FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Contact:
Peter Jenkins (202) 265-4189 [email protected]; Jeff Ruch (510) 213-7028 [email protected]
New SF Bay Area Air Tour Plan Weak on Protecting Park Resources
2,700 Overflights Across Golden Gate, Pt. Reyes, SF Maritime, & Muir Woods
Washington, DC — A new Federal proposal to regulate tourist overflights across San Francisco Bay Area national parks is legally deficient and fails to reduce noisy disruptive air traffic, according to comments filed today by environmental groups led by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At issue are the number, timing, and routes of helicopters and fixed wing tours over four Bay Area parks: Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument, and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
The National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000 (NPATMA) requires that the National Park Service (NPS) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) jointly adopt air tour management plans for all parks with more than 50 tourist overflights a year (except for Grand Canyon, which has its own statute). For two decades, the two agencies failed to adopt a single management plan until a 2020 PEER-led suit put the NPS and FAA on a court-supervised schedule to adopt plans.
For the four SF Bay Area parks, rather than conducting detailed assessments of the impacts of tourist overflights on wildlife and the visitor experience, as well as assessing alternatives, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the two agencies simply calculated the three-year average of such flights and adopted that number (around 2,400 flights per year) as their air tour management plan baseline.
This prompted PEER to file a second suit in 2023, charging that the SF plan violated NEPA and NPATMA. This past March, the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit agreed, ordering the two agencies to comply with NEPA and NPATMA in formulating a new plan by February 2026. However, rather than following the court order, the agencies instead have proposed “voluntary agreements” with the tour operators, an alternative to a formal management plan under NPATMA. Notably, the maximum number of flights under the new voluntary proposal is higher than under the current management plan, upping allowable flights over the four parks to more than 2,700 per year.
“While the agencies could have entered into voluntary agreements in prior years, doing so after a specific court order that focused on remedying their past NEPA failures is a legal evasion,” said PEER Senior Counsel Peter Jenkins, who litigated the case, noting that voluntary agreements are not subject to NEPA. “This ‘end around’ maneuver shows the agencies want to continue to ignore public concerns over the cumulative impacts of thousands of overflights, even adding a few hundred more.’’
In addition, the groups’ comments challenge the proposal’s –
- failure to comply with the Endangered Species, Migratory Bird Treaty, and Marine Mamal Protection Acts, as several parks host scores of sensitive species;
- absence of specific protections for nesting periods, mating seasons, and other times when wildlife are more vulnerable to disturbances; and
- weak enforcement approach, for example, relying on the FAA to police the prohibition against “hovering,” a term the proposed agreement does not define.
“The role of the FAA is promoting civilian aviation, not protecting park visitors and wildlife from harassment,” added PEER Senior Counsel Jeff Ruch. “The net effect of this proposal would be decreased protection and increased noise in parks whose very purpose is to offer natural respites in this major urban center.”
Joining PEER in filing public comment are the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Marin Audubon Society, and Watershed Alliance of Marin; the comment encompasses all the plaintiffs in the DC Circuit lawsuit. The comment period ends January 2nd.
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Look at the new voluntary agreement
Revisit court ruling striking down legal compliance for current plan
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.
