Looking to send a message to Yellowstone National Park visitors, a federal judge has levied some relatively stiff penalties on a young man who walked across one of the park’s thermal areas this spring.

Prosecutors say Viktor Pyshniuk left the boardwalk and went over a fence to walk within 20 feet of Steamboat Geyser’s steam vent on April 19.

Pyshniuk, a 21-year-old Ukrainian who lives in Lynwood, Washington, was cited for and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of thermal trespass and a closure violation. At a June 4 hearing in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court, Magistrate Judge Stephanie Hambrick of Mammoth Hot Springs imposed seven days of jail time, $1,550 worth of financial penalties and banned Pyshniuk from Yellowstone for the next two years.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming, Hambrick explained that the sentence was intended to not only deter Pyshniuk from leaving the boardwalk again, but also other members of the public.

“She expressed her concern that the defendant’s actions were seen by the people around him, and they might have thought it was OK to do the same thing,” the attorney’s office wrote in a press release. “And if every visitor to [Yellowstone] disobeyed the rules, the park would be destroyed, and no one would be able to enjoy it.”

Pyshniuk represented himself after waiving his right to a defense attorney. Court records indicate he is not fluent in English, as he was assisted by a translator and spoke in Ukrainian during this month’s hearing.

Pyshniuk’s trespassing had been reported by a park employee, who snapped a photo of the young man off-trail in the Norris Geyser Basin area. When a ranger tracked down the suspect, Pyshniuk reportedly explained that he’d been trying to get photos of Steamboat Geyser, which is the world’s tallest active geyser. The ranger, however, noted the numerous signs warning to stay on the boardwalk and the danger of walking in the “heated unpredictable geothermal area,” prosecutors said; Steamboat Geyser erupts at irregular intervals, blasting scalding water up to 300 feet in the air, and the surrounding ground can be unstable.

“Trespassing in closed, thermal areas of Yellowstone National Park is dangerous and harms the natural resource,” Acting U.S. Attorney Eric Heimann said in a statement. “In cases like this one where we have strong evidence showing a person has willfully disregarded signs and entered a closed, thermal area, federal prosecutors will seek significant penalties, including jail time.”

Pyshniuk has been given until Christmas to serve his week-long sentence at a federal facility near his home and has until June 2025 to pay his $1,500 fine. During his two years of unsupervised probation, he’ll need to obey the law and stay outside the boundaries of Yellowstone.

Pyshniuk’s sentence for venturing into the thermal was significantly tougher than the one given to actor Pierce Brosnan in March. Brosnan was cited after he publicly shared a photo of himself posing off-trail near the Mammoth Hot Springs last fall.

Prosecutors sought a $5,000 fine and two years of probation for Brosnan, but Hambrick opted to just impose $1,540 worth of financial penalties. The famed performer repeatedly apologized for his actions and said he never saw warning signs amid the snowy November conditions.

At Pyshniuk’s sentencing this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Hambrick made a point of saying that the 3-foot high fence around the Steamboat Geyser boardwalk was “a clear sign that the area is closed and prohibited from entering.”