Chief Tidwell Directs Forest Service: No Permits, Fees for Journos

November 5, 2014

"News coverage on [National Forest System] lands is protected by the Constitution," wrote U.S. Forest Service Chief Thomas L. Tidwell in a November 4, 2014, memo to agency leaders, "and it is our responsibility to safeguard this right on the lands we manage for all Americans. Journalists provide a critical public service, and this agency will ensure their access in the pursuit of that public service."

Just in case you were wondering. The all-hands memo made clear an open-to-journalism policy even before it could be formalized in an official agency directive. That includes an open-to-public presumption as well.

Alarm was originally raised among journalists when the Forest Service published a notice in the September 4, 2014, Federal Register outlining a proposed directive for handling permits and fees for "commercial filming" on USFS wilderness lands. That directive was merely an attempt to carry out a mandate from Congress in a law passed in 2000. The original law was not meant to apply to journalists, but rather to large commercial Hollywood filming operations. But the law was poorly drafted, and failed to specifically exempt journalists or documentarians.

Tidwell's November 4 memo makes clear that journalists need no permits to film on USFS land — a policy Tidwell himself stated in interviews during September. The WatchDog obtained a copy of the memo, and a Forest Service spokesperson confirmed that it was authentic and had been sent out.

Tidwell's memo avoids the problem of defining who is a journalist. But it does make clear what the Forest Service does NOT consider "commercial" activity.

"Journalism is not to be considered a commercial activity for purposes of the regulations or our permit policies on any NFS lands. Journalism includes, but is not limited to: breaking news, b-roll, feature news, news documentaries, long-form pieces, background, blogs, and any other act that could be considered related to news-gathering," Tidwell writes in the memo.

The memo seems to ensure unfettered access to the forests for small-scale (and low-impact) documentary filmmakers — one of the groups most concerned about proposed rules.

"If the activity presents no more impact on the land than that of the general public, then it shall be exempt from permit requirements," Tidwell wrote.