THIS IS IMPORTANT AND URGENT

Appended is a brief message received from a trusted associate. It deals with the appointment of John Berry to the position of Interior Secretary. It further confirms what other sources have been suggesting, that being:

John Berry appears to be incoming President's top pick for the Interior Secretary position

The Obama Transition Team could give Berry the nod as soon as Monday...

.... and what a disaster that would be!!!

John Berry has, my sources say blown past the environmental community's favored candidate, Raul Grijalva.

John Berry is almost certainly the candidate favored by the ANTI-environmental American Recreation Coalition -- the lobby group that worked with Interior's Paul Hoffman in an effort  to weaken National Park policies and to open the parks to increased motorized recreation.

John Berry was recently appointed to the ARC's Outdoor Resources Review Group. Having Berry appointed Interior Secretary would be a phenomenal coup for the ARC.

John Berry was the Department of Interior's Recreation Fee Demonstration point-person. In that capacity Berry worked closely with the ARC's President, Derrick Crandall. Crandall was a chief proponent of this immensely unpopular and contentions program.  Click to read Congressional testimony by both Berry and Crandall.

John Berry is the ONLY candidate now in the running who would be receptive to the pressures exerted by the American Recreation Coalition -- and those pressures promote the privatization, commercialization and motorization of recreational opportunities in the National Parks and other public lands.

ARC, I might add, was a highly visible and staunch supporter of the nominations of Interior Secretaries  James Watt, Donald Hodel and Gale Norton. No one who loves the great outdoors should accept as Interior Secretary any nominee favored by the ARC.

Barack Obama was elected because he promised to bring change.  John Berry's appointment would ensure continuity of the ARC's dominance over recreation policies. Is this the "change" Mr. Obama promised us?  I hope not!!!

Pasted immediately below is the most current information I have in my possession.  Below that you is contact information for the Obama Transition team, should you wish to weight in. Time is of the essence so please do not delay.

Scott

FROM: Western Slope No-Fee Coalition

This year's Congressional Summer Recess is a good time to pause and take stock of where things stand in the movement to free our public lands from access fees. Here's an update of recent developments and ongoing efforts.

S.2438 The Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act

House Hearing on Fee Implementation

The RecRACs Keep (Steam)Rolling Along

• Meetings have ALL been held on weekdays, during the day.
• Meetings have been held by teleconference, and email meetings are authorized.
• Many of the meetings have never been publicly announced at all.
• Meeting dates and times have been changed at the last minute.
• Agendas have not been made available in advance.
• Agenda items have been added at the last minute without public notice.
• RecRACs have been asked - and have agreed - to "pre-approve" fee increases up to a certain percentage.
• Comments sent in about fee proposals by the public have been withheld from, or misrepresented to, the RecRAC members by agency spokespersons.
• Minutes of meetings have not been posted for months, or not posted at all.

DEAR PUBLIC LANDS SUPPORTER:
Fee Alert!

A congressional hearing has been scheduled in Washington DC for Wednesday June 18th at 10am EDT, on public lands access fees.

Your comments are needed and may be emailed directly to the House's National Parks, Forests and Public Lands subcommittee for inclusion as testimony in the official record of the hearing.

Below you will find background information, some points to include in your comments, the format required, and the email address to send them to. There is also a sample letter to fax to Subcommittee members requesting their attendance at the hearing.

You can also watch the hearing live on your computer, on June 18th! Information about the live webcast will be posted at the Subcommittee website.

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[ NOTE: I am delighted that Senator Baucus' News Release (appended) credits the late Robert Funkhouser of Western Slope NoFee Coalition for his extraordinary contribution to making this RAT repeal bill a reality. Without Rob's efforts, we might never have gotten this far. It's now up to all of us who care about public lands to transform this bill into enacted law. - Scott]

Baucus, Crapo Bill Would Nix Recreation Fees
Montana, Idaho Sens. Team Up To Repeal Recreation Access Tax

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies would be blocked from charging Americans higher fees to access their public lands under legislation introduced today by two prominent Western lawmakers.

