German tourists accused of defacing US national park with paintballs

German tourists accused of defacing US national park with paintballs National Park Service Park rangers said they found several signs in the park defaced with yellow paint Three German tourists face possible financial penalties after being accused of defacing property at Joshua Tree National Park in California. Park authorities accused the trio of firing paintballs
German tourists accused of defacing US national park with paintballs

German tourists accused of defacing US national park with paintballs

National Park Service Photo showing road sign at Joshua Tree National Park with yellow paint splattersNational Park Service
Park rangers said they found several signs in the park defaced with yellow paint

Three German tourists face possible financial penalties after being accused of defacing property at Joshua Tree National Park in California.

Park authorities accused the trio of firing paintballs at signs, bathrooms and dumpsters throughout the park.

They said the damage was discovered on Sunday after a park ranger found “fresh yellow paintball splatter on structures and signs” during a campground patrol.

Park rangers then questioned the tourists, who admitted that they had fired paintballs in the park with a compressed paintball gun and slingshots, authorities said.

Vandalism of a US national park carries a maximum penalty of $5,000 (£3,919), as well as the possibility of a prison sentence for up to six months, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

“Defacing or altering the NPS landscape, no matter how small, is against the law,” said Joshua Tree National Park’s acting chief ranger Jeff Filosa in a statement on Thursday.

“It diminishes the natural environment that millions of people travel the world to enjoy,” he said, adding that “the park is regularly tasked with removing graffiti of all types, using time and resources that could be better dedicated to other priorities”.

According to the NPS, park rangers confiscated three slingshots, a paintball marker, paintballs and other equipment as evidence from the tourists.

They also found that at least 11 roadway signs near the west entrance of the park had been shot with yellow paintballs.

Staff have since been tasked with cleaning up the park.

The park service did not name the tourists but has said that they were visiting from Germany.

Over three million people visit Joshua Tree National Park each year, according to the NPS, drawn by its “funky” Joshua trees, animal life and vistas.

It spans nearly 800,000 acres (1,250 sq miles), making it larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.

The Joshua tree, a yucca, lives for an average of 150 years. During a partial US government shutdown in 2019, a small number of the park’s eponymous trees were destroyed by vandals.

Conservationists warned at the time that because the trees grow so slowly it could take more than a hundred years to reverse that damage.

In 2021, a California couple was fined $18,000 for cutting down 36 Joshua trees north of the park to build a new home.

There have been other instances of vandalism at national parks across the US.

On its website, the NPS stated that it “is extremely difficult”, “costly and time consuming” to remove graffiti and other damage from park property.

Total
0
Shares
Leave a Reply
Related Posts
Trump says Elon Musk will interview him Monday
Read More

Trump says Elon Musk will interview him Monday

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he will be interviewed on Monday night by Elon Musk, the billionaire who runs Tesla, SpaceX and social media site X. The former president’s planned talk with Musk comes on the heels of Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. It also follows the disclosure of probes of a Trump-supporting
BBC brings in new guidelines for stars on how not to abuse their ‘celebrity status’ amid Huw Edwards and Strictly scandals
Read More

BBC brings in new guidelines for stars on how not to abuse their ‘celebrity status’ amid Huw Edwards and Strictly scandals

The BBC has brought in new anti-grooming guidelines warning its stars not to abuse their 'celebrity status' after the cooperation was hit by a series of high-profile scandals. Staff have been handed a dossier full of guidelines about how to report 'potential grooming' and 'rumours or evidence of a potential relationship involving an imbalance of
Team GB’s medal rush continues as Tommy Fleetwood bags silver in the golf and Amber Rutter clinches second place in the shooting as Britain’s athletes score bronzes in the gymnastics and dressage
Read More

Team GB’s medal rush continues as Tommy Fleetwood bags silver in the golf and Amber Rutter clinches second place in the shooting as Britain’s athletes score bronzes in the gymnastics and dressage

It has been another fantastic day for Team GB at the Olympics, as we sweep another four medals with high hopes for more in the athletics later tonight.  Spectacular performances were put on in shooting, gymnastics, equestrian and golf taking Britain's medal total to 37 - just behind Australia, France, the USA and China.  Tommy