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Take only photographs, leave only footprints and $5
 I’m having a hard time getting past my initial knee-jerk reaction to this proposal to charge me to visit the Garden of the Gods, Bell Smith Springs and Pounds Hollow.
My first reaction was “I’m against that!” And I’m still against it. But why? This is money going to maintenance, renovation and improvement of our special places. Isn’t that worth a measly $5? I don’t care. I’m still against it.
I’m not going to pay $5 to sit and watch people climb on the rocks at Garden of the Gods and I’m not going to pay to take a summer dip in Bell Smith Springs, either. I’m sure not going to pay to take a photo of Pounds Hollow Lake and leave, which is all I’ve ever done there.
I could wax on about how my tax dollars already pay for the forest and about the benefits of a place like Garden of the Gods on the souls of young people and about how this land is my land your land and I have a right to go visit it without paying extra.
I could take the argument that if the forest can’t afford to maintain trails or remove the trash, it should just wash its hands of the matter and let everything go back to nature because nature doesn’t care if there is a bathroom or not.
I could make the slippery-slope argument that we are going to be charged more money for more natural places and will come to see nature as a commodity like food at a restaurant that we can reject when we should be thinking of nature as our home.
And somebody could probably make the argument that this is nature for sale to whomever wants to do whatever and — if they are willing to pay the fee — hang gliding may one day be permitted at Garden of the Gods, regardless of risk of injury and manpower spent on retrieving gliders from the tree tops.
But I don’t feel like arguing.
My stance is simple: I shouldn’t have to pay because I’ve never had to pay before. Besides, my being at Garden of the Gods doesn’t cost the Forest Service a penny. I don’t litter, don’t tear up the trail, usually don’t even use of the water tank or set foot in the vault toilet. I’ve never camped at the campground, never used the trashcan and only sat at a picnic table one time. My $5 fee is to help out with upkeep of amenities that I don’t need.
Granted, if I fall or get lost the Forest Service may feel obliged to devote a little manpower to help me, but, if so, I hereby release them from that obligation.
I won’t fall because I don’t get that close to the edge.
I have been lost — numerous times — and in two of those times a search party assembled to come rescue me, couldn’t find me, went home and I made it out on my own.
But from now on if I don’t get back when I said I would, don’t anybody sweat it, just know that I’m lost and I’ll get back when I find the way.
Thanks, anyway, but I don’t need your help.
So Forest Service, I don’t use your amenities, am not messing anything up and you don’t even have to come rescue me if I get in trouble, so may I please go to Garden of the Gods and keep my 5 bucks?
If there is one benefit of the fee it must be that it will keep out those people only looking to make out, drink whiskey, smoke dope and yell. To each his or her own, but these loud, wobbly types ruin any Garden of the Gods trip I take, not because I’m a prude, but because I pay more attention to them than I do the scenery. I expect they will fall, get hurt and I’ll have to go do something about it. It’s distracting.
The fee should keep some of the summer beer-can litter out of Bell Smith Springs, but it could actually bring more with the I-paid-my-five-bucks-so-you-pick-up-my-trash nature-as-commodity mentality.
Maybe I’m out of touch, but a few law enforcement patrols of these areas or a few tickets and court fines left on vehicles after the parks close would probably nip the problem in the bud.
I would imagine one patrol of the Garden of the Gods parking lot on a summer night, an hour after dusk, especially if there is a full moon, would generate enough court fines to cover all the $5 day use fees for that day. Maybe the Forest Service does this, but I’ve been up there after dark and I never got in trouble.
The aspiring law enforcement agent could probably net a few more arrests if he goes out on the bluffs with a flashlight. Did you know it is now illegal to be nude in the forest? The order was signed Nov. 10, 2004.
Unfortunately, the effect of a decision to charge user fees will be that poor folks like won’t go there, anymore.
Five dollars is a lunch, a few miles worth of gasoline, a bottle of wine.
If I want to go hiking there are plenty of other places to go.
I used to go to Crab Orchard National Wildlife refuge several times a year to drive around, look at birds and other wildlife.
I haven’t been back since that park started charging a fee — and don’t see any reason to go again. There are plenty of places to see those things for free.
The horse riders have their own complaints about the fees and have their organizations to voice them. I have my own user group to represent here; the po’ white trash user group too broke or too cheap to pay $5 a trip or a $50 annual fee to go see these places. Unfortunately, these are some of the places that make our area unique enough to call home.
If the Forest Service decides to implement the fees, it could begin as early as April 2008. The agency is accepting comments until April 15, 2008.
Brian DeNeal is a staff writer for The Daily Register and The Daily Journal.
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- Activism 
