Watching what in the woods?

Why does the U.S. Forest Service have surveillance cameras in the Francis Marion National Forest?

That's what we'd like to know.

Still.

The agency has rejected nearly all of this newspaper's requests, under the federal Freedom of Information Act, for documents describing the purpose and operation of the cameras. As Wednesday's Post and Courier reported, Forest Service associate chief Hank Kashdan responded to that detailed request with a mere two pages from an agency handbook about investigative procedures.

The FOIA request stemmed from a local man's discovery, early this year, of a motion-activated camera -- with no markings -- in the forest north of Moncks Corner and near the Palmetto Trail. For his well-meaning attempt to find the camera's owner, the man got a stern phone call from a Forest Service agent who demanded that he give it to the agency, which he did.

But the man also called the matter to this newspaper's attention -- and expressed concerns about the camera's inherent privacy intrusion.

Though a Forest Service spokeswoman subsequently told our reporter that such cameras have been used for "numerous years" to protect the public and the forest, she declined to give specifics. So The Post and Courier, as part of its Watchdog series, sought pertinent information about the purposes, expenses and effective ness of the cameras -- and details about how the agency handles the images it records.

The agency's handbook did say court orders are required "where a reasonable expectation of privacy exists," such as "private offices of employees, restricted access areas, and the interior of private homes" -- but not in the forest.

You also evidently have no reasonable expectation that the Obama administration will live up to the president's repeated vows to provide more open government. As our Wednesday story pointed out:

"The Forest Service's denials of Watchdog's requests for information come in the wake of President Obama's directive to agency heads to be more forthcoming in their FOIA responses. 'The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears,' the president's order said."

But fears about being watched by Big Brother in the deep woods aren't merely speculative or abstract. They're actual -- and they're justified.