Zion NP Busts Illegal Photo Tour Leader

Kudos to the law enforcement rangers at Zion NP for investigating and prosecuting this photographer who tried to lead a tour into the Subway. He even tried to lie about his intentions, stating that his group was merely a bunch of friends! I hope to see continued aggressive enforcement at other parks and BLM areas.

Photography Guide Convicted for Operating a Commercial Business in Zion National Park

I know the name, but have never met him.

$500 is not much of a deterrent, and denying future Commercial Use Permits is only a "maybe" !?

I agree, $500 is nothing

I couldn't quite tell if you are being sarcastic. I didn't realize it was illegal to lead photo tours in Zion. Is this true in other NPs?

His going rate for the Zion tour is $450.00. $500.00 is hardly a reason for being dishonest with the NP Rangers.

OMG, Steve Sieran of all people!
And he is probably just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure there are plenty of outlaw tours being conducted in Arches and Canyonlands alone. Although the fine may seem a pittance,it does almost guarantee that he will not be running another one of these tours. Hopefully, this is just the beginning. The Park Service needs to publicize this bust heavily and let others know that it will not be tolerated.
If they had time, all they need to do is to Google 'photographic tours and workshops' to find plenty more scofflaws.
Thanks for pointing this out, Bret.

"I didn't realize it was illegal to lead photo tours in Zion."

It's not if you're properly permitted, trained and insured.
Darwin Wiggett wrote a blog post on this subject. You may recognize one of the respondents.

Whats funny is he told the rangers it wasn't a workshop but here is his post about Zion from his Facebook page:

"What another darn bridge view from Zion? Yes! There is something a little different about this take though? Every participant in all of my recent Zion workshops has wanted the Bridge Shot and they come from far to get it. There's so much other stuff to photograph in Zion but they want that iconic shot so they get what they want! Looks like the color in Zion is predicted to be a little earlier then last year. No matter what there will be a mob of photographers on that bridge with pitch forks staking their claim on the bridge. I do have one spot left my Sold Out Nov workshop there, it's not listed on my site since I just had one cancellation".

It would have been something if the ranger said "sorry folks, this is an illegal workshop and you need to leave now"!!!

Tax dollars dont pay for my studio. Why should they pay for his.
Joe Rogers

The issue wasn't just leading a workshop without a permit, he was trying to lead a workshop in The Subway. There are no permits for commercial guiding in The Subway, only private/non-commercial permits. What that means is, even if you ask, the park service will not give you a permit for a workshop in The Subway; That's because the area is wilderness managed and commercial permits are not allowed, hence why you don't see The Subway listed on any reputable workshop.

I do think this also brings to light the issue of permits on federal land. There needs to be an easier way to get the information and apply for the proper permits whether it's a National Park, National Forest or BLM area. A permit that covered multiple national parks (or allows you to select 10, etc) for a set price would bring in more revenue and make it easier for the photographers.

Well, Steve shouldn't have quit NPN, maybe our ethics would have rubbed off on him.

Although I understand the issue here with the subway and being a wilderness area, but how would a park ranger pick out a photographer trying to lead a workshop without a permit rather than a group of photographers gathering to shoot together just for fun? Surprisingly I've yet to come across a workshop group so this is why I am asking this question. I know sometimes I'll be shooting with another photographer in a national park/state park and try to help them set up, but I'm not getting paid to do so. Do the rangers look for that type of behavior?

Some workshop leaders are easy to pick out. I don't know if Steve is one of them but if you walk around like you're in charge then people are going to think that you are the leader of the workshop. Also some of the not so good workshop leaders go around telling everyone else to get out of their way so that their workshop people can get great photos while you have to stand in the background and wait.

"If they had time, all they need to do is to Google 'photographic tours and workshops' to find plenty more scofflaws."

John, it should take almost no effort for the rangers to google workshops for their park and check against their permit applications. I'm amazed they are not doing this already.

Bill: Some of them do this. I know they do it here in Moab for Arches and Canyonlands. The big challenge, though, is having the resources to research and investigate the offenders. If you've only got 5 or 6 LEO's at a park they probably aren't going to have time to go out looking for illegal workshops. They're so busy doing search and rescues, running traffic, doing foot patrol and backcountry patrol on foot and in vehicles - it leaves very little time for proactive enforcement of workshop permits. The BLM is even more strained. Here in Moab we have two LE Rangers for 2 million acres. It's definitely a problem. Perhaps those of us who lead tours and workshops legally need to step up and do our part to help park staff identify potential offenders. What form that would take, I don't know.

I can also say that researching listed workshops isn't always the most accurate way either. Some photographers will list a workshop far in advance and wait until they have enough people signed up to get their permit. This way in case the workshop doesn't happen they haven't wasted their money on a permit.

