National Parks Need Relief From Noise
The pollution of our national parks by the ugly intrusion of tour helicopters destroys the tranquility of the parks and seriously compromises the National Park Service’s mandate to nurture and protect wilderness areas for the public’s enjoyment. The problem is compounded by the tour industry’s preposterous insistence that it is practicing “eco-tourism,” i.e., “leaving no footprint.”
Conveniently neglected in this public relations ploy is the shattering impact of the “sound footprint” on people and wildlife below.
Such is the magnitude of the problem that federal legislation has been proposed to regulate the tour helicopter industry beyond the degree to which the (tax-supported) Federal Aviation Administration is willing to go.
U.S. Representative Patsy Mink, of Hawai’i’s second congressional district, has introduced H.R. 1696 to control the helicopter tour industry in Haleakala and Hawai’i Volcanoes National Parks. If you have had your visit to the parks marred by the roar of tour helicopters, please support Mink’s bill by letting Mink know of your experience. Write her a letter that she can use as testimonial evidence when her bill comes up for subcommittee hearings, tentatively scheduled for September.
You can submit your testimony – soon, please – to Patsy Mink, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.
David J. Leese
Citizens Against Noise
Ha’iku, Maui
Volume 4, Number 2 August 1993