Yosemite Visitors Fly Drones Freely as Ranger Shortage Guts NPS Enforcement

The New York Times published a feature this week documenting what DroneXL warned about nearly a year ago: federal staffing cuts have created an enforcement vacuum in Yosemite National Park, and visitors are flying drones with impunity.

The Times piece, published January 19, describes a park where “ranger sightings were too rare last year” and visitors have responded with “the wrong kind of wildness.” The article specifically names drone-flying alongside littering and cliff jumping as behaviors that rangers can no longer adequately police.

• The Development: The New York Times reports Yosemite lost 25% of its permanent National Park Service staff through DOGE layoffs, buyouts, and retirements, leaving visitors largely unsupervised.
• The Drone Connection: Tour operators told the Times that visitors are “throwing trash and flying drones” because there are not enough rangers to educate them about the rules.
• DroneXL’s Track Record: We predicted this exact scenario in February 2025 and documented the surge during the October government shutdown.

The staffing collapse follows a predictable pattern

The National Park Service’s 25% reduction in permanent staff at Yosemite is part of broader cuts across the agency. The National Parks Conservation Association has documented these losses throughout 2025, warning that visitor services and enforcement would suffer.

Bryant Burnette, co-owner of tour company YExplore Yosemite Adventures, told the Times: “No wonder people are throwing trash and flying drones. I can’t be mad at them.”

That quote captures the enforcement reality we have been tracking. Without rangers present to explain the rules, many visitors simply do not know that drones have been banned in all national parks since 2014. The NPS Policy Memorandum 14-05 prohibits launching, landing, or operating drones within park boundaries, with violations carrying penalties of up to $5,000 in fines and six months in jail.

But penalties mean nothing without enforcement. And enforcement requires rangers.

DroneXL predicted this in February 2025

When the Trump administration announced mass layoffs at the National Park Service in February 2025, we wrote immediately that drone violations would surge. The math was obvious: fewer rangers plus record visitation equals enforcement gaps.

The staffing cuts at that time targeted employees in their probationary period, representing about 5% of the National Park Service workforce. Combined with DJI‘s January 2025 removal of geofencing restrictions that transitioned previous “No-Fly Zones” to “Enhanced Warning Zones,” we identified a perfect storm for increased illegal operations.

Eight months later, in October 2025, we documented the surge firsthand when the government shutdown stripped Yosemite of most remaining staff. Tour guides reported seeing multiple drones daily compared to their normal rate of about one per week. John DeGrazio, founder of YExplore Yosemite Adventures, described the situation as “the Wild, Wild West.”

The same John DeGrazio and Bryant Burnette quoted in our October coverage appear in this week’s New York Times piece. Their observations remain consistent: the staffing crisis has not improved.

The Explore Act changed nothing for drone pilots

Some pilots may have hoped that the Explore Act, signed into law in January 2025, would ease drone restrictions. It did not. While the legislation eliminated permit requirements for small-scale filming operations using handheld equipment, Section H explicitly requires compliance with “laws regarding the use of unmanned aerial equipment.”

The National Park Service drone ban remains in full force. The only thing that has changed is the likelihood of getting caught.

What drone pilots need to understand

The NPS drone ban applies to all 63 national parks and most NPS-managed lands. Launching, landing, or operating a drone within park boundaries is a federal misdemeanor regardless of whether a ranger is present to witness it.

Some pilots believe they can legally fly over park land by launching from outside the boundary. This is a common misconception. The National Park Service has stated that existing 36 CFR regulations may apply to operations that affect park resources, even if the pilot never sets foot inside.

The current enforcement vacuum does not change the law. It changes the probability of citation. Pilots who assume reduced staffing means free rein are taking a legal risk that could follow them for years. Citations can be issued long after the fact if evidence emerges.

DroneXL’s Take

The New York Times catching up to what we reported months ago is validation, but it is not satisfying. Every illegal drone flight in a national park makes the entire drone community look bad and strengthens the case for harsher restrictions everywhere.

This pattern is not new. In October 2025, DJI quietly pulled a Mavic 4 Pro promotional video after we and others in the drone community questioned how the footage was legally obtained from national parks and Navajo tribal lands. When the world’s largest drone manufacturer cannot keep its marketing straight on where drones can and cannot fly, it signals a broader problem with awareness.

The staffing crisis will not resolve itself quickly. The Trump administration shows no indication of reversing course on federal workforce reductions, and the National Park Service is competing with every other agency for limited seasonal hiring budgets.

Expect illegal drone operations in national parks to remain elevated through at least 2027. The question is whether the response will be targeted enforcement actions that punish actual violators, or blanket restrictions that punish everyone.

For now, the rules are clear even if enforcement is not: drones do not belong in national parks. The pilots who respect that boundary are protecting the rest of us from the backlash that comes when footage surfaces of someone buzzing Half Dome.

Editorial Note: This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI to ensure technical accuracy and archive retrieval. All insights, industry analysis, and perspectives were provided exclusively by Haye Kesteloo and our other DroneXL authors, editors, and YouTube partners to ensure the “Human-First” perspective our readers expect.