NEWS RELEASE - February 11, 2004, 12:52 PST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Ave.,
Bend, OR 97701
Contact: Scott Silver, Wild Wilderness 541-385-5261
Robert Funkhouser, WSNFC, 802-867-2298
Alasdair Coyne, Keep the Sespe Wild, 805-921-0618
GRASSROOTS EFFORT MOVES PARKS FEE LEGISLATION
In what is being called a 'remarkable victory,' opponents of the
Recreation Fee Demonstration Program are today celebrating what they
see as the beginning of the end of recreation fees on the National
Forests and other public lands.
Fee-opponents in recent days had flooded Senate offices with faxes and
phone calls, expressing their general support for National Park fees
and their adamant opposition to fees for recreation on lands managed
by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Fee-opponents
said they recognized the fundamental differences between the National
Parks and other public lands. They said that while entrance fees were
acceptable for the parks, such fees were anathema when charged for a
walk in the woods or forms of undeveloped recreation.
On Wednesday morning, the Senate Energy & Resources Committee advanced
legislation from Senator Craig Thomas (The Recreation Fee Authority
Act, S1107) to permanently authorize the collection of entrance fees
for National Parks and allow those fees to be retained and spent where
they are collected. Entrance fees have long been charged at National
Parks, but without the authority of the fee-demonstration program,
those fees could not be used where they had been collected. The
passage of S1107 will allow recreation fees charged since 1996 by the
US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and US Fish and Wildlife
Service to lapse when the current Fee-Demo authorization ends on
December 31, 2005.
Opponents of recreation user fees came together to prevent Thomas'
legislation from being amended and to ensure that it would be moved
out of committee as a 'parks only' bill. Secretary of Interior Gale
Norton had lobbied Senators hard in her effort to included permanent
fee authority for 5 federal agencies within the Thomas Bill.
"For a totally grassroots effort to prevail over the Secretary of
Interior is an accomplishment of incredible proportion" said Scott
Silver, Executive Director of Wild Wilderness and a long time opponent
of the fee-demonstration program. "We went toe-to-toe with some
powerful players and this time the people won", adds Silver.
Another long time opponent of these fees, Alasdair Coyne, of Keep the
Sespe Wild said: "The tide has turned and with a growing groundswell
for ending this ill-conceived recreation fee program it is becoming
ever more clear that we will soon see the end of fees to take a hike
in the woods."
"Senator Thomas and Senator Craig (R-ID), Chair of the public lands
subcommittee as well as all Senators on Committee did an excellent job
protecting their constituents' ownership of these public lands," said
Robert Funkhouser of Western Slope NoFee Coalition.
The Fee Demo program in the Forest Service, BLM and USFWS has been
recognized as a failure in terms of public acceptance and financial
viability. Recent administrative changes to enforcement procedures,
particularly for the BLM, have fueled the growing Fee Revolt taking
place across the nation.
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Scott Silver, Executive Director,
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Avenue, Bend OR 97701
Phone (541) 385-5261 E-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org