Forest Service officials look into film ban

BOISE (AP) - Federal U.S. Forest Service officials in Washington, D.C. are looking into an Idaho forest supervisor's decision to forbid the state's public TV station from filming in a central Idaho wilderness area.

Leo Kay, Forest Service's communications office director, said Thursday he "was looking into this issue, as we speak."

Idaho Public Television, a federally licensed noncommercial TV station, wants to film students doing conservation work in the 2.3-million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area.

But Frank Guzman, the Salmon-Challis National Forest supervisor, decided this month "this sort of filming is commercial, and thus not allowed in the wilderness."

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has urged Guzman to reconsider, saying the move "defies common sense."