Page:John Sturgeon v. Bert Frost, in his official capacity as Alaska Regional Director of the National Park Service.pdf/44

10 present a different question. Such a regulation could be consistent with the Service’s limited Organic Act authority over out-of-park areas, and it would not run afoul of ANILCA because it would not be applicable to public lands.

The Service’s out-of-park authority is not at issue in this case given that the hovercraft regulation applies only within park boundaries, see ante, at 19, n. 5. Hovercraft can be unsightly, be loud, and disturb sensitive ecosystems within the park. See 48 Fed. Reg. 30258 (1983) (“The Service has determined that hovercraft should be prohibited because they provide virtually unlimited access to park areas and introduce a mechanical mode of transportation into locations where the intrusion of motorized equipment by sight or sound is generally inappropriate”). If the Service were to choose to apply its hovercraft ban to the Nation River, the agency could justify doing so in certain designated areas to protect a particular sensitivity in a surrounding (public) park area, including some habitats on the banks of the Nation River.

The Court also leaves open a second way for the Service to protect navigable rivers. Because the Nation River is not a designated Wild and Scenic River, the Court expressly does not decide the extent of the Service’s power over such designated rivers. Ante, at 26–27, n. 10. If ANILCA §103(c) is to be harmonized with the remainder of the statute, the Service must possess authority to regulate fully, as parklands, at least that subset of rivers.