Residents Oppose Plan to Offer Seaplane Tours of Yellowstone

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Residents outside Yellowstone National Park are opposing plans to start seaplane tours of the park and surrounding area this summer.

Yellowstone Seaplanes has applied for a permit to operate from Montana's Hebgen Lake just outside Yellowstone's western boundary.

Gallatin County planner Megan Gibson says her department has received about 140 letters in opposition.

Lynda Caine, the owner of the fly fishing lodge Firehole Ranch, is one of the lake's residents who is against the plan. She says people who are fishing don't want to be buzzed by a sea plane.

Yellowstone Seaplanes' website advertises half-hour to two-hour tours to begin this summer. It would operate from an existing marina.

Gallatin County commissioners will take up the application Thursday in West Yellowstone.