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Pasted below is an unusually candid article about fee-demo opposition in Ouray Country. It has real people, representing a diversity of interests and political suasions, speaking truth. Neither ideology nor ignorance sways this article. Read on and imagine what it would be like if newspapers were filled with reporting such as this.
Scott
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Ouray County Commissioners vote to end fee demo program
Citing negative effects on tourism among other reasons, the Ouray Board
of County Commissioners passed a resolution calling for the abolition
of the federal Recreational Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo).
This week, the commissioners also went on record opposing Ohio
Congressman Ralph Regula's bill, HR 3283, which would implement
permanent access fees on all public lands.
Ouray County's resolution joins dozens of similar statements by elected
bodies nationally, including 12 counties in Colorado and numerous
jurisdictions in California, Arizona, and the Pacific Northwest. State
legislatures officially opposed to fee demo are Colorado, Oregon,
California, and New Hampshire.
Fee demo is a controversial program that was authorized in 1996 as a
two-year demonstration allowing the land management agencies to charge
for access and use of public lands for recreation. It has since been
extended five times and is currently due to expire on December 31, 2005.
In 2001 and 2002, Ouray County was a center of fee demo opposition when
the Forest Service started charging an access fee for Yankee Boy Basin,
a popular four-wheel drive, OHV, and hiking area. Non-compliance with
the fee requirement was widespread, and there were three protests
organized by the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition.
In 2003, the Ouray commissioners initiated a new management strategy
for the area that eliminated the access fee. A partnership between a
local non-profit, the Forest Service, and the county now provides
on-the-ground presence to educate visitors and encourage appropriate
land use. Yankee Boy Regional Conservation Association organizes the
volunteers, while the Forest Service continues to charge a fee for
camping, which funds toilet facilities and ranger patrols. At status
meetings with the Forest Service, the commissioners have expressed
satisfaction that this management approach is meeting their goals in a
more popular and less controversial way than the access fee did.
The WSNFC requested the Ouray resolution because of legislation pending
in the U.S. House of Representatives that would expand fee demo and
make it permanent. The bill, HR 3283, would require visitors to any of
the 640 million acres of public land to purchase an "America the
Beautiful Pass." Failure to have a pass would be a Class B Misdemeanor,
punishable by up to $5,000 and/or six months in jail. The bill would
also eliminate the Golden Age Pass, a lifetime National Parks pass
currently available to seniors for a one-time charge of $10.
"This bill, sponsored by a congressman from Ohio who has no public land
in his district, would make criminals out of taxpayers," said WSNFC
spokesperson Kitty Benzar. "Here in the West, it would be a crime to
leave the city limits without a pass. These resolutions, by elected
bodies at all levels, help convince Congress to preserve our priceless
heritage of public access to public land, and we applaud Ouray County
for taking this step."
The House Resources Committee is expected to move HR 3283 to a
committee vote soon. Its main sponsor, Ralph Regula (R-OH), has
reportedly been twisting the arms of western members of the House
Resources Committee to vote for its passage.
The Ouray County resolution reads in part, "That the Board of
Commissioners for Ouray County, Colorado strongly recommends that the
Recreational Fee Demonstration Program be abolished and that any
legislation to extend it or make it permanent, such as HR 3283
currently pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, be opposed by
the Colorado Congressional Delegations"
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- Land management 
