{"id":38336,"date":"2014-08-22T11:22:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T16:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=38336"},"modified":"2014-08-22T11:22:14","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T16:22:14","slug":"big-bend-national-park-bans-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/08\/22\/big-bend-national-park-bans-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Bend National Park Bans Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Marfa Public Radio:<\/a><\/em><\/h4>\n
\"Big<\/a>

ALLEN HOLDER\/THE KANSAS CITY STAR<\/p>

Big Bend National Park, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n

Big Bend National Park has placed an \u201cinterim\u201d ban on unmanned aircraft on any lands or waters within the park\u2019s boundaries, as part of a\u00a0nationwide directive<\/a>\u00a0from the National Park Service (NPS.)<\/p>\n

The ordinance went into effect August 20th \u2013 it specifically prohibits the \u201claunching, landing or operation\u201d of unmanned aircraft in the park, and also anywhere on stretches of the\u00a0Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River,<\/a>\u00a0which is also managed by NPS.<\/p>\n

A press release from the park says there have been rising concerns among national park visitors across the country about \u201cnoise and nuisance\u201d from drones, and that the aircraft have in some cases disrupted\u00a0wildlife behaviors.<\/p>\n

Allen Etheridge, Chief Ranger at Big Bend National Park, says those concerns haven\u2019t yet been an issue in the Big Bend, but he has heard about specific threats posed to wildlife and visitor experiences from other national parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome visitors had brought quad copters to Yellowstone National Park, and they had crashed them \u2013 not on purposefully of course \u2013 into the hot springs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

There have been other\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0of visitors to Zion National Park in Utah disrupting Bighorn Sheep populations while trying to take aerial pictures.<\/p>\n

Still, Etheridge says the\u00a0ban only applies to lands managed by NPS, not airspace over the park, which is managed by the FAA. That means drones that don\u2019t launch from or land on park lands aren\u2019t subject to the new rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u00a0does not prohibit visitors from launching or using unmanned aircraft from outside the park boundary,\u201d Etheridge says, \u201cso that does give them the ability to make some flights over park lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Etheridge adds that drone operations conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection\/the Border Patrol won\u2019t be affected by the new rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnmanned aircraft are a new park use and affect park resources, staff, and visitors in ways that the National Park Service has yet to identify and analyze,\u201d\u00a0Thursday\u2019s press release states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is National Park Service policy to not allow a new park use until a determination has been made that it will not result in unacceptable impacts on park resources and values and staff and visitor safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ban is set to remain in place \u201cuntil further notice,\u201d and includes model airplanes, \u201cquad copters,\u201d drones and other unmanned aircraft used commercially or recreationally.<\/p>\n

Etheridge says there\u2019s no set timetable for how long the ban will last, but park officials on the local and national level will be studying the issue in the coming months, and possibly looking at instances where drones would help more than hurt.<\/p>\n

Search and rescue missions, GIS mapping, scientific research and fighting wildfires are among the potentially beneficial uses for drones in the park, Etheridge says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we get our head around that, we hope that we\u2019re going to be able to put the unmanned aircraft to use for some positive uses here in Big Bend.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the nationwide ban, individual park superintendents can still request a special-use permit through the national NPS office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Marfa Public Radio: Big Bend National Park has placed an \u201cinterim\u201d ban on unmanned aircraft on any lands or waters within the park\u2019s boundaries, as part of a\u00a0nationwide directive\u00a0from the National Park Service (NPS.) The ordinance went into effect August 20th \u2013 it specifically prohibits the \u201claunching, landing or operation\u201d of unmanned aircraft in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38341,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38336\/revisions\/38341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}