While the residents of tiny Deer Trail, Colo., will decide next month whether to allow hunters to shoot down drones, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is considering rules to ban drones from being used to hunt.
Commissioners are concerned that hunters will use the unmanned vehicles — some of which are small, compact and controllable via smartphone — to spot wildlife, saying it would give them an unethical advantage.
“There is a ton of technology available to people that would make it very, very easy for people to hunt,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton told Denver’s 7News. “We try to hold the line to make sure that hunting is done in an ethical manner.”
Hunters are already prohibited from using aircraft to spot game under a federal law called the Airborne Hunting Act, but with the advent of cheap drones that can be equipped with cameras, wildlife commissioners are expected to adopt the no-drones regulation during a meeting on Thursday.
“It was not something that most people were engaged in, and it wasn’t needed in a regulatory model,” Hampton said. “Because it has become more prevalent, we want to make sure people understand it is still outside the bounds of what is allowed.”
Meanwhile, about two hours north of where the commissioners will meet, residents of Deer Trail are preparing for a special election on Dec. 10 that would allow the town to issue “drone hunting licenses.”
The $25 licenses would be issued to people who are at least 18 years old and speak English. It would allow them to shoot at unmanned aircraft flying below 1,000 feet using shotguns.
Passage of the ordinance would be largely symbolic. No one in Deer Trail has ever seen a drone flying over the one-square-mile town and backers admit that it would difficult to shoot one down with a shotgun.
But because they’re not restricted to residents, the licenses could provide a windfall for the town, whose only businesses are a pair of gas stations and a restaurant.
If the restrictions on using drones to hunt are adopted they will go into effect next August, at the start of big game season.
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