Overflights scare goats

To the editor,

It was with great relief that almost exactly five years ago I wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers expressing my pleasure that Glacier National Park's general management plan had finally resolved to prohibit commercial sightseeing flights over the park.

This was a response to overwhelming public support (more than 90 percent of all comments) for terminating these noisy intrusions. On two nice days in July of that summer, I counted the numbers of helicopters over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass and found they averaged every 23 and 33 minutes on those days, i.e., there was little, if any, quiet time between the booming, hammering flyovers. This intensity was similar to what rangers and hikers had estimated during their own disturbing experiences the same summer at Lake McDonald and in Many Glacier.

Five years later and nothing has changed. This summer, I again counted helicopters at Logan Pass on June 16, 18, 21 and 27—the overflights averaged every 11, 59, 26 and 40 minutes, respectively.

I also directly witnessed how helicopters can terrify wildlife. On June 21, I had been watching an unmoving white object on a rock wall for several minutes, thinking it might be a mountain goat. At exactly 2 p.m., a helicopter flew over the Divide, east to west, sending the white spot suddenly clamoring all over the rock face in a haphazard fashion.

The spot turned out to be a nanny and a kid, and they subsequently moved down the wall to lower elevation. It is known that the number one cause of mountain goat mortality is climbing accidents, significantly shortening their average lifespan in the wild. Thus, it is quite reasonable to surmise that helicopter overflights increase goat mortality in the park. A friend who took one of these recreational flights was appalled when he watched bighorn sheep and mountain goats scattering as the helicopter passed over.

Why have the Bush administration and the Federal Aviation Administration failed to act on this five-year-old Glacier resolution? Have Glacier National Park administrators aggressively pursued this part of their general management plan? The public deserves an explanation why five years has passed without action. Glacier National Park deserves much better.

Don Kiehn

East Glacier