The New Forest Service Paradigm:
Trees by the Hour or by the Board Foot

The current 'recreation funding crisis' has less to do with trail fees than with 'management direction'. Congress and top federal agency managers are rapidly shifting their focus from one commercial forest 'product' to another: from 'timber production' to 'industrial recreation'. Along with this change, yesteryear's unfettered outdoor experience is being remolded to become a more profitable commodity.

The 'Demonstration Recreation Fee Program' is but a small part of a larger effort being championed by Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and the American Recreation Coalition (ARC). Murkowski is the staunchly anti-environmental Chairman of the Senate's Natural Resources Committee. ARC is the business consortium that is implementing this demonstration fee program, in partnership with federal agencies. ARC's long range objectives are threefold: to develop and operate profitable recreational facilities upon public lands, to raise the price of public lands recreation (so as to support private recreation alternatives), and to provide increased motorized access for its patrons.

What business does ARC, a coalition made up of motor-sports equipment manufacturers, private campground associations, off-road user groups, resort developers, oil companies and the Disney corporation, have in implementing a trail fee program that affects mainly wilderness hikers? And why do anti-wilderness associations, such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition, support these recreation fees? Let there be no doubt, bigger changes in outdoor recreