environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. We work with current and former federal, state, local and tribal employees.