Congressmen decry plan to restrict wilderness filming
The Statesman Journal
By Zac Urness
September 25, 2014
Four members of Oregon's congressional delegation have now denounced the U.S. Forest Service's plan to limit access to journalists, filmmakers and the general public to federal wilderness areas.
"This seems like a fairly ridiculous over-reach by the Forest Service," Rep. Kurt Schrader said in a statement. "I understand the need to protect our wilderness areas from commercial exploitation, but this is just silly."
Rep. Greg Walden echoed the sentiment. "Anything less than full transparency in public land management activities is unacceptable," Walden said in a letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell.
It didn't take long for Oregon's congressional delegation to denounce a restrictive set of rules proposed by the U.S. Forest Service.
The Statesman Journal reported Tuesday that the government agency was considering a permanent directive that would require journalists, filmmakers and even members of the public to get a special use permit costing upwards of $1,500 if they wanted to take pictures or video within federal wilderness areas and profit or raise funds with the images.
Journalists would have to present their story idea in advance to a Forest Service administrator — unless it was classified as "breaking news" — who would have the authority to decide whether the story has merit under the criteria of the directive. Fines for breaking the rule could cost upwards of $1,000.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told International Business Times the group would likely "challenge (the Forest Service) in court."
Closer to home, Rep. Peter DeFazio promised to organize opposition to the rules while tossing in a reference to the photo and video sharing app Instagram.
"This proposed rule is vague and could have a major impact on the way the media captures, documents, and promotes our public lands," DeFazio said. "What does the Forest Service plan to do next—monitor Instagram accounts and fine users that post pictures of our wilderness areas?
"In the coming days, I will organize and send the Forest Service a bipartisan letter telling them the current rule is unacceptable and that it needs to be fixed. Members of the press should be allowed to access and photograph these public lands, without a dictate on how they use the footage from bureaucrats in Washington, DC."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) was actually the first one to the first to jump into the fray.
"The Forest Service needs to rethink any policy that subjects noncommercial photographs and recordings to a burdensome permitting process for something as simple as taking a picture with a cell phone," he said in a statement. "Especially where reporters and bloggers are concerned, this policy raises troubling questions about inappropriate government limits on activity clearly protected by the First Amendment."
Liz Close, Acting Director of Wilderness for the U.S. Forest Service, said the proposal came straight from the 1964 Wilderness Act.
Oddly, the rules have been in place for 48 months but haven't been enforced. The proposal is in a public comment period with the rules being finalized in November.
"The Wilderness Act pretty clearly prohibits commercial enterprise in wilderness areas," she told the Statesman Journal in an interview on Tuesday.
A loose version of the rules have been around in the past, Forest Service officials said.
A proposal to film a commercial for an SUV in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness would always have been denied, for example. But critics said the Forest Service took that common sense idea and applied it overzealously.
All organizations, including documentary film crews, news organizations, nonprofits, and other entities, including private citizens planning to use produced material to raise funds, sell a product, or otherwise realize compensation in any form (including salary during the production) would need the special use permit and be subject to review, the Forest Service said.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for six years. He is the author of the book "Hiking Southern Oregon" and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Facebook at Zach's Oregon Outdoors or @ZachsORoutdoors on Twitter.
To submit comments on the proposed directive via email, send thoughts and opinions to: reply_lands@fs.fed.us.
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