USFS Admits Putting Surveillance Cameras on Public Lands

Last month, Herman Jacob took his daughter and her friend camping in the Francis Marion National Forest. While poking around for some firewood, Jacob noticed a wire. He pulled on it and followed it to a video camera and antenna.

Read more . . . http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/15/1173660/us-forest-service-admits-putting.html

That is some real . The police state is becoming more of a reality.

Yank wrote:

That is some real . The police state is becoming more of a reality.

Yup . . . no foolin', coming to Public Lands near you soon!!!

Well, a ski mask and a hammer takes care of the ones that I would find.

Foxfire wrote:

Well, a ski mask and a hammer takes care of the ones that I would find.

!2 GA. practice for me!

Thought I would chime in on this one. I work in the Forest Products industry ... in fact, my last job was with a major landowner with lands (380,000 + acres) in the immediate vicinity of the Francis Marion National Forest. We utilized cameras for several purposes: timber theft (a much bigger problem than you'd imagine), illegal dumping, etc.

I do not know what the FS was trying to catch on camera, but I'd be willing to bet it was either marijuana growers, or the dumping of meth lab waste ... probably the latter. We usually found one meth lab dump a month and they are expensive to clean up since the material is classified as hazardous material ... an average size dump will cost about $25K to clean if it was not dumped into a stream or ditch. I personally have no problems with this.

I wish the FS would have put out cameras at Tellico when the fee tubes were being broken into on a weekly basis a few years ago. The FS lost something in the neighborhood of $50 - 75K in those heists.

I for one hope they are protecting the assets of all of us taxpayers. I have seen enough of OUR assets fettered away and stolen from federal property that I don't have an issue of the correct and justified application of surveillance technology.

RMEF Lifer wrote:

Thought I would chime in on this one. I work in the Forest Products industry ... in fact, my last job was with a major landowner with lands (380,000 + acres) in the immediate vicinity of the Francis Marion National Forest. We utilized cameras for several purposes: timber theft (a much bigger problem than you'd imagine), illegal dumping, etc.

I do not know what the FS was trying to catch on camera, but I'd be willing to bet it was either marijuana growers, or the dumping of meth lab waste ... probably the latter. We usually found one meth lab dump a month and they are expensive to clean up since the material is classified as hazardous material ... an average size dump will cost about $25K to clean if it was not dumped into a stream or ditch. I personally have no problems with this.

I wish the FS would have put out cameras at Tellico when the fee tubes were being broken into on a weekly basis a few years ago. The FS lost something in the neighborhood of $50 - 75K in those heists.

I for one hope they are protecting the assets of all of us taxpayers. I have seen enough of OUR assets fettered away and stolen from federal property that I don't have an issue of the correct and justified application of surveillance technology.

Thank you for chiming in with some reasonable uses for the devices! I spoke with a mod on another SXS forum who sells these through his business to the NFS and he cited basically the same uses you did which I understand and can support.

My "12 GA. practice" comment was mostly in jest and I don't advocate destroying or removing anything in our National Forests, BLM Land or anywhere else.

It’s just that I've had enough Government in my life and hope they don't use the pictures they may get of guys stopping along the trail to take a leak behind a bush to charge them as sex offenders. Here in CA urinating in Public carries that charge and gets you on “Megan’s List”.

The Lyin King wrote:

Thank you for chiming in with some reasonable uses for the devices! I spoke with a mod on another SXS forum who sells these through his business to the NFS and he cited basically the same uses you did which I understand and can support.

My "12 GA. practice" comment was mostly in jest and I don't advocate destroying or removing anything in our National Forests, BLM Land or anywhere else.

It’s just that I've had enough Government in my life and hope they don't use the pictures they may get of guys stopping along the trail to take a leak behind a bush to charge them as sex offenders. Here in CA urinating in Public carries that charge and gets you on “Megan’s List”.

I understand your comments completely. As you pointed out, I just wanted to point out the typical uses for the Forest Service (and for private industry) for these devices. The devices themselves are not malicious, but they can be used for malicious purposes ....

RMEF Lifer wrote:

The Lyin King wrote:

Thank you for chiming in with some reasonable uses for the devices! I spoke with a mod on another SXS forum who sells these through his business to the NFS and he cited basically the same uses you did which I understand and can support.

My "12 GA. practice" comment was mostly in jest and I don't advocate destroying or removing anything in our National Forests, BLM Land or anywhere else.

It’s just that I've had enough Government in my life and hope they don't use the pictures they may get of guys stopping along the trail to take a leak behind a bush to charge them as sex offenders. Here in CA urinating in Public carries that charge and gets you on “Megan’s List”.

I understand your comments completely. As you pointed out, I just wanted to point out the typical uses for the Forest Service (and for private industry) for these devices. The devices themselves are not malicious, but they can be used for malicious purposes ....

Thank you for helping to inform us all.

The Lyin King wrote:

Thank you for helping to inform us all.

Yep, it's always good to hear from all sides of an issue.

Yank wrote:

The Lyin King wrote:

Thank you for helping to inform us all.

Yep, it's always good to hear from all sides of an issue.

For sure....thanks for the post as I would have more than likely knocked them down, not knowing of the info that you posted....thanks RMEF Lifter!!

No problem guys ... The company I used to work for owns a lot of land in WV and we ALWAYS had a camera somewhere on every logging job. Veneer grade Black Cherry logs are too valuable not to keep a tab on.