The National Park Service and the regulation of the air tour industry at Grand Canyon National Park

Recently, the National Park Service has attempted to address the impact that flightseeing tours over the Grand Canyon are having on other users of the park. The clash between user groups at Grand Canyon National Park epitomizes the resource allocation issues facing the Department of Interior: federal agencies with fundamentally different cultures fight to ensure that their own doctrine is reflected in new regulations, while different users of the federal lands strive to make their distinct visions of land management prevail. In this essay, I examine the tension between the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Park Service in devising the newest regulations of flights of the Grand Canyon and the competing visions of the park between preservationists and the air tour industry. I also asses the merits of potential legal challenges by the two user groups. This essay concludes with a prediction that the tradition of deference to federal agencies will dominate the outcome of lawsuits that assert impropriety on the part of the National Park Service. Finally, I argue that the National Park Service has nor acted as strongly as it could both within the limits of its authority, and within the parameters set by political and public pressure.