The End of an Era

[AlanLichty]

Up until this past summer flying a drone in an Oregon State Park was generally allowed with the exception of crowded venues and wildlife habitats but that access has come to an end. Oregon Parks held a series of public meetings and solicited comments regarding the use of drones in the parks and the birding communities used their extensive social connections to thoroughly smother the process both with write-in campaigns and meeting attendance. The end result is a large number of popular parks that no longer allow drone operations. Two of the parks in the Columbia River Gorge that were my favorites for fall photography are among them including Rooster Rock State Park shown in this 3 shot panorama of Mirror Lake captured last fall.

The Rooster Rock drone ban makes a lot of sense for summer months as there is a clothing optional beach at the far east end of the park that should certainly be off limits to aerial photography but during the off season months the park is generally quite empty. There is a provision for getting a permit from the local park superintendent that I might be able to justify but it won't be as easy as driving up the Gorge and deciding to stop to take in the views from the air.

 

[Michael13]

Wow, that was one short era.

You made the most of it, Alan. You must have terabytes of Gorge drone panoramas.

 

[AlanLichty]

Wow, that was one short era.

You made the most of it, Alan. You must have terabytes of Gorge drone panoramas.

Thanks Michael - I do have a considerable stash of captures both from this park as well as from the Benson Recreation Area further up in the Gorge. Oregon still does have some parks that allow drone use but not the ones I usually like to play in. That's still much nicer than Washington where no drones are allowed in any state parks at all.

 

[JimFox]

This is one super cool image Alan!

What's interesting, is 15 to 20 years ago, I could get behind banning drones just about everywhere as it seemed like the vast majority of people using them seemed like their goal was to irritate people by flying in peoples faces or just feet above people. But I have seen that change, and that's no longer an issue that I see.

But perhaps that early day bad taste in peoples mouths still is out there? So perhaps the perception from back then overrides the reality of today.

 

[Jeffrey]

People, in general, are fearful of what they don't understand. That's why there's religion. Drone hating has been popularized by the internet and the media, so it still is the current trend. State parks tend to be smaller than national parks so perhaps you could launch outside the boundaries and still fly over.