Why do I need a release for public land

The moderator checked the wrong rejection reason. The phot has quality errors and needs to be edited and properly cropped.

​@practical_child0d5e this is a pretty image.
mountain valley view 3+ million images.
morning hazy mountain valley view 112000 images

Take a few minutes to edit the image(s). Photoshop has many powerful features making editing easier.
Nate

I see a small cabin in the distance, presumably owned by someone. But that’s unlikely to require a property release..

I think ​@Jill_C’s remark is more accurate. The bigger issues are Quality & Technical problems. Unwanted haze, noise, poor lighting and lack of focus. 

It also possible that the moderator chose the wrong rejection reason. The image appears to be quite softly focused.

Is it a national park or forest? Commercial use for some parks do require a special use permit if the images are to be used commercially. But here’s where it gets tricky. “Commercial use” as defined by parks implies there will be film crews, models, more equipment that just a camera, etc.” So where Adobe draws the line on this is anyone’s guess.