I'm planning my first trip to the Boundary Waters and will be doing most of my photography with a GoPro and my DSLR, but I was curious to know if drones are allowed. I'm not planning on using it all that much, but would like to get a few aerial shots along my trip. I can't find any hard and fast rules so I thought I'd ask here.

From the Forest Service: UAS are considered to be "mechanized” equipment and cannot take off and land in designated Wilderness Areas on National Forest System lands.

I don't think so. This was discussed here in the last few months.

Personally, I would be really ticked if I was camping and a drone was near. The company next to us at work flew a drone for around 30 minutes to take some movies of our building for their website. Neat to watch the thing flying around, as I had never seen one flying before, but I would never want to see one in the woods, unless I had a drone hunting license and plenty of ammo. I hear them are good eatin'!

I would probably put having a drone buzzing around right up there with bringing boom boxes, loudly singing, drunk as a skunk loud voices late at night, and a few other things with respect to majorly annoying things to encounter in the BWCA/Quetico.

Tomster

To nip this in the bud before it goes off in a major rant of "what if" and "invading my space" posts, just call the ranger station and ask. Do us a favor though. Come back and post what they said so we all know.

BTW, a UAS is an unmanned aircraft system and is the term being used for what most people call a drone. That is described on the FS FAQ on the topic.

The page I linked of the FS rules has links to more info on their use by the FS and others on FS land and a database of FS wildernesses at wilderness.net. BWCAW is included.

quote Jackfish: "To nip this in the bud before it goes off in a major rant of "what if" and "invading my space" posts, just call the ranger station and ask. Do us a favor though. Come back and post what they said so we all know."

Great advice. I emailed them and they said "Drones are NOT allowed in the BWCA". So there ya go.

I think andym gave a pretty definitive answer right off the bat.

quote Kev9712: "

quote Jackfish: "To nip this in the bud before it goes off in a major rant of "what if" and "invading my space" posts, just call the ranger station and ask. Do us a favor though. Come back and post what they said so we all know."

Great advice. I emailed them and they said "Drones are NOT allowed in the BWCA". So there ya go."

This makes me happy.

Attach a gopro to a kite and fly it from your canoe. ;)

Kite photography is a real thing. Definitely a way to get some aerials in the wilderness. I know people who do it to get aerials of field sites when doing research.

quote keth0601: "Attach a gopro to a kite and fly it from your canoe. ;)"

So I guess the next question is flying a kite in the BWCA legal?

I've taken a kite up with me 2-3 times. It's never left the bottom of my pack.
I guess I just feel like it would be visual pollution and I wouldn't want to look out across the lake at someone else's kite. "do unto others . . ."