Who even knew this was illegal???
Permits? Permits? He don't need no steenkin' permits! (or shouldn't. It IS public land).
I knew it. This policy (to charge photographers/film crews) on public lands was adopted during the Clinton Administration years, and I was opposed to it then.
The problem is the fees are outrageous, so a smalltime writer/photographer is basically shut out of doing these on public lands. These photographers/writers generally make up a crew of a few people, and very unlikely to cause any environmental damage. This is part of the package the public got when the USFS, etc., began charging fees for the public to camp on, use, national forests.