Female hiker banned from all US national parks
She vandalised 7 national parks and now has been banned from 524 million acres of public land.
A woman was recently banned from all the national parks and federally administered land after she posted evidence of defacing rock formations with graffiti all over social media.
Casey Nocket, 23 was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and will also be paying fine for her crime. The fine will be decided at a hearing to be held in December.
As she travelled across US, she used to draw art on rock features and post pictures of the same on social media.
In 2014, over a period of 26 days, she spoiled formations at seven different national parks. She drew and painted on them with markers and acrylic paints and posted pictures of her work with her social media handle 'Creepytings.'
“The defendant's defacement of multiple rock formations showed a lack of respect for the law and our shared national treasures. The National Park Service has worked hard to restore the rock formations to their natural state, completing clean-up efforts in five of the seven national parks,” told acting U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert to the Los Angeles Times.
“They expect to complete clean-up efforts at Death Valley and at Crater Lake national parks as weather permits,” he added.
Among the parks she visited were Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Zion National Park in Utah and Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and Death Valley and Yosemite National Parks in California.
But her work posted on Instagram provoked outrage on social media and was later she was arrested.
The damaged caused was difficult to remove as chemical stripping and sandblasting can lead to irreplaceable damage to natural features.
In fact at Crater Lake and Death Valley, the graffiti is yet to be fully removed nearly two years later.
On Wednesday she appeared at the court in Fresno, California where she pleaded guilty for damaging formations at seven national parks.
Prosecutor Phillip Talbert said in a statement, “The defendant's defacement of multiple rock formations showed a lack of respect for the law and our shared national treasures. The National Park Service has worked hard to restore the rock formations to their natural state, completing clean-up efforts in five of the seven parks,” reports The Daily Mail.
Her Instagram account has been deleted. In one of her post she also wrote, “It's art, not vandalism. I am an artist.”
The case also provoked a White House petition demanding she be prosecuted with more than 10,000 people signing the document.
After she admitted to causing damage, Charles Cuvelier, chief of law enforcement for the National Park Service said, “This case illustrates the important role that the public can play in identifying and sharing evidence of illegal behavior in parks. It is clear that the public cares deeply for the special places that the National Park Service represents, and the resolution of this case sends a message to those who would consider such inappropriate behavior going forward.”