[Tom]

Seems as if wawild is also advocating for a NEPA process carried out by the USFS as soon as practicable to permanently prohibit helicopter landings not just at Copper Lake and other USFS lands in the South Fork Stillaguamish and Sultan Watersheds but throughout the entire Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest.  I'm not familiar with how the NEPA process works, but interesting how how they jump to the foregone conclusion of the end result, seems as if NEPA is more a means to an end. While we're at it, how about a NEPA analysis on every single FS road to a trailhead so we can just gate roads as far back as possible? I bet that would have more impact on protecting the watersheds than banning a few helicopter landings.

[altasnob]

I believe their argument is that the USFS issued the commercial heli permit without going through the NEPA process (contending that allowing helis to land at Copper Lake is significant enough federal action that NEPA is required). The current roads in the USFS have already gone through the NEPA process.

[Anne Elk]

[Slugman]

No camels in my watershed please. Nose end or the other end. TIA.

[Ski]

This thread, to which I've previously paid no attention, was brought to my attention by another member. I didn't go through and read all the posts, but I did get far enough to find:

[Ski]

... and don't forget for a minute that I'm the guy who's always in favor of most any sort of tourism as long as it puts MONEY in local cash registers. This one - not so much.

[kiliki]

[altasnob]

Scenic flights around Rainier are becoming common. I noticed a scenery flight from Gobblers Knob a few weeks ago making repeated passes. They were flying down the West side of the park boundary, so presumably don't have to bother with any NPS permitting. A few low flying planes a day don't bother me but it's easy see this getting out of hand down the road when the population here is nearly double.

[Schroder]

Some people here need to understand NRCA's established by the DNR. They are protected wilderness areas. The area around Copper Lake from Morning Star Peak to Mt Pilchuck is the Morning Star NRCA. "Natural Resource Conservation Areas (NRCAs) protect outstanding examples of native ecosystems, habitat for endangered, threatened and sensitive plants and animals, and scenic landscapes. More than 125,873 acres are conserved in 39 Washington state NRCAs." The 1992 management plan for all NRCA's is here Particularly note Section C - Low Impact Public Use and Section K - excluded uses (these are almost identical to Federal Wilderness Areas) There was an extensive public review of the Morning Star NRCA trail system just a few years ago. Kim Brown was on the committee.

[Kim Brown]

[Tom]

[Tom]

[Ski]

[Tom]

Well, I did google the upstream impact. 60 gallons of gasoline could pollute up to 60 million gallons of water, which is ~0.001 of the 50 billion gallon reservoir after dilution. Sculpin pointed out I was far to generous to assume this would be the downstream impact since a good portion would be absorbed along the way or simply burn off before actually reaching reservoir. He didn't seem to think the downstream reservoir impact would even be measurable. You seem to be more educated on the matter so curious what is being glossed over? I didn't find any relevant studies online.

[Tom]

Heard back from the DNR and they said the crash area (lake bottom) and shoreline where camping was planned/occurred is DNR land. They didn't state the landing area was DNR land, maybe that was implied, waiting to hear back. I also asked about the "Ranger District Boundary" shown along the shoreline in the FS closure order map, and whether that is some sort of FS easement or something else. My guess is the helicopters used to land/camp to the SW on FS land, but over time assumed it was all good and started landing/camping on DNR land as it was probably safer and easier. The DNR also replied "there is no designated public use in the NRCA in the vicinity of Copper Lake". Not sure what that means. Does that imply hikers couldn't camp there either? Edit: here is their reply: