Man sentenced to jail time after reckless stunt in protected national park: 'Caused damage to park resources and foot travel'

Yiyang Shen, a 25-year-old of Doraville, Georgia, was sentenced to fines and jail time for damaging the iconic Yellowstone National Park, according to NBC Montana.

"Mr. Shen was charged with operating a motor vehicle in a prohibited area in a manner that caused damage to park resources and foot travel in a thermal area not confined to any designated and marked trail or boardwalk," said a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office of Wyoming.

For parking his car in a thermal area, Shen was sentenced to a week in jail, five years of unsupervised probation, a fine of $1,050, and a ban from Yellowstone.

Shen wasn't the only one sentenced recently for disrupting Yellowstone; the same update from the Attorney's Office included two more public land violations.

One man was caught driving drunk in Yellowstone. It was his third DUI in 10 years, for which he was charged $3,050 and received 10 days of jail time. Meanwhile, a woman was sentenced to a week in jail and a $40 fine for walking off the path and 10 feet onto the cone of the Old Faithful geyser.

Park areas have these stiff penalties and movement restrictions because ecosystems are more delicate than we anticipate.

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Thermal areas in Yellowstone, for example, are full of microbes that have evolved for particular heat levels and water chemistry. Contaminating these pools threatens those balances, as can be seen in color changes in some of them.

While visitors might think that going off-path does little more than disturb the rocks underfoot, human presence scares local wildlife away from the habitat it needs for feeding, mating, or shelter. The larger the impact of human activity, the less there is for plants and animals.

Besides the ecological damage, thermal areas pose a safety concern for visitors who get too close. Visitors have been burned from getting too close, and some have even died.

For those who need a refresher, Yellowstone regulations can be found here.