As many of you know, what we film, where we film, and many other factors of the show, are a function of ability to obtain public land filming permits from the Forest Service and BLM. Just part of the deal that comes with filming exclusively on public lands.
When the government shut down, we had two filming permits that were not yet finalized. Well, one not yet finalized and one that needed to be processed due to changes in our schedule.
A big relief to our filming permit worries when the government re-opened last week. Or, so I thought.
In spite of a great Forest Service employee doing everything possible, short flying to DC and fixing their computer system, we cannot get a filming permit in time for our Montana elk hunt next week. Seems the computer system that processes Special Use permits is off line until next Thursday. We start packing in and filming on Friday, with the hunt starting on Saturday. No way they can get it approved in that one day, given it usually is a six-week process.
The FS employees have done all they can, within the bounds of reasonableness to try find a way to get us a permit. They are always extremely helpful to us, appreciating that we are showing the recreation values on lands they manage. But, sometimes large agencies are not granted any flexibility and things don't get fixed at the speed I am accustomed to in a twelve-person CPA firm.
So, I sit here this morning, one week from opening day, pondering, "What to do?"
I want to pay the fee and get this on film. About $1,750 for a week, plus a $100 processing fee.
I don't want to miss this hunt. It is on the schedule and we need it to get enough episodes this year, given one of our hunts this year had some technical difficulties that we did not discover until we got home.
I am using a public resource, so I should pay a fee for using it in my commercial activities, even if I think the fee is rather exorbitant.
I am told that the Forest Service cannot grant film permits retroactively. Supposedly, you have to have the permit in hand at the time you are filming. Or, at least that is what I am told. I had hoped I could have my application pending with them before we left for the hunt, with the fee paid in full, then get the permit finalized at a later date.
I was also told at one time that denial of filming permits in designated Wilderness Areas was due to a Federal law. I have since come to find out it is an administrative decision at each Regional level, not a Federal law. Thus, Region One here in Montana and a couple other Regions in the Northern Rockies have that as their rule, but other Regions in AZ, NV, NM issue Wilderness Area filming permits on a case-by-case basis.
So, being told that permits cannot be given retroactively is not something I am taking as the gospel, as experience tells me that often times what is just an administrative rule is stated to be a law. I will continue to press the option of getting this permit finalized after the fact.
Anyone can film on public lands without a permit, so long as the footage is not used for commercial use. In my case, it kind of defeats the purpose of filming an episode if I can't use it in the show. Not going to incur thousands of dollars of production expense and not be able to put it on the tube.
What it comes down to is this.
I am going elk hunting next weekend.
I have found a really good bull in a nasty pile of junk. He has been there both times I have went scouting and glassing.
It is a public land area that is open to the general tag. It is not any fun to get in there and will be a two-day chore to pack him out if I am so lucky as to shoot him.
I want to film it and show people how good the public land elk hunting can be in Montana. To show people some ideas they might want to try when they come here. Ideas that include coming a day or two early for scouting, even if that means one less day of hunting; not setting up camp and drinking beer for an extra day, but pounding the hills and finding elk before the first rifle cracks. Being mobile and flexible rather than setting up a huge camp that you probably would not want to relocate, even if the elk are far from your chosen location. How to hunt public areas that are very close to exclusive private outfitted ranches (I might be giving too many details) and how the bulls often hang higher on the mountain, above the private and still on the public; albeit the nastiest part of the public.
If I can't solve the permit issue this week, I am still going hunting. I will film it by myself, as the production company cannot take the risk to be associated with a hunt that is not permitted in advance. I understand that and would not want to put them in the position.
If I decide to film it myself, it will require one trip to haul in my cameras, tripods, and accessories and another trip to haul in my camp; loads usually split among me and camera guys that can be done in one trip. Will probably make one trip on Thursday and cache the production gear, scout that evening, come out in the dark, and then go in with my camp on Friday morning and scout all day, hoping to have the bull(s) located that night.
If the hunt works out and I can get some decent footage by myself, I will continue to seek a filming permit retroactively, so I can put it on the TV show. My greatest hope.
If I can't get it a retroactive permit and the footage is worth showing, I guess it will be a freebie that viewers can watch YouTube. I would load it up for non-commercial purposes and still be in compliance with the rules. Not good for me, but good for people who don't get the Sportsman Channel.
Our other pending permit is with the BLM. It has been in their office for a couple months. The person in charge of permits for that office was out sick much of September, so the permit never got finished before the shut down. We have worked with that office before and they are always good about getting things done for us. If for some reason their system is down and cannot get us a permit, we will lose two episodes that were supposed to come from that hunt and this TV show will be in a bad, bad, way.
Not sure how we would make up three episodes. Actually four, if we cannot salvage one we have already filmed for this season. I guess you will see a lot of wolf hunting, even if it had to be on private lands.
It is times like this that frustrate me. I know many of the other shows that occasionally film on public lands don't even bother with this headache - it saves them money and saves them this kind of hassle. They, or their employees, tell me such. The agencies often remark that I am the only one who has applied for a filming permit, yet I know of many shows filmed on their forest or district.
But, I am not about cutting corners. I want to do it right and show how great the hunting can be on some of these public lands. Surely makes me want a simpler system, such as the bill in Congress last year that would have made it a $500 annual fee for any/all Federal lands, so long as your crew was less than 5 people. That would make too much sense, so it got shot down in the politics of an election year.
I hope you get to see this one on the network. But who knows, maybe I will carry my camp in there, go through all this extraneous effort, sleep on this frozen rock for a couple nights, only to find that the the bull is long gone, and all of this worry is for nothing. He would be my biggest bull ever and to do it on this piece of public land would be such a great story for a show like ours. Heck, I would be glad to shoot one of the three other bulls that are on the same mountain.
