A year ago, I published an article entitled My Experience Obtaining a Permit to Film in a National Park (you probably need one, too), which detailed my ordeal getting a permit to film a YouTube video at the Grand Canyon National Park. It was my first time going through the process, and I found it to be unnecessarily arduous and frustrating. The article got some attention, and I was even interviewed by the press regarding this topic.

The good news is that you probably no longer need a permit to film in a National Park, unless you are an actual production crew or are doing something that requires special permission. Just this last weekend, the President signed into law the Explore Act, which allows most people to freely film within the National Park Service. Essentially, the Explore Act allows photography and filming without a permit for parties of five or fewer people as long as it involves allowed activity in a National Park, regardless of whether those documenting are receiving compensation for their work.

Because my small YouTube channel was monetized, a year ago I needed a permit, even if the video I made didn’t earn hardly anything (and cost way more to make than it earned). Even the potential of one penny of Adsense revenue meant I was a for-profit film production crew, and as a for-profit film production crew a permit was required to film, even if I were merely recording on my cellphone or a GoPro. Today, that’s not the case at all. As long as you have five or less people and you’re doing normal things that tourists are allowed to do, you can film, and can skip the permit process. This is definitely a win for small creators.

I understand why not everyone is celebrating. The National Park Service has two equal missions that oppose each other: conservation and access. They have to preserve the land, and they have to open the land to visitors. To best conserve requires closing the gate to visitors, and to best allow access greatly risks conservation. They have to walk a fine line, which is not easy to do, and not everyone will be happy. The law—as it was on Friday prior to the Explore Act—leaned more towards conservation (even if awkwardly and ineffectively), and now, as of Saturday, it leans more towards access. There are some who prefer preservation over people. I get it, and am sympathetic towards that; however, I believe that this was the right thing to do, and I’m quite happy to see this new law on the books.