The action finally came as a result of a court order. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an environmentalist group of former and current public employees, sued the FAA in 2017 for effectively ignoring the Air Tour Management Plan of 2000 for almost 20 years. PEER won the suit, and the court set a deadline for Aug. 24, 2022, for the FAA and the NPS to release management plans for the 23 parks.
As a result of this pressure, the NPS and FAA recently released a draft air tour management plan for Bryce Canyon National Park, among others, that limits the amount of flights per year, as well as where the helicopters can fly, and at what time they can be airborne.