Moral of the story - Don't start a public land TV show.
End of my whining. Happy hunting.
When the government shut down, we had two filming permits that were not yet finalized. Well, one not yet finalized and one that needed to be processed due to changes in our schedule.
A big relief to our filming permit worries when the government re-opened last week. Or, so I thought.
In spite of a great Forest Service employee doing everything possible, short flying to DC and fixing their computer system, we cannot get a filming permit in time for our Montana elk hunt next week. Seems the computer system that processes Special Use permits is off line until next Thursday. We start packing in and filming on Friday, with the hunt starting on Saturday. No way they can get it approved in that one day, given it usually is a six-week process.
The FS employees have done all they can, within the bounds of reasonableness to try find a way to get us a permit. They are always extremely helpful to us, appreciating that we are showing the recreation values on lands they manage. But, sometimes large agencies are not granted any flexibility and things don't get fixed at the speed I am accustomed to in a twelve-person CPA firm.
So, I sit here this morning, one week from opening day, pondering, "What to do?"
I want to pay the fee and get this on film. About $1,750 for a week, plus a $100 processing fee.
I don't want to miss this hunt. It is on the schedule and we need it to get enough episodes this year, given one of our hunts this year had some technical difficulties that we did not discover until we got home.
I am using a public resource, so I should pay a fee for using it in my commercial activities, even if I think the fee is rather exorbitant.
I am told that the Forest Service cannot grant film permits retroactively. Supposedly, you have to have the permit in hand at the time you are filming. Or, at least that is what I am told. I had hoped I could have my application pending with them before we left for the hunt, with the fee paid in full, then get the permit finalized at a later date.
I was also told at one time that denial of filming permits in designated Wilderness Areas was due to a Federal law. I have since come to find out it is an administrative decision at each Regional level, not a Federal law. Thus, Region One here in Montana and a couple other Regions in the Northern Rockies have that as their rule, but other Regions in AZ, NV, NM issue Wilderness Area filming permits on a case-by-case basis.
So, being told that permits cannot be given retroactively is not something I am taking as the gospel, as experience tells me that often times what is just an administrative rule is stated to be a law. I will continue to press the option of getting this permit finalized after the fact.
Anyone can film on public lands without a permit, so long as the footage is not used for commercial use. In my case, it kind of defeats the purpose of filming an episode if I can't use it in the show. Not going to incur thousands of dollars of production expense and not be able to put it on the tube.
What it comes down to is this.
I am going elk hunting next weekend.
I have found a really good bull in a nasty pile of junk. He has been there both times I have went scouting and glassing.
It is a public land area that is open to the general tag. It is not any fun to get in there and will be a two-day chore to pack him out if I am so lucky as to shoot him.
I want to film it and show people how good the public land elk hunting can be in Montana. To show people some ideas they might want to try when they come here. Ideas that include coming a day or two early for scouting, even if that means one less day of hunting; not setting up camp and drinking beer for an extra day, but pounding the hills and finding elk before the first rifle cracks. Being mobile and flexible rather than setting up a huge camp that you probably would not want to relocate, even if the elk are far from your chosen location. How to hunt public areas that are very close to exclusive private outfitted ranches (I might be giving too many details) and how the bulls often hang higher on the mountain, above the private and still on the public; albeit the nastiest part of the public.
If I can't solve the permit issue this week, I am still going hunting. I will film it by myself, as the production company cannot take the risk to be associated with a hunt that is not permitted in advance. I understand that and would not want to put them in the position.
If I decide to film it myself, it will require one trip to haul in my cameras, tripods, and accessories and another trip to haul in my camp; loads usually split among me and camera guys that can be done in one trip. Will probably make one trip on Thursday and cache the production gear, scout that evening, come out in the dark, and then go in with my camp on Friday morning and scout all day, hoping to have the bull(s) located that night.
If the hunt works out and I can get some decent footage by myself, I will continue to seek a filming permit retroactively, so I can put it on the TV show. My greatest hope.
If I can't get it a retroactive permit and the footage is worth showing, I guess it will be a freebie that viewers can watch YouTube. I would load it up for non-commercial purposes and still be in compliance with the rules. Not good for me, but good for people who don't get the Sportsman Channel.
Our other pending permit is with the BLM. It has been in their office for a couple months. The person in charge of permits for that office was out sick much of September, so the permit never got finished before the shut down. We have worked with that office before and they are always good about getting things done for us. If for some reason their system is down and cannot get us a permit, we will lose two episodes that were supposed to come from that hunt and this TV show will be in a bad, bad, way.
Not sure how we would make up three episodes. Actually four, if we cannot salvage one we have already filmed for this season. I guess you will see a lot of wolf hunting, even if it had to be on private lands.
It is times like this that frustrate me. I know many of the other shows that occasionally film on public lands don't even bother with this headache - it saves them money and saves them this kind of hassle. They, or their employees, tell me such. The agencies often remark that I am the only one who has applied for a filming permit, yet I know of many shows filmed on their forest or district.
But, I am not about cutting corners. I want to do it right and show how great the hunting can be on some of these public lands. Surely makes me want a simpler system, such as the bill in Congress last year that would have made it a $500 annual fee for any/all Federal lands, so long as your crew was less than 5 people. That would make too much sense, so it got shot down in the politics of an election year.
I hope you get to see this one on the network. But who knows, maybe I will carry my camp in there, go through all this extraneous effort, sleep on this frozen rock for a couple nights, only to find that the the bull is long gone, and all of this worry is for nothing. He would be my biggest bull ever and to do it on this piece of public land would be such a great story for a show like ours. Heck, I would be glad to shoot one of the three other bulls that are on the same mountain.
Moral of the story - Don't start a public land TV show.
End of my whining. Happy hunting.
