Tongass National Forest

Helicopter Flightseeing on the Juneau Icefield

Issue

As summer cruise ship tourism grows in Southeast Alaska, helicopter special use permits allowing icefield landing tours on the Tongass National Forest have become an increasing point of controversy. Concerns include helicopter noise over residential areas; noise disturbance to ground-based recreationists; and potential effects on wildlife from helicopter noise. Juneau Ranger District received applications from four helicopter tour operators for landing permits for the period 2000-2004 that would substantially increase landings from the current 19,039 per year. Controversy over flightseeing has been increasing in the region, fueled by what residents report as continuous and cumulative noise.

Background

In 1984, the Juneau Ranger District, Tongass National Forest, authorized TEMSCO Helicopters to conduct landing tours on Mendenhall Glacier on the Juneau Icefield. They had 1,986 passengers with 641 landings. Since then, three additional operators (Era, Coastal, and NorthStar Trekking) have been authorized for landing tours on the icefield, with the general operating season from May through September. Landing tours (and associated activities, i.e., dog sled tours, glacier trekking) occur on the Mendenhall, Herbert, Norris, Taku, Lemon, and Gilkey glaciers. In 1999, there were 16,700 landings and over 85,000 passengers. Annual total passenger receipts fall within the $15-20 million range. Fixed-wing and helicopter flightseeing payroll amounts to $3.4 million annually.

In early 1999, Juneau District began the environmental impact statement process to determine how many landing permits to issue and under what conditions. In addition to traditional scoping efforts, the District used an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process to assess potential short- and long-term solutions.

In January 2000, the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) and the Forest Service joined forces to share costs of a mediation process. In December 2000, the design phase of mediation concluded with the interested parties agreeing that mediation could not succeed with the parties at the table and under the ground rules proposed.

A draft environmental impact statement (EIS) published in July 2001 presented seven alternatives with a number of potential mitigating measures to reduce noise impacts to citizens, wildlife, and recreationists.

The CBJ, acting through the Assembly, provided input on the draft EIS and identified a proposed alternative. This proposal took into account information from the long-range tourism plan under development by Egret Communications.

A Final EIS and Record of Decision (ROD) were published in June 2002. The ROD takes into account the desires the elected government of the City and Borough of Juneau. The decision freezes the number of landings through 2004, to allow the community to develop noise reduction measures before allowing five percent annual increases from 2005 through 2007. The decision received eight appeals. Informal resolution meetings resulted in withdrawal of four appeals. The Ranger’s decision was affirmed in the remaining appeals in September 2002.

Priority use for existing operators was allocated on the conditions of submitting acceptable operating plans and continued acceptable annual performance under the terms of the permits. Unallocated use of 1,243 landings was made available under a Prospectus and Bid process. The three successful proponents for the unallocated use were NorthStar Trekking, TEMSCO Helicopters, and Coastal Helicopters. Era Helicopters’ proposal was received after the due date and its proposal was not considered. Proponents were notified of the allocation decision on December 19, 2002. Four appeals were filed regarding the landing allocations. The Forest Supervisor affirmed two appeals decisions and one appeal was dismissed. The fourth appeal was remanded to the District Ranger. A new decision for the Prospectus and Bid allocation was issued based on the remand. That decision received one appeal. The Forest Supervisor and Regional Forester affirmed the Ranger’s allocation decision.

Current Situation

Noise reduction is an issue the community continues to address. Solutions are neither simple, nor fast. We are working with community leadership in resolving helicopter issue. The CBJ collected baseline flightseeing noise data, identified remote heliport sites, explored tax incentives for acquisition of “quiet technology,” and developed a long-term tourism plan.

Helicopter tour operators implemented voluntary compliance measures to mitigate noise impacts to residents in affected areas.

The Forest Service is a cooperating agency involved in a multi-agency effort to study alternative means of reducing helicopter noise with funding from Section 330 of the FY 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Act. The act directed the Forest Service to issue a contract for $350,000 with the City of Juneau to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to mitigate the impacts of helicopter flights on the community.

A Memorandum of Understanding between the City & Borough of Juneau, the Forest Service, and Western Federal Lands Highway Department (WFLHD) is nearing completion. WFLHD is contributing almost $1 million to this effort. WFLHD has taken the lead on the project.

At this point, a definite proposed action has not yet been identified and it is uncertain whether the environmental analysis will take the form of an environmental assessment (EA) or an EIS. As the appropriations act was specific to the preparation of an EIS, the $350,000 contributed by the Forest Service will not be tapped until a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS is published in the Federal Register.

More Information

Pete Griffin, Juneau District Ranger, 907-790-7443.

Current as of May 2004

USDA Forest Service - Tongass National Forest Accessibility Statement
Last Modified: November 25, 2007