I have mixed feelings on this to say the least. I've had to get a lot of permits for the Colorado Photography Festival, and I have to say that the permit process is absurd. In 2011, I needed to get a permit for a couple of 8-hour workshops on Mt Evans. I contacted Arapahoe National Forest and was told to contact a person at Roosevelt National Forest, because the two are jointly operated. When I contacted them, they asked why I was contacting Roosevelt and said I needed to contact Arapahoe. I contacted Arapahoe again and they referred me to someone who referred me to someone else, who I emailed, but got an auto-reply that she was out of the office for a month. When she finally got back to me, she said she didn't know what category of permit a photo workshop would fit into and would have to contact her supervisor. A couple weeks later she got back to me and I applied for a permit. This was in February for workshops in August (fortunately I'd first inquired in December). I had to follow up a few times because it took forever to get the permit. Finally, two weeks before the festival, I got the permit. The workshops lasted less time than the number of hours of work it took me to get the permit. On top of the permit fees, I was told everyone would have to pay full entrance fees to Mt Evans even if they already had a federal lands pass that should have gotten them in for free.

In 2012, I figured the process would be easier since I had done it before. I again applied in February for a workshop in August. This time, my follow ups were not replied to until finally, 3 days before the festival. I got the permit literally one day before the festival. And the permit was only good for Mt Evans. Had the road been closed or weather forced them off the mountain, they could not have gone anywhere else on Arapaho National Forest unless they had specifically named it as an alternate location on the permit.

This was actually the best result I had for getting permits on national forest land. I tried to get one for Brainard Lake and was told by someone who seemed annoyed by me even calling him that they were not issuing any permits in the summer at Brainard Lake for anything and would not consider the request. For White River National Forest, I was told the permit would be classified differently than the ones I got for Arapahoe and it would cost around $2,000. The maximum amount I could have gotten for the workshop was $1800, most of which I pay to the instructor. So, obviously $2000 makes it impossible for me or anyone to lead a photo workshop in White River.

State and city parks tend to be better, but there is no uniform system for the state parks and one of them was just as bad as the national forests.

I've also received a certified letter from government officials threatening to fine or prosecute me if I don't get permits for a workshop when I had no plans to conduct a workshop at that location and there was nothing in the text on my web site saying there would be a workshop there. There just happened to be photos of that location by one of the instructors to advertise their presentation in a classroom in Denver, not for any workshop.

At some point, the bureaucratic mess involved with getting permits serves only to restrict our freedoms and impede small business. A large number of professional photographers rely on workshops for their living, especially in this economy, and in some locations the government makes it nearly impossible to lead workshops. While it wasn't smart for Steve go without a permit and I will continue to go through the whole process, I won't be casting stones at him, as this wasn't a malicious crime that hurt others.

Rather than fellow photographers going after other photographers, I think it would be more productive to spend that time petitioning the government to come up with a simple uniform permit process for all federal lands.

Grant: Maybe I've just been lucky but I've obtained permits with Utah State Parks, the National Park Service (Southeast Utah Group and Grand Teton) and now the BLM (in process) - and I've never run into any incompetency or run-around with any agency. Several of my friends have obtained permits with national parks elsewhere (Death Valley, Mount Rainier, Zion, etc.) and not one of them has run into any issues. Perhaps what you're experiencing is endemic to the USFS?

I'm not casting stones at Steve. I simply shared the news story to raise awareness of this issue among forum members. Regardless of whether someone is physically hurt or not, it's a crime to conduct commercial operations in the parks without a permit and violators should suffer the consequences. Sadly, it's happening more and more among photo tour/workshop leaders.

Sounds like he wasn't actually on the workshop yet, but rather, attempting to get the permit. http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2013/01/18/photography-guide-convicted-illegal-activity-in-zions-park-wilderness/

I'll say it again, they do not issue workshop/guiding permits for The Subway, so any attempt to lead one there would be illegal.

On another note, I've had the same issues as Grant with the USFS in Colorado. When I was looking into permits for last fall it took forever to get a reply and then they didn't know what to do. I suspect most of the workshops I see in national forest land in Colorado don't have permits since the process isn't easy or repeatable.

"Sounds like he wasn't actually on the workshop yet, but rather, attempting to get the permit."

From the newspaper article you linked to:
"He later admitted to rangers that he was indeed operating a paid photography workshop."
And that was a needlessly inflammatory graphic on that site.

I should clarify, I believe he was trying to get the subway permit, not a permit to operate the workshop. Nothing I am reading makes it sound like he was actually caught in the act of giving the workshop, but rather, just trying to get the needed wilderness permit to do the hike with his group.

The problem was the group he was planning to hike with were paying clients, and guiding paying groups into The Subway isn't allowed. So he was caught in the act of fraud attempting to get a non-commercial permit for commercial purposes. If he had just finished leading a permitted workshop in the legal areas of the park and then offered that anyone that wanted to could join him for a hike the next day, with the stipulation that he would not be providing any guiding or photography services, he would have been fine. That's a fine line to walk though but not implausible as you often make friends with your clients.

Rodney, Steve Sieren was fined $500 ... just for applying for a permit they wouldn't even give him? I'm no lawyer, but that doesn't make sense. You get fined for things you've done, not for asking if you can do those things.

Howard, I assume he was fined AFTER submitting false information on his permit application. i.e. certifying that this was not a commercial trip.

Howard, in addition to Bill's supposition, Steve admitted guilt. Until recently, a bare admission could not be used against a defendant without some (but not much) corroborating evidence, the type they could get from his website, his application, or even from the person who dropped a dime on him. It's an easy conviction when the defendant fails to exercise his 5th Amendment rights starting with his initial contact with law enforcement. In the legal community, we refer to clients who make admissions of guilt as being guilty of "felony stupid".