This is an interesting story that is spreading all over environmentally conscious sites like a wildfire. Most of the articles covered how environmental investigative reporting photo shoots could now get you a whopping $5,000 fine and imprisonment of not less than 10 days or up to one year or both in Wyoming.
This bill was like most of the recent passed ag-gag bills that have been popping up around the country. However this one seems to have created a uproar among environmentalist because of a vague definition of meaning of “collection” and ”intention” in the bill.
Section D states that "Collect" means to take a sample of material, acquire, gather, photograph or otherwise preserve information in any form from open land which is submitted or “intended” to be submitted to any agency of the state or federal government.
This section only appears in the final draft of the senate bill that passed.
Many believe that this wording is so vague that even if you had no intention of passing over the photo to the government to report something, if the government even stumbles upon the photo, you’re in violation. The burden of proof of intent would be on the photographer.
However, they did make a weak attempt to protect the family outings in public parks.
“Collected incidental to a recreational activity or educational activity done with statutory, contractual or other legal authorizations to enter or cross open private land and the data is not used for legal or regulatory proceeding.”
That protects the family outing in the park.
The entire structure of this bill is built around permission and intent.
If you first have the permission of the owner of acting agent in control of the open land that you are planning to photograph for your legal evidence, it is ok.
But, if you are intending to take your “resource data” to court to use against them without their permission,it is not ok.
"Resource data" means data relating to:
"land or land use, including but not limited to data regarding agriculture, minerals, geology, history, cultural artifacts, archeology, air, water, soil, conservation, habitat, vegetation or animal species.”
When you combine Resource data with the section D definition for "collection" you open a legal can of worms that all hinges on what you "
intended" to do with the data you "collected".
Obviously, this bill is another effort to stop citizen investigative journalism and activism. However, in their zeal to head off activism at the proverbial pass, someone overstepped the line of common sense with meaning ‘intent’ and ‘collection’ sections of this bill, leaving it wide open to interpretation.
At the least this bill should be returned to the Wyoming Senate to be amended for further clarification or they can expect unintended consequences.
Bill text: Wyoming Senate bill 12