Instagrammers Are Killing This Field Of Poppies (HBO)

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve has a few rules: Don’t bring your dog to the park, don’t eat food along the trail, and don’t fly drones overhead. The most important? Stay on the trail. But during this season’s super bloom, a semi-rare outbreak of golden poppies in spring, staff at the reserve have had a difficult time making sure swarms of kids, families, and models posing for Instagram follow along without trampling the delicate wildflowers.

On a typical day, the park sees about 60 visitors. During super bloom season that number skyrockets to around 2,000. Jean Rhyne, who has been an interpreter at the reserve for 13 years, has been vocal about the long-term impact this can have on the park’s natural wildlife.

“This park was created specifically because of the poppies that are here,” Rhyne told Vice News, “And if they get stepped on or sat on to take a picture in [...] it compacts the soil and then the roots from the seeds of the next year can't get in. So we'll have scars in the habitat for many years to come. ”

Super blooms in California tend to occur about once a decade on average, dependent upon heavy rainfall and favorable temperatures, but this season is the second the reserve has seen in three years. In 2017, there was what Rhyne calls the “Apopalypse,” when park staff first saw a significant and unexpected rise in visitorship, most of whom were drawn there for social media.

Since then, the reserve has tried to adapt, hiring staff from other California State Parks, providing numerous trails and walkways, and even using their hashtag #DontDoomTheBloom to inform people about the potential harm before they visit.

But this hasn’t deterred people from getting their perfect shot. Fewer than 300 Instagram posts have the #DontDoomTheBloom tag while more than 147,000 are tagged #superbloom. 45,000 have the hashtag #CaliforniaPoppies.

This year has also brought some unique problems. In March, a pair landed a helicopter in the middle of a field of poppies. When a park ranger approached the couple, they ran back to the helicopter and fled. The reserve responded to the incident in a since-deleted post on Facebook: “We never thought it would be explicitly necessary to state that it is illegal to land a helicopter in the middle of the fields and begin hiking off trail. We were wrong.”

Rhyne, on the other hand, was not surprised. “You just never know what's going to happen out here,” she said. “People do weird things.”

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[VICENews]

On a typical day, the park sees about 60 visitors. During super bloom season that number skyrockets to around 2, 000.

[strawberry]

this sucks :/ it bothers me that those people interviewed said they were careful and try to act like they’re better than the other people taking pictures but you can clearly see them stepping on the flowers :( you don’t need to step into the field people, just taking a picture from the trail or not taking a picture at all is fine

[shrom]

0:58 "California Poppies are fragile"
Backflips on the flowers

[hannahh]

Give them fines. Steep fines. There are fines for littering, destruction is destruction.

[elainabaugher]

people care more about taking a picture of a beautiful sight then actually enjoying it

[cerisevanille]

"Kinda love being one with the Earth"

Proceeds to smush flowers... sigh

[ThatSayanGuy]

The lack of self-awareness of these "instagrammers" is astonishing. "Part of the earth", you literally just killed it bro. Why not take a picture from the main path only. Instagrammers are definitely the pests here...

[Sophia-xpnf]

“It’s kind of sad to see a flower die” *proceeds to sit on flowers*

Smh 🤦‍♀️

[-Kryll-]

"Cus its kinda sad to watch a flower die under your foot"

*proceeds to lay on flower*

[arizonarangershat]

I really wish there was an “wall of shame” kinda thing for people who do this. Oh taking a cute picture in the poppies? Oh well we took a picture of you too.

[ashrafredzuan]

So they are destroying a habitat, so they can have a photo portraying themselves being one with the earth?

[jaymeeleighjxx]

In the UK you can be fined for damaging or killing red poppies due to it being our rememberence flower

*edit-wtf 3.7k likes😢 thanks folks*

[spencerreidenthusiast]

The paths are just as pretty! Take pictures on the paths in front of them!

[deryasonmez]

“Poppies are fragile and could be destroyed easily.”
*guy does a flip landing in the poppies*

[nokay]

“It’s sad to see a flower die” and “people aren’t gonna be respectful because they want to get the shot”

*-Says the people who literally sit on flowers and take pictures on them*

[gayleralan]

"People won't be that respectful" she says while standing on a flower!

[fanfaretloudest]

Crap like this makes me sometimes wish the internet/ social media never existed.

[lightdarkequivalent]

They don't appreciate the flowers

They appreciate the likes, comments, and shares

[skinnywhalelegend]

I hate influencers and people who follow them.

[garrettwooding]

Lol she’s yelling and nobody is listening 😂😂😂 somebody invest in a megaphone for this woman please