Permits required for photography in US national forests?

[ehackett]

I recently read a news story about the US Forest Service requiring a permit for photography of any sort--commercial, hobbits, snap-shooter, cell phone.  The price was pretty high and the fine for not having a permit was substantial.  Some think this was motivated by criticism of the forest service that appears in blogs, accompanied by photos.  Apparently this is a proposed policy and we're in a comment period, and comments opposing the policy have been coming in pretty strongly.  Those of us interested in landscape photography might wish to keep an eye on this matter and perhaps write to someone (a member of congress, the forest service).  Here's a link to a recent news article.  There are more recent items for the googling, but I could not bring myself to pass along a link to a Fox News story....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/09/26/u-s-forest-service-to-clarify-wild-land-photography-permits-says-media-wont-be-affected/


Best wishes,

Ed

[pluton]

The USFS Chief went on NPR and everywhere else that would listen and stated clearly---though not in these words--- that all normal personal photographic activities(vacation photos, personal projects, scientific research)were automatically allowed without special permits as they always have been.
The new[update: not new, the language has been in place for several years], seemingly all-encompassing language may have been an attempt to more strictly regulate commercial users who are presently skirting the rules, or just bureaucratic bungling. 
Diglloyd's blog (the free part) has gone a bit 'black helicopter' over this.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

There is already a two-page thread on this subject:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=93745.0