National parks across the country continue to lag behind a court-ordered schedule to complete air-tour management plans and are failing to conduct environmentally required studies as they develop those plans, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

The monthslong eruption of Kīlauea volcano at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park back in 2018 did a great deal of damage to the park and its infrastructure, including impacts to the Jaggar Museum and nearby buildings on the brim of the volcano that left them unusable. Now the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey are ready to move forward with a disaster recovery plan that is open for public comment.

Despite more than two decades to get the task accomplished, and almost two years after a federal judge ordered the Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service to get the job done by this summer, air tour management plans for eight national parks will not be completed on schedule, according to court documents filed by the two agencies.

Trying to understand the National Park Service's visitor fees can be, well, baffling if not impossible.