Finally, the story gets out of the confines of Wyoming-

While it was in its making, The Wildlife News was one of the few media sources outside Wyoming that covered the now well known data trespass bill, which is now a Wyoming state law.

Several months later the story finally went national when law professor, Justin Pidot, wrote a critical news article detailing the bill. He said that under the law’s language anyone could be arrested for taking photos inside Yellowstone National Park (which is mostly in Wyoming). Photos, defined as data under the law, would merely have to be taken in the Park with the intent of giving them to the U.S. or the Wyoming government for use as data. This intent would trigger a state criminal prosecution for trespass.

Now Wyoming state legislators and other defenders of the law are backstepping and saying they would not prosecute any tourists taking photos in Yellowstone or Grand Teton, and that the law only applies to private land and state of Wyoming land outside built-up places.

The law clearly got little critical review, including technical review as it sailed through the legislature with almost no opposition and on to Governor Matt Mead. Almost none of its now many critics think it will stand judicial scrutiny. However, as Jonathan Ratner tells in the video below, the law is in effect and will remain so until it is struck down by a court. Meanwhile, private citizens looking around the huge open country in Wyoming must judge the legal danger if they gather what could be data of any kind . . . especially if it includes the water quality in streams where livestock graze nearby.

Ratner’s work was the spark, and maybe the entire reason the bill, was passed. He had been collecting water quality data on Wyoming creeks and submitting the e. coli count to the government to show water quality impairment. E. coli causes from mild to deadly infections in people. There are standards for how much can legally be in water. Data collected to be given to the government by Ratner and others, mostly with the private Western Watersheds Project, showed large violations of up to 200x the standard.

Pidot’s article. Forbidden Data Wyoming just criminalized citizen science. Slate Magazine. Now there are many more articles and the video below.