Win for wildlife in Menlo Park

Great news for wildlife in Menlo Park! The Menlo Park City Council voted to ban the use of drones in Bedwell Bayfront Park due to the impacts on wildlife, hazards to planes, and inconsistency with the park’s Master Plan.

Committee for Green Foothills and other groups have been advocating with Menlo Park to ban drones and other unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in Bedwell Bayfront Park for the past year. While we do not oppose drone activity in appropriate locations, Bedwell Bayfront Park is one of the least appropriate locations anywhere in the region. Birds in the adjacent Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge are known to react to drones flying overhead much as they do to avian predators; the flight paths for both the Palo Alto and San Carlos Airports go directly over Bedwell Bayfront Park and drone flights cause a safety hazard to planes; and the park’s Master Plan specifically states that the park is intended for passive recreation and the opportunity for people to enjoy peace and quiet.

On Tuesday, the Menlo Park City Council voted to ban drones and UAS systems in city parks due to all of these concerns.

Thank you to the Menlo Park City Councilmembers who voted to protect the environment.

Comments (5)

Jim Brown

August 25, 2016

I kind of disagree about the reason for the vote. 2 of out of 3 city council member voted for safety concerns, not for environment. Only one voted for envionmental impact concerns. Hopefully the council woman will find the none powered glider users a new home near Stanford University. I thought the RC people did a good job presenting thier case and backing it up with facts, but safety concerns was the real reasons.

Bryan Bartlett

November 14, 2016

Hey guys guess what can you prove that your video in the upper left right corner was not shot by a drone, it sure looks like it was….

Reply

Mandy Henry
November 15, 2016

Hello Bryan,

Thanks for your question. Our position on drone usage at Bedwell Bayfront Park was based on conflicts with the Park’s Master Plan and on the fact that the Park is surrounded on three sides by the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge which is habitat for many species of birds. Birds are known to react to drones and small objects flying low overhead in the same way that they do to the raptors that are among their most common predators. The species at the Refuge include threatened and endangered species that are protected by state and federal law.

We are not an anti-drone organization. We believe that drone and RCA activities can be accommodated in other locations where there will not be similar impacts to wildlife. FYI, the aerial footage in the video on our website was shot from a helicopter.
- Reply
  
  Jim Brown
  November 15, 2016
  
  The specific type of bird species are located outside of the park at the wetlands and the planes are no where near the nesting area or the feeding area of the wetlands. The only birds I see at the dry grassy area of the park are the Canadian Geese and Pigeons and they leave the park beteeen 9:00 am or 9:30 am. Canadian Geese are not afraid of planes flying over them and I have video of it to prove it. I already video taped the whole park I can prove my point. I don’t see any wildlife on four legs running around during the day. They mostly only come out at night.
  
  Keep in mind, there hardly any public space to fly without getting hassle by the ranger or the police. Do you know any land that allow drones or RC planes?????? There are only a few public places left in the Bay Area.
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  Jim Brown
  November 16, 2016
  
  If you guys are so concern about wildlife, why are you not stoping the duck hunters shooting the ducks every Saturday morning between 5:30 am – 8:30 or 9:00 am located in the VISO area????? I can hear the gun shot going off about 1 or 2 miles away going off every 5 minutes.

Win for wildlife in Menlo Park

Mandy Henry

Jim Brown

Jim Brown

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