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) today joined Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) in introducing the much-anticipated Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act of 2007.

The bill would revoke authority given federal agencies, with the exception of the National Park Service, in 2004 to institute new fees and increase existing fees at campgrounds, trailheads, and other public areas.

Specifically, the bill repeals the 2004-passed Federal Lands Recreational Enhancement Act, sometimes called the recreational access tax, and reinstates legislation dating back to 1965 that limits the use of fees on public lands.

Baucus, a long-time critic of the fees, said the current system amounts to double taxation.

"Americans already pay to use their public lands on April 15," Baucus said. "We shouldn't be taxed twice to go fishing, hiking, or camping on OUR public lands. It just doesn't make any sense. That's why Mike and I are going to fight like the dickens to get this bill passed."

The senators noted that both the Montana and Idaho State Legislatures passed resolutions to repeal FLREA.

Crapo said, "As an outdoorsman and legislator, I have always supported fair and reasonable access to our nation's public lands. Mandatory user fees for access to many of those lands limits accessibility to those who can afford the cost and results in a 'pay-to-play' system that is unacceptable. I also fully recognize that we need to adequately fund recreation activities on federal lands and will continue to fight in Congress to make sure the funding needs of our public lands management agencies are met."

Debates have flared up in communities across the West as fees began to rise after the 2004 bill was passed. Baucus said he hopes his bill will help resolve those disputes.

Kitty Benzar, president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, hailed the bill. Baucus worked closely with Benzar as well as the late Robert Funkhouser, who recently passed away, in crafting the legislation.

"This bill will bring an end to a failed experiment that has for 10 years burdened Americans with a double tax and kept them away from public lands they have always enjoyed," Benzar said. "I applaud this bipartisan effort."

The Baucus-Crapo bill would:

• Repeal the FLREA
• Reinstate the fee authorities established by the 1965 Land and Water Conservation Act
• Reinstate the National Parks Pass system
• Cap the amount that can be charged for entrance to national parks.
  

For complete text of the bill, visit http://www.baucus.senate.gov

SOURCE Office of Senator Max Baucus
http://www.baucus.senate.gov

URGENT: Ask Senators to Hold Oversight Hearings on Public Lands Recreation Policy!

It's the end of summer and the US Forest Service is releasing proposals to close thousands of developed recreation sites around the nation - campgrounds, trailheads, picnic areas, boat launches, and swimming sites - to charge new or increased fees at hundreds of others, and to remove facilities, reduce capacity, and shorten seasons at hundreds more.

These changes are outlined in documents known as Recreation Facility Analysis (RFA) Proposed Programs of Work (PPOW).  Each National Forest is producing an RFA -PPOW and the bulk of them - around 140 - are due out in coming weeks.  (For the past few years, these documents were known as RSFMPs.  The name change to RFA is very recent.)

The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition (WSNFC) has carefully gone over the 18 or so RFAs that are so far available to the public, and in just these 18 forests, the agency's proposals over the next five years will:     

• close 407 campgrounds (17% of sites in these 18 forests);
• reduce capacity at 464 sites (20% of the total);
• remove amenities (toilets, tables, trash cans, fire rings) at 243 sites (10% of total);
• turn 225 sites over to concessionaires or partners (10% of total);
• implement new fees at 136 sites (6%);
• and increase fees at 170 sites (7%).

We don't have time to wait until all the RFAs are published to alert Congress to these threats to our publicly-owned recreation sites!  In some cases, the US Forest Service has already gone and removed water systems, toilets, picnic tables, and fire rings, and completely closed campgrounds and other developed recreation sites without ANY public notice at all.

For the WSNFC's June 2007 update report on RFA/RSFMP plans click here.

ACTION ALERT CONTINUES...

January 15, 2007
HELP TURN THE TIDE in Washington on the issue of public lands access fees AND CLOSURES!

