Quiet Skies for Glacier National Park

Extremely noisy scenic overflights once disrupted the peace and tranquility of Glacier National Park, serving only a small fraction of visitors while creating incessant noise and visual pollution for everyone else, including wildlife. Now, thanks to the ATMP, these impacts are strictly limited.

The backstory – NPS and Glacier National Park, gateway residents, and visitors from around the world have long raised concerns about noise pollution in the park — among the most common complaints for more than 20 years. Those concerns were backed by science and recognized in Glacier’s General Management Plan, which emphasized the park’s wilderness character, natural soundscape, and its unique designation as part of the world’s first International Peace Park.

After decades of advocacy (Thank you!), coalition efforts, and legal action, the values of peace, solitude, and natural quiet in Glacier National Park are now protected, preserved, and supported by a park-specific Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP). This plan was mandated in the year 2000 by Congress through the National Parks Air Tour Management Act — and it is finally in place.

The ATMP addresses these concerns with concrete measures: consolidating flight routes, limiting the number of tours per year, setting altitude minimums, restricting flights during sensitive times for wildlife, prohibiting hovering or circling, and most importantly — requiring the complete phase-out of all commercial air tours over Glacier National Park by December 31, 2029.

This is a major victory for Glacier’s natural quiet, its wildlife, and the millions who visit each year seeking peace in nature.

However, our work is not over. Multiple operators continue to violate the ATMP by flying illegal routes, exceeding altitude limits, or operating without authorization. Continued public vigilance and reporting will be essential to ensure these hard-won protections remain effective.

If you see violations while visiting Glacier, please report them to the park or Helena FSDO (https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/field_offices/fsdo/hln) 2725 Skyway Drive Helena, Montana 59602-1213 Phone: (406) 441-5240 Fax: (406) 449-5275, Office Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m, email: 7-ANM-HLN-FSDO@faa.gov.

If you are in another park and wish to report a violation you can find the nearest FAA Flight Standards District Office on this map. (https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/2022-01/FSDO-Map_NovDec2013.pdf)

The original petition started here...Glacier National Park needs our Help!

     Extremely noisy scenic over-flights destroy the peace and tranquility of Glacier National Park, Montana. These commercial tours serve a very few, and create incessant noise pollution that all other visitors and wildlife must endure. Noise pollution from over-flights must stop.

     Please sign this petition to help Glacier restore the pristine natural soundscape visitors come to experience and on which wildlife depends.  Natural sounds are as much a part of the natural splendor as the visual beauty and wildness.

     Glacier National Park administration and staff, local residents, and visitors from across the country and around the world have long been concerned about noise pollution in Glacier. It is among the most common complaints lodged by travelers. The issue was thoroughly studied and documented in Glacier’s General Management Plan more than 20 years ago.  Glacier's Management plan states: "In the Congressional designation of Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada as the world's first International Peace Park, Glacier's peacefulness and tranquility were cited among the characteristics that lent the designation of "peace" to the area. Glacier's values for solitude and tranquility are also recognized in its wilderness recommendation to Congress in 1974. Glacier's enabling legislation states the park is to be "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" and should be regulated to provide "for the presentation of the Park in a state of nature"... These air tours conflict with the Park's responsibilities to preserve park natural sounds resources."  The plan also states "the Federal Aviation Administration would be requested to prohibit all com­mercial scenic air tours over Glacier National Park. The Going-to-the-Sun Road would continue to provide access to interior portions of the park for all visitors..."

(Learn more here, by visiting the Quiet! Glacier website.)

     Overflight noise knows no boundary and cannot be contained. It takes only one aircraft to shatter the natural soundscape people travel thousands of miles to experience. Tour helicopters over the peaks of Glacier disrupt the Park experience for the majority of visitors.  We cannot have peace without a place for peace and quiet.  One of those places is Glacier National Park.
     Please join this effort to restore quiet to Glacier for the benefit of present and future generations and its magnificent wildlife.