National Park Service News Release
NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis signed a policy memorandum that directs superintendents nationwide to prohibit launching, landing, or operating unmanned aircraft on lands and waters administered by the National Park Service.
The policy memorandum directs park superintendents to take a number of steps to exclude unmanned aircraft from national parks. The steps include drafting a written justification for the action, ensuring compliance with applicable laws, and providing public notice of the action.
The policy memorandum is a temporary measure. The next step will be to propose a Servicewide regulation regarding unmanned aircraft. That process can take considerable time, depending on the complexity of the rule, and includes public notice of the proposed regulation and opportunity for public comment.
Superintendents who have previously authorized the use of model aircraft for hobbyist or recreational use may allow such use to continue.
Release Date: June 20, 2014
Contact:
Jeffrey Olson, Jeffrey_olson@nps.gov, (202) 208-6843
April Slayton, april_slayton@nps.gov, (202) 208-6843
Click the link below to read the full press release…
Unmanned Aircraft to be Prohibited in America’s National Parks
NPS Interim UAS Policy…
Policy Memorandum 14-05
AMA’s Response – Press Release…
Can we really be surprised by this? There used to be barriers to entry within the model aviation hobby. Way back we had no choice but to build, then came along the ARFs. That was fine, it still took days and weeks of flying with another skilled pilot before you could confidently pick your bird up and bring it back in once piece. Helicopters were an entirely different nightmare to learn.
Now an RTF quad can be bought for a few hundred bucks complete with telemetry, HD video, and long range. No wonder the culture of arduous study and safety went out the window. Who cares what happens when you can just buy another bird if you do something dangerous and irresponsible and cause a crash that possibly causes injuries and property damage.
Instead of an outright ban on UAS the National Park Service should be looking into ways of using this tool to help plan for fighting forest fires, locating poachers, illegal drugs and missing people. Photographic artists are now starting use UAS to take terrific pictures and videos at angles never before possible. For the government to take this right away seems like an infringment on our first ammendment rights for no good reason since UAS are so small they are very unlikly to cause serious damage to property or persons.