May 26 (UPI & Gephardt Daily) — Park Rangers in California’s Santa Monica Mountains have a message for amorous high schoolers: Stop defacing National Parks for promposals.
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area posted a photo to Facebook of a rock bearing a gigantic one-word message in white spray paint: “Prom?”
The post, authored by “Ranger Zach,” said the promposal wasn’t even original — a near-identical piece of graffiti was cleaned from a rock in the same area last year.
“We love hearing about creative promposals, but damaging public lands is not the way to do it. For the second year in a row, the same graffiti message has been scrawled on a rock near Sandstone Peak,” the Facebook post said.
Graffiti vandals have left their mark on a number of the national parks in Utah in recent years, although there have no reports of promposals.
In April, 2016 vandals carved their names into rock formations at Arches National Park outside Moab. Park rangers called the damage irreparable.
Tagging structures in national parks has becomes somewhat of fad in recent years, as so-called graffiti artists have begun using natural settings as canvasses as opposed to urban landscapes.
New York artist Casey Nocket, 22, made headlines in 2014 when she was charged with defacing seven national parks, including Zion and Canyonlands. Federal authorities tracked Nocket down after she posted images of her “artwork” on a variety of social media outlets.
Nocket ultimately pleaded guilty to defacing national parks and received a suspended two-year prison sentence.
