For nearly a quarter-century the Chicken Strip airfield at Death Valley National Park has been operating illegally. Now park officials are seeking public input on whether the strip should be deemed a legal use.
Chicken Strip is famous among recreational pilots for its dramatic desert scenery and the challenges it poses to pilots. However, the landing strip’s ongoing use is a non-enforced violation of National Park Service (NPS) regulations.
The Saline Valley Warm Springs Airfield, commonly known as Chicken Strip, is an unpaved landing strip near Saline Valley Warm Springs that has been in use for decades. However, when the area was added to Death Valley National Park in 1994, landing at the Chicken Strip became illegal by default regulations restricting the operation of aircraft on NPS lands.
“This proposed special regulation is really a deregulation,” explained Death Valley Superintendent Mike Reynolds. “It would remove any question about the legality of the airfield’s use by visitors. We believe this is a common sense approach that corrects a regulatory technicality.”
Chicken Strip has been used by an average of 88 planes per year in recent years. Some pilots use it to access the nearby Warm Springs. Others are drawn by the challenge of the airstrip itself.
Volunteers with the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) maintain the airstrip at no cost to the taxpayers. “The RAF and the NPS have been successfully partnering for nearly ten years to make access to the Chicken Strip safe and available to the aviation community,” said RAF board chairman John McKenna.
The NPS seeks public input on whether the Chicken Strip should be a legal airstrip. Public comments are due by November 19. The pilot community needs show our support for the NPS’s effort to legitimize this airstrip. That the airstrip was not an adopted feature was simply an unfortunate oversight. The NPS supports the existence of the airstrip and is seeking to formally acknowledge its continued use through this action. We need to provide polite, professional and personal comments to show our support for the airstrip.
Comments should reference Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) 1024-AE48, and will only be accepted online at https://www.regulations.gov/searchResults?rpp=25&po=0&s=1024-AE48&fp=true&ns=true or by mail to: Death Valley National Park, P.O. Box 579, Death Valley, CA 92328. Comments received by mail may be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided.
Please take a few minutes to express your support for the continued use of the Chicken Strip. Even if you never visit this airstrip, helping others to protect our access to public lands is important.
Richard Mayes
Recreational Aviation Foundation
[email protected] | TheRAF.org
“The Recreational Aviation Foundation preserves, maintains and creates airstrips for recreational access.”
