New restrictions on air tours at Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Badlands National Park will stay in effect while a lawsuit against them proceeds, a federal court has ruled.
Noise and other complaints about air tours over National Park Service sites led Congress to adopt the National Parks Air Tour Management Act in 2000. The law requires tour operators to seek permission for flights, and mandates the formulation of air tour management plans or similar agreements to regulate tours and mitigate their negative impacts.
Bureaucratic difficulties and delays stalled compliance. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued in 2018 to force the adoption of air tour management plans. The group won an order that was upheld by an appeals court in 2020, which led to a wave of plan adoptions at National Park Service sites across the country.