Commercial air tours over New Mexico’s Bandelier National Monument will soon be prohibited

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) — Commercial air tours over New Mexico’s Bandelier National Monument and within a half-mile outside its park boundary will soon be prohibited, officials said Tuesday.

The National Park Service and Federal Aviation Administration finalized an air tour management plan for the 50-square-mile (130-kilometer) monument near Los Alamos.

The plan will go into effect within 180 days.

Park officials said the move was made to protect natural and cultural resources, sacred tribal places and wilderness.

The monument is said to have one of the largest concentrations of Ancestral Pueblo archaeological sites in the Southwest.

“Prohibiting commercial air tours protects the cultural and spiritual significance of these lands to tribes and ensures the park experience desired by visitors,” Park Superintendent Patrick Suddath said in a statement.

Bandelier was designated as a national monument in 1916 by then-President Woodrow Wilson. It was named for Swiss-American anthropologist Adolph Bandelier.