$1,000 Fine for Taking Pictures in a National Forest

Jeanne Marie Hoffman October 1, 2014 News 4 Comments

The National Forest Services has announced it will begin regulating photography in the US National Forests. Â Those who do not obtain a pricey permit face a $1,000 fine for snapping away.

Roadtrippers had the scoop:

If the plans are finalized in November, any media with a camera, even a simple cell phone camera, will have to purchase a permit from the Forest Service if they plan on taking photographs in places likeÂ Mount HoodÂ orÂ Mount Jefferson, permits that can cost nearly $1500. If they refuse, they risk being fined $1000 for the infraction.Â

Due toÂ the backlash from this story, the NFS has clarified that photos for non-commercial use or financial benefit would be excluded from this permit requirement.

Which leads me to ask–if I get Google ads and write a report about my visit to the forest–would that trigger a fine?

Either way, it sounds like the US National Forest system is getting pretty complicated for such a natural (and free) beauty.

4 comments

Captain
October 1, 2014 at 9:32 pm

This is really ridiculous.

Kevin @ GhettoIFE
October 1, 2014 at 10:05 pm

I know this one well after having an active discussion with the Atomium in Brussels.

Bottom line: I didn’t feature them in a travel article about Brussels.

DJ
October 1, 2014 at 10:32 pm

the economy is so bad you see people requesting $ every chance they get, tip jar/tip line for even food take out orders, “charity” donations on online shopping/travel sites. no surprise this monetizing is coming down from all angles. welcome to china.

Ric Garrido
October 1, 2014 at 11:05 pm

The irony here is the California State Parks system is said to have been created when Andrew P. Hill was driven off a Santa Cruz landowners redwood trees tourist attraction in 1899 for trying to photograph big trees without paying the owner.

Hill raised awareness of the issue of saving giant redwoods from private ownership and timber industry. Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains was established in 1902 as the first state park of California’s modern park system. The land he was kicked out of in Santa Cruz is now Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

I wrote this story last year on the two parks and the story of Andrew P. Hill.

http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2013/11/16/the-hill-that-saved-santa-cruz-mountains-redwoods/

Here are two other sources for the story that created California Redwood State Park, the first state park of California.
http://www.vpa.org/andrew-hill.html

The Creation of the Park http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=916

And it all started with a man who was not allowed to take photographs of nature.