USFS backs off wilderness photo restrictions
By Rob Davis, Oregonian
The U.S. Forest Service’s chief backed off proposed restrictions on photography in wilderness areas Thursday after facing sweeping protests from lawmakers, First Amendment advocates and media outlets across the country.
“The U.S. Forest Service remains committed to the First Amendment,” the agency’s chief, Tom Tidwell, said in a statement. “To be clear, provisions in the draft directive do not apply to news gathering or activities.”
The USFS is looking at revising rules for filming/photographing wilderness areas like Desolation. Photo/LTN file
Tidwell’s statement said he was attempting to “clarify the agency’s intentions” and would not require a permit for news-gathering or recreational photographs in wilderness areas.
Tidwell didn’t explain why others in his agency told the Oregonian the opposite just two days earlier.
On Tuesday, Liz Close, the agency’s acting wilderness director, said the Forest Service would permit reporting in wilderness depending on its subject matter, with exceptions for breaking news. “If you were engaged on reporting that was in support of wilderness characteristics, that would be permitted,” Close said.
She acknowledged that reporters shooting videos, even on iPhones, would need special permits.
The agency’s news release Thursday said the maximum $1,500 permit fees were “erroneous, and refers to a different proposed directive.”
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LTN notes:
- To comment on the proposal, go online. The deadline is Dec. 3.
- The number of film requests the local USFS office gets was not immediately available.
- Here is a statement from the National Press Photographers Association.
What’s the matter with these folks? I’ve predicted for a while that the popularity of attacking public service employees would eventually reduce the quality of the employees as well as their service. But it’s a bit early to already be seeing such stupidity.
They are overstepping their authority to generate revenue. It is a public area.
Are these ridiculous ideas coming from the Bummer or his appointees? During the shutdown last fall it was thought these federal fools would try to put a giant sheet over national monuments like Mt. Rushmore and the Tetons where people were harassed and escorted off public lands, this is pretty close. Pure idiocy and another agency out of control that needs elimination so the states can manage their own lands.
This is beyond stupidity!
The proposed changes are understandable in the context of attempting to regulate commercial use of taxpayer’s land for profit (Cliven Bundy comes to mind). However, like bureaucrats everywhere, they overextend and doom themselves to public ridicule. And, especially with the Forest Service, it isn’t so much the regulations themselves as it is the impossibly officious bureaucracy. Anyone who has dealt with them on a professional level knows their legendary lack of accountability and timeliness. They always have all the time in the world…
And, of course, it is all the President’s fault. (Sarcasm)
It was great the way the boots on the ground contained the King fire. Then boobs in the board room come up with ideas like this.
I thought we all “owned” wilderness areas.