(upbeat music and stream burbling)
- [Cheri] National parks like Rocky
are just inherently quiet places
especially compared to the urban environments
that a lot of our visitors come from.
So to experience natural sounds like,
birds, the chirping of pikas
(chirping sound)
even just listening to the water run
is really important to the visitor experience
when they're trying to escape
those other environments and come to our park.
(stream burbles)
- [Emma] What our group does
is help parks understand better
the status of their acoustic environment.
What sounds are present?
Who or what is making those sounds?
How often are those sounds present?
And what kind of management actions
can be taken to improve the conditions?
So our group came to Rocky because they were interested
in knowing more about their acoustic environment
specifically with respect to commercial air traffic
over the park and how that might affect
the visitor experience and the wildlife habitat
within the park.
- [Cheri] Rocky is the only park in the country
that has a ban on commercial air tours
which means that private companies can not fly
over the park in helicopters and low elevation planes.
We were able to get that designation
through the local community and specifically
the League of Women Voters
who helped to get that legislation in place for us.
And so it means that we have quiet skies
and we can help maintain those quiet skies
but it doesn't mean that all commercial flights
are banned from our park.
High elevation flights,
the planes that are bringing our visitors
into Denver International Airport do fly over our park.
- [Emma] We set up scientific instruments
that basically listen
to the acoustic environment for a duration of time
whether that be a month or three months.
And what that allows us to do later
is to count how many events happened
and to determine the source of the sound from those events.
And this site was special because
we had conducted similar measurements
in several years previously.
So we have essentially a longterm dataset
to look back at how aircraft traffic
over the site has changed over time
and with different management techniques for aircraft.
This acoustic information that we've gathered
on the ground can then be correlated
with information we have about the location
and descent patterns of commercial jet aircraft.
That allows us to understand
which aircraft behavior produces
more desirable conditions on the ground.
And that helps the park make management decisions
and cooperate with other agencies to improve conditions
for park visitors and for the wildlife.
- [Cheri] Back in 2012, we worked with the FAA
to help merge the planes over Trail Ridge Road
that they fly a line over Trail Ridge Road
rather than flying all over the wilderness
on either side North and South of Trail Ridge Road.
With the most recent change that happened,
they're also flying at higher elevations over our park
and they're using an optimized profile descent
which allows them to essentially coast over the park.
When the planes are flying on the procedure
and they're using Trail Ridge Road as the corridor to fly,
that really protects the rest of the park
and the rest of the wilderness in the park.
We are grateful to the FAA for their commitment
to make changes to their procedures
that should benefit the park.
And we continue to work with them
and others to find ways to reduce noise
over Rocky Mountain National Park.