What type of land is being protected from researchers that want to gather data? Private property outside, the supporters point mostly to farm & ranch lands
What kind of data are they gathering? All sorts, such as water quality
What do opponents to these new laws requiring permission to gather data on land say?
- it prevents people from taking pictures of wildlife and scenery from public places
- the true intent is prevent the exposure of pollution
- the state trespassing laws violate federal law
What do the laws say? instead of having to prove that a person trespassed, the person who collected data has to prove that she had permission to be where she was when she collected the data
What Wyoming legislators say about the laws they passed: “ “Do we value property rights, or are we going to allow vigilantism in the guise of protecting the environment to trample those rights?” Wyoming state Sen. Larry Hicks (R)
WallStreet Journal | Wyoming Trespass Laws Under Fire by Environmentalists, Photographers