Helicopter flights bring noise to the Kennicott Valley for Erie Mine bunkhouse work

Visitors and residents in the Kennicott Valley should expect periods of increased helicopter activity and noise between McCarthy and the Erie Mine area this month, while National Park Service crews clear fallen rock from around the Erie Mine Bunkhouse. The flights carry personnel, equipment and materials. The park's September 14 news release calls the operation mid-September, says flight dates depend on weather, and gives no end date. Crews will cache some materials at the site for possible stabilization work next season.

The bunkhouse sits high above the Root Glacier. The Erie Mine Trail from Kennecott lets hikers see it from roughly 3,000 feet below but does not reach the mine itself. The old Root Glacier access route off that trail is closed: the park shut it this summer over unstable ground and landslide hazards, and said on Aug. 3 that a reroute 1.8 miles up the trail had restored glacier access. The original route remains closed. The park asks visitors to stay clear of active work areas and avoid entering abandoned mine openings or closed historic structures.

The Interior Department awarded Ridgeline Aviation of Cordova about $40,500 for on-call helicopter service supporting the bunkhouse stabilization. The contract's performance period is the window in which the park may call for a helicopter, not a flight schedule. It runs from Aug. 28 through Feb. 28, 2027.

The Kennecott Mines area was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and the Park Service has carried out preservation work there since 1998.

In an earlier parkwide backcountry and wilderness stewardship scoping process, the stage where a park asks the public what a plan should cover, commenters identified Park Service helicopter use generally as a primary threat to natural soundscapes and said it should be limited. Those comments did not address the Erie Mine project.