The Flathead County Planning Office has referred Mule Shoe Outfitters to the County Attorney’s Office for a zoning violation in West Glacier concerning a helicopter tour company that operated on the property this summer.

Glacier Aviation advertised and ran helicopter sight-seeing tours along the boundary of Glacier National Park and over the adjacent Flathead National Forest from the Mule Shoe Outfitter property, which sits on a ridgeline along U.S. 2 overlooking the park.

The matter was referred to the County Attorney’s Office on Oct. 1, said code compliance technician Cody Gove.

While Glacier Aviation was operating the helicopter in tours in an apparent violation of the Canyon Area Land Use Regulatory System, Mule Shoe Outfitters, which owns the land, receives the violation notices under county regulations, as it is the property owner, Gove said.

To date, Gove said he’s had no interaction with owner. In the summer, the red helicopter often sat along the highway with large signs advertising heli-tours of the area.

The tours violate the Middle Canyon zoning, the county said in the letter, which was first sent on July 1.

Since then the county has done several follow-ups, according to the case file, but has not received any voluntary compliance.

Helicopter tours over Glacier Park used to be commonplace, but the National Park Service curbed their use dramatically in 2022 when it adopted an air tour management plan that ends all air tours by Dec. 31, 2029 and limits existing tour operators to 144 flights a year.

That plan allows for up to three flights per day from Homestead Helicopters, Minuteman and Red Eagle Aviation.

Red Eagle, which uses much quieter fixed-wing aircraft, has the bulk of those flights at 136 annually.

Under the air tour management plan, the tour allocations are not transferable. Glacier Aviation in its promotional materials says it flies on the south end of the park, outside the boundary.

Glacier Park’s air tour plan bars flights inside a half-mile from the park.

In an August letter to the county Planning and Zoning Department, Glacier Aviation owner Gary Kaufmann argued that the zoning doesn’t explicitly mention aviation or air tours in its document and that “these policies cannot serve as a basis for enforcement.”

In the three-page letter Kaufmann asserts that his model of helicopter is quieter than the highway traffic and has served other purposes, like spotting forest fires in the past.

He argues his operation complies with the Canyon Area Land Use Regulatory System and he asks the county to retract the violation notice.

But the county notes that system is grounded in the Canyon Plan, which specifically does mention curbing helicopters in its commercial land use policies.

The county also notes that while county zoning regulations do contemplate heliports, they are in heavy industrial zones and B-5 (resort business) zones, which are not applicable in West Glacier.

The county has also rejected the notion that the helicopter business was grandfathered in as it started up, by all accounts, this summer in West Glacier, years after previous businesses, like Minuteman Aviation and Kruger heli-tours shut down.

Mule Shoe Outfitters could not be reached for comment.

With winter approaching, the tour signs have been taken down and the helicopter is no longer on site.