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Quoted from the appended article from the Spokane Spokesman Review:
[ Fee-for-use is a growing trend. Outdoor recreation is a booming industry, and timber companies are looking for ways to cash in.]
Fee-for-use has long been the Libertarian movement's fondest dream and their dream is rapidly become reality.
It costs $5 to walk in your local National Forest or $25 to enter a National Park BECAUSE ideologues have succeeded in bringing nature into the marketplace and turning recreational access into a priced commodity. Timber companies, such as the Potlatch Corporation, are now able to charge for recreational access BECAUSE citizens can no longer access their public lands without paying a fee-for-use.
One of the primary motivations for transforming public lands from a publicly funded good into a privately funded commodity (accessible only by those willing and/or able to pay-to-play) was to create for industrial landholders such as the Potlatch Corporation opportunities to cash in on outdoor recreation. By pricing the traditionally free public alternative and creating scarcity of access, private recreation alternatives would become increasing valuable and profitable, or so the Libertarians and Free-Marketeers have long said.
Have a close look at what the Potlatch Corporation has planned and know that the management of public lands is actively being manipulated so as to blur and eventually eliminate the differences between recreational opportunities on public and private lands.
In the "Ownership Society" towards which we are rapidly falling, there will only be fee-for-use. Every use of every conceivable resource --from the air we breath to the water we drink-- will be priced and offered for sale. For the rich, life will be one happy potlatch. Welcome to the Land of the Fee.
Scott
"To minimize unfair competition from public lands in the county, all public agencies should begin to charge fair market value for recreation on their lands. The returns from recreation fees will give both public and private landowners an incentive to protect the amenity values of their lands."
- Randal O'Toole (head of the Libertarian Thoreau Institute)
--- begin quoted ---
February 24, 2007
Potlatch to charge recreation fee
Annual passes to be sold beginning April 1
There will be no more free rides from the Potlatch Corp.
Starting April 1, Idaho's largest timberland owner will start charging
for recreational access to more than 600,000 acres of company-owned
property in the St. Joe and Clearwater regions, including thousands of
miles of trails and roads used by hunters, ATV riders and others.
Users will have to buy an annual pass. The fees will be based on
recreational users' vehicle type, ranging from $100 for a motor home to
$25 for a motorcycle or ATV.
Potlatch, which is headquartered in Spokane, has subsidized public
recreation on its Idaho lands for more than a century. But now the
company is looking for ways to capitalize on growing demand for outdoor
recreation, a $300 billion industry in the United States.
"When the last of the snow melts, a lot of people from Lewiston to
Coeur d'Alene have moved their RVs onto company property and parked
there for the next eight to nine months," said Matt Van Vleet,
Potlatch's spokesman. "They've done that at virtually no cost."
The fees will help ensure that the land stays open to the public, he said.
The April 1 effective date coincides with the beginning of spring
hunting season. However, fees will not be charged for recreational use
on 55,000 acres of Potlatch land along the St. Joe River. That land is
open to the public for free through a prior conservation easement.
Potlatch officials spent three years crafting the fee-to-access
program, floating the proposal to a variety of user groups. "For the
most part, people think it's reasonable," Van Vleet said of the fee
schedule.
Alex Irby and his wife, Julia, will spend $175 annually to use three ATVs and a camper/truck on Potlatch lands.
"That sounds like a lot of money if what you paid before was zero,"
said Irby, who is chairman of PLAY, an ATV group based in Orofino,
Idaho. "But most people said if it costs more, it costs more. It's a
privilege to use the land."
Money from the fees will reimburse Potlatch for costs associated with
vandalism from public use and illegal dumping. Last year, the company
spent $10,000 repairing damage from a single incident of mud-bogging in
a fragile meadow.
The program is also set up to turn a profit for Potlatch's shareholders, Van Vleet said.
Recreation fees already generate more than $1 million annually for
Potlatch from company lands in Minnesota and Arkansas. The firm also
leases its hybrid poplar farm in Eastern Oregon to private groups, who
use it for whitetail deer hunts.
"From a shareholder's perspective, we have to do this," Van Vleet said.
"We have to derive as much value out of the land as possible, without
compromising our stewardship commitment."
Fee-for-use is a growing trend. Outdoor recreation is a booming industry, and timber companies are looking for ways to cash in.
Paying for recreational access is common in the South, where private
hunting clubs are a long-established tradition. In the West, however,
fee-access has been less common because public lands are so abundant.
Since people could hunt, hike and snowmobile for free on federal and
state lands, they weren't willing to pay to recreate on private land.
But that's starting to change. Six years ago, Inland Empire Paper Co.
began charging for recreational access to its 115,000 acres of
forestland in Washington and Idaho. Families will pay $65 this year for
an annual pass that allows them to pursue activities such as hunting,
hiking and mountain biking on company land. Inland Empire Paper is a
subsidiary of Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.
In Western Washington, Weyerhaeuser Co. has tested the concept of fee-access to several of its tree farms.
Potlatch has been contacted by more than 450 people who want to reserve
their favorite campsite for the summer. That shows that people are
willing to pay for use, Van Vleet said. The company isn't taking
reservations yet, but it could be by 2008.
Van Vleet is encouraging people to take global positioning units to
their favorite hunting camps or summer hang-outs, and report the
coordinates. That way, they'll get first dibs on leasing the site, he
said.
Potlatch wants to inventory the popular campsites. Some, such as The
Dredges - a series of gravel bars along the Palouse River - suffer from
overuse. Allowing people to lease their favorite spots for a year could
help disperse the crowds, Van Vleet said.
But Irby, who supports Potlatch's annual use fee, said he's less
comfortable with the company offering exclusive, yearlong leases to
select individuals. Overtime, the leases could become too pricey for
local families to afford, he said.
Irby is a member of Idaho's Fish and Game Commission. He'd rather see
the state raise money to pay Potlatch for perpetual public access.
"I would hope . that we in Idaho could respond to keep it open to all people," he said.
To learn more:
Recreation permits for accessing Potlatch land can be purchased at
www.potlatchcorp.com and through local vendors. Potlatch contracts with
a Spirit Lake firm that patrols its forestlands. Beginning April 1, the
officers will check vehicles on the property against a data base of
permit holders.
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- Privatization 
