For now, if park officials want to use the devices for park purposes, such as wildlife tracking and topographic mapping, they have to get explicit FAA permission. Airspace in most national parks is designated FAA territory, so a person could theoretically stand outside of park boundaries and fly over or into the park - if they keep the drone within sight.įinal FAA regulations are still in the works. It proposed rules in February for hobbyists, including: no flights more than 400 feet high, after dark, or within dangerous proximity to people pilots must keep drones within their line of sight. But most of those were in July, 'and we're only half-way through the month,' says Traci Weaver, a spokeswoman for Yellowstone.īeyond the national parks ban, the Federal Aviation Administration is trying to get a handle on drone usage. So far this year, Yellowstone has issued two citations, compared to five last year. In Yellowstone National Park, it’s been harder for rangers to patrol for illegal drone flights because there’s more ground to cover it has 90 percent more acreage than Grand Teton.

Almost all of Grand Teton’s 2014 incidents happened between July and September, and White says as visitor numbers continue to grow, he expects more reports this summer. Paige Blankenbuehler In Grand Teton, there have been 11 reports of drones flying within park boundaries, so far (up from six last year), and rangers have issued four citations. Park officials around the West say the ban has been difficult to enforce and in many parks, the early season drone reports are outpacing the number of incidents last year. Yet despite the ban, the number of drone incidents, like that one at Gros Ventre Campground, has increased. National parks temporarily banned drones in June 2014, when park officials began to worry that the devices could crash into sensitive landmarks, disturb wildlife, and present safety risks and general disturbance to visitors. A cow moose was grazing nearby, and though there was no evidence that the operator was trying to get a closer look at the unsuspecting ungulate, “it does seem a likely scenario,” says Andrew White, the park’s spokesman.

On June 22 last year, that normal silence broke as the plastic wings of an unmanned aircraft system, known colloquially as a drone, spastically chopped at the leaves of a cottonwood as it tangled in the branches. In Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, the Gros Ventre Campground is a peaceful place with abundant solitude it hardly fills up, even during peak season. Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now

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