Skyrocketing entrance fees in National Parks, widespread recreation site closures by the Forest Service AND WIDESPREAD IMPLEMENTATION OF FEES are attracting bipartisan opposition in Congress. The change from Republican to Democratic control and the subsequent shakeup of Committees and their Chairmen has opened a window of opportunity for a top-to-bottom review of national recreation policy. It's up to us, the American People, to take advantage of that opportunity and ACT NOW to persuade Congress to put the "public" back in public lands.

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) has taken a strong stand against the Forest Service's "Recreation Site Facility Master Planning" policy that is already resulting in new fees, increased fees, site closures, and other changes to recreation programs on National Forests.

According to Senator Baucus's spokesperson "the Senator vows that the increased fees will never come to fruition" and "this proposal, at first glance, is ludicrous, because Max doesn't think that the Forest Service should balance its budget on the backs of Montanans who take their kids hunting, fishing and camping on our public lands."

Nor, we would add, on the backs of public lands users in any other state!

Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY), outgoing Chair of the Senate's National Parks Subcommittee, is criticizing the new $80 "America the Beautiful" pass that is pricing Americans out of their National Parks and other federally managed public lands.

According to Thomas, "An $80 fee is certainly higher than what folks should have to pay to recreate on federal lands," He went on to say he opposes expanding the recreation fee beyond the National Parks to other federal land management agencies, which will result in higher fees with no guarantee of improving the impacted recreation sites. "If there's a budget problem in our land management agencies, let's get to the root of it, address it head-on, and not put budget shortfalls on the back of recreational visitors."

We couldn't agree more!

Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) recently sent an open letter to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne urging him to veto the planned entrance fee increases at Crater Lake National Park and Lava Beds National Monument. "It doesn't make sense to increase park fees while national parks are struggling to attract visitors," DeFazio said. "I am concerned that the increase in fees at Crater Lake will discourage regular visits by Oregon families. . . I agree that the national park system is in need of additional funding, but raising fees for park visitors will only drive visitors away."

NOW IS THE TIME to urge your Representative and Senators to weigh in and protect the public's interest in public lands.

<CONTINUES>

Massive numbers of potential recreation site closures loom, according to the following news release issued today by  Western Slope No-Fee Coalition.

They've prepared an important investigative report which ends with a call to action. I encourage everyone to read on, and follow up.

 Scott

--- begin quoted---

Unlike the BRC, Wild Wilderness is also encouraging its supporters to continue to work aggressively to bring about the repeal or substantive rewrite of the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act.

Scott

Action Alert:
Oppose Fee-Demo Legislation

Current Until Updated

"Can't See the Forests for the Fees" is a complaint being heard from coast to coast as the recreation industry's Recreation Fee Demonstration Program increases its grip upon America's public lands. Enacted as a legislative rider in 1996, Fee-Demo provides authority for federal land managers to charge and retain user fees for an almost limitless range of recreation products, goods and services. "Hiking", "Fishing", "Camping" and "Skiing" have suddenly become commodities while you and I have just as suddenly become customers.

The good news is that opposition runs deep. Over 300 environmental, conservation and recreation organizations oppose this program.

The bad new is, on November 21, 2004 Congress abolished the fee-demo program and replaced it with a new Recreation Access Tax (RAT) program. RAT was authorized for a period of ten year and should be viewed as being nothing less than fee-demo on steroids.

It's going to take much more than silent opposition to end a program created expressly for the purpose of introducing the profit motive into public land recreation management. The special interests who created Fee-Demo and RAT have every intention of using it to commercialize, privatize and further develop recreational opportunities upon America's public lands.

PLEASE:

1) Write your elected officials and ask them you oppose Recreation Access Taxes.

2) Write letters to the editor and encourages others to do the same.

3) Know that the success of the program is being judged based upon compliance rates and dollars collected. If you don't support the program, don't visit RAT sites and don't pay the fees.

For additional information contact Wild Wilderness 541-385-5261, or visit us online at - http://www.wildwilderness.org.