U.S. Government To Ban Drones In National Parks

So, you bought a drone. What are you going to do with it first? Snap some real estate photos of your house? Take a dronie? Crash it into a tree then try to convince the manufacturer it came like that?

If your answer is “Take it to a national park”, you might want to reconsider. That’s not allowed anymore.

The US Government’s National Park Service has just issued an order banning unmanned aircrafts from being launched, landed, or operated in any of the 58 US national parks. Grand Canyon? More like… Grand… Cantdrone.

The NPS cites safety concerns for park visitors and wildlife, and myriad “noise and nuisance complaints” — in other words, no one wants to hear a drone buzzing around after climbing 5,000 feet up Half Dome.

This order is considered temporary (albeit with no set expiration date) until the NPS gets a chance to figure out exactly what they’re banning (“model aircrafts”, for example, are still okay if the park approves), what use cases are okay, and until the public has had a chance to comment on the matter. But for now, consider’em banned.

Meanwhile, the NPS can still grant case-by-case exceptions for drones being used for research, search and rescue, and fighting fires.