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The US Forest Service didn't exactly say "Get of my lands", but they have been acting as if the National Forests are theirs and citizens wanting to visit these lands had damned well better be prepared to pay for that privilege.
Pasted below is a sharply worded denouncement of the Tucson area's Mount Lemmon fee published today in the Tucson Citizen. The local reporter rightly called the fee program "a real lemon" and tells forest officials to "take their fee stations off of our land."
I'd like to add that the US Forest Service is, at this very moment, embroiled in even bigger battles involving access to forest lands. As part of Recreation Site Facility Master Planning, the USFS is about 2/3rd of the way thought the process of targeting unprofitable recreation sites all across America for decommissioning, closure and or privatization. As part of the January 2007 roll-out of the new $80 multi-agency public lands access passport known as "America the Beautiful Pass", the USFS just days ago committed their 16 media talking points to paper and are now conveying these points to the media. Several of these talking points are tall tales. One reveals a stark truth.
Here, for example, is a tall tale. It is talking point #6:
"Many recreation uses and activities continue to be free on all National Forest System managed lands. Examples include general access, pass-through travel, scenic overlooks and pullouts, parking on the side of roads, and walk-up camping at undeveloped sites."
 Read the appended article and you will discover how the government is pursing one woman through the court system because she parked on the side of a road and walked in the woods. Know also that I personally have been ticket by the USFS for parking on the side of a road. In my case, however, when I told the prosecutor that I wanted to fight that ticket, the agency immediately backed down.
Here is a second of the agency's talking point. It is point #12 and it presents a stark statement of truth!
"Fees continue to be one part of a comprehensive recreation funding strategy which also includes appropriated funds, volunteer assistance, interagency cooperation, partnerships, commercial operations and funds leveraged from other sources."
Fees are, as I have frequently stated and as the USFS confirms, merely one tool in the toolbox now being used to facilitate a shifting in the way public recreation opportunities are funded -- from public funding to privatized alternatives.
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
12.12.2006
Mount Lemmon fee a real lemon
BILLIE STANTON - Tucson Citizen
In the West of yesteryear, the wizened old prospector cocked his shotgun and warned, "Get off of my land."
In today's West, citizens just want to get onto their land without paying admission.
That's the case of Christine M. Wallace, whose refusal to pay to hike
on Mount Lemmon prompted a court decision that is reverberating
nationwide.
In his September ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles R. Pyle of
Tucson dealt victory to the common folk, saying the government cannot
charge for hiking, scenic driving, roadside picknicking or camping in
undeveloped sites.
The Forest Service "needs to abide by the constraints of Congress and
allow reasonable access to dispersed areas for low-impact activities,"
Pyle wrote.
The Forest Service appealed, naturally, making its arguments last week to U.S. District Judge John M. Roll, also of Tucson.
Wallace, a local legal secretary, could have taken the easy path and paid $5 a day to visit Mount Lemmon.
But for her, it's a matter of principle - of whether "public lands" are to remain public.
And she has found support from the like-minded no-fees movement.
"It takes someone like Chris Wallace with the willingness to put
herself on the line," noted Kitty Benzar, co-founder of the Western
Slope No-Fees Coalition based in Durango, Colo.
Benzar had hiked the Grand Canyon "since I was knee-high" but quit in
1997 when the park started selling permits for back-country hiking.
"It's my land," she said. "They can't charge me admission; it's not
their land. It's like charging me admission to step into my house."
Indeed, under the Antiquities Act signed by President Theodore "Teddy"
Roosevelt in 1906, Benzar's land - and yours - comprises more than 240
million acres.
But amid a government push to charge fees, and to contract out land
management to private recreation firms, these lands are becoming less
and less public.
A federal "Fee Demo" program enacted in 1996 allowed the collection of
fees; it was replaced last year by the Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.
The new act specifies that fees can be collected only for use of sites
that have been improved, such as visitor centers, campground, picnic
tables and the like.
The Forest Service maintains that virtually all of Mount Lemmon is a High Impact Recreation Area.
Wallace was given several warnings, followed by citations, for parking alongside Mount Lemmon roads to hike.
She asked, "How can you really distinguish what somebody's activity is when you put a ticket on their car?"
And Pyle noted, "Congress explicitly prohibited the government from charging for 'roadside parking.' "
Ellen Hornstein, the assistant U.S. attorney who gave arguments to Roll by teleconference last week, declined to comment.
But Benzar, who drove here from Colorado for the hearing, said the
government's arguments "are quite circular, actually. She (Hornstein)
kept saying, 'It's not a fee for parking, but it's a fee we enforce by
way of parking.' "
Wallace is being represented for free by Mary Ellen Barilotti of Hood River, Ore.
Barilotti has taken several similar cases since she retired from the
Santa Barbara County Attorney's Office in California. But none has gone
as far as the Wallace case.
Federal agencies "have created a lot of hard feelings from people who
don't want to pay to take a walk," Barilotti said. "Many of them don't
even go to the forests anymore.
"There are some legitimate charges - for camping facilities, picnic
areas, places where there are amenities. For people like Christine,
it's not the money; it's the public policy."
Surely, the day federal policy prevents our poorest citizens from enjoying their public lands is a fine day to go to court.
I suggest federal officials take their fee stations off of our land.
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- Land management 
