Trib: USFS Botches Photography Rule
The U.S. Forest Service could not have done a better job blowing out the candles on the National Wilderness Act’s 50th birthday cake if it had tried. Rather than focusing on this uniquely American endeavor — no other nation on Earth has preserved portions of the natural world untouched by civilization - it has decided to reinforce every possible negative wilderness stereotype:
- Wilderness is elitist. It favors the trust fund baby who can afford to hire an outfitter to haul his fat butt across the Frank Church wilderness over working-class Idahoans who have to walk in.
- Wilderness areas are treated as a private preserve by an unelected federal bureaucracy or judiciary.
- There’s something secretive about lands the public never sees or learns about.
Fueling those impressions is a Forest Service directive that - until it blew up last week - was on its way toward transforming the agency into the arbiter of news coverage in those areas. Anything that was not breaking news, an interim rule four years in the making said, was commercial photography or filmmaking in nature and therefore subject to permits/ Marty Trillhaase , Lewiston Tribune. More here .
Question: Do you think this rule will ever go into effect?
* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Huckleberries Online." Read all stories from this blog