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Yellowstone National Park Immune From Wyoming Law Banning Certain Photos Of Water Resources

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By Kurt Repanshek - May 21st, 2015
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No laws were broken by the taking of this photograph/Kurt Repanshek

You can take all the photos you want on your Yellowstone National Park vacation without worrying about being arrested for ignoring a new Wyoming law pertaining to whistleblowers. It doesn't apply to the park, which is federal, not state, land, according to park officials.

Much has been made of the law, which "makes it a crime to collect data on 'open land' outside of towns and subdivisions if the data collector lacks written or verbal permission to both access the land and collect data," as a story on WyoFile pointed out this week.

Fanning the flames have been representatives of Western Watersheds Project, which has run afoul of Wyoming politicians for its scrutiny of water quality in the state.

Most disturbing to Yellowstone officials was the way ABC News portrayed the matter.

"A Yellowstone tourist who goes for a hike with the intention of photographing the natural resources in Yellowstone is in violation of this law because they are entering into open land for the purpose of collecting what falls under the definition of resource data," Susan Kraham, a senior attorney for the Environmental Law Clinic at Columbia University, told ABC News.

Unfortunately, that's not true, said Traci Weaver, the park's spokeswoman.

"It doesn'™t pertain at all to Yellowstone, because the park is federal land," she said Wednesday.

So enjoy your visit to Yellowstone, and be sure to come home with stellar photos of Old Faithful, Mud Volcano, Grand Prismatic Spring, and all the other wondrous geothermal features of the park.

 

Comments

Submitted by ecbuck on July 14, 2015 - 7:50am.

Anon - I expect there is more to your picture story. Could you elaborate? Where were you, what were you taking pictures of, who gave you the ticket and what was the actual charge?


Submitted by Anonymous on July 14, 2015 - 11:46am.

I am the idiot who wrote about the fine. It was a fake. I fell for a practical joke. I would like to punch the person who did it to me in the face, but alas I cannot. I also can't delete the earlier post.


Submitted by Jqqwo on December 12, 2015 - 11:50am.

How about posting a photo of the citation. I don't believe you. 


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