What about the drones?

With the roads just opening in Yellowstone I thought it would be a good idea to bring up some interesting news from last year. There was an interesting  Dutch citizen Theodorus Van Vliet crashed a drone into Grand Prismatic Spring and was fined over $3000 by a federal judge in the park. Yes I said federal, Yellowstone National Park is federal property  The iconic Grand Prismatic Spring is located at the Midway Geyser Basin which is in Yellowstone National Park, home to over 10,000 thermal features. The types of themal features include hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles or steam vents and of course the most famous of all, geysers.

 

My photo of Grand Prismatic Spring.

I understand why someone would want to fly a drone over this hot spring to get photos or video, it's amazing! The colors are stunning with each layer representing a different heat signature and type of heat loving micro-organism or themophile. These are an example of extremophiles, organisms that can live in very hot or cold environments, this being hot of course. This is where the problem lies. Grand Prismatic is 250 x 300 feet wide and up to 160 feet deep. The drone that dropped in was believed to be at 111 feet. From my perspective how could you get if out without disturbing the bacterial mats and the hot spring itself? You can't. If you took a hovercraft or helicopter over it would push too much air around and surely destroy too much. It you took some sort of boat the same would happen but with different damage. 

Click the link below for the official news release:
http://www.nps.gov/news/release.htm?id=1601

 A copy of the sign that was posted after this incident.

After this incident National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis signed a law into effect banning the operation of all unmanned aircraft on National Park Service Property on June 20, 2014. What happened next? A German tourist Andreas Meissner crashed another drone, this time into Yellowstone Lake on July 18th, 2014. A diver recovered the drone 10 days later.  He was ordered to pay $1600 in fines and restitution.

Although drones are becoming more and more popular with the advances in technology there are things that people must understand. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most heavily vistited and wild places in the lower 48 states. Drones can disturb wildlife in ways that would be new and harmful. Would you like to be watching a grizzly mother with cubs and see a drone flying over them? How about the incident above, being in a geyser basin, taking in the sounds smells and hearing a buzzing over your head? I sure wouldn't like that. No matter what it's a law now and hopefully there won't be any future headlines of this subject matter. So if you bring your drone to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem be sure to fly it outside of any parks. Happy droning!


Just after posting this yesterdsay this article popped up in the Billings Gazette.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/drone-businesses-pop-up-in-montana/article_64e63a69-a592-5150-ba67-71bc59ffdb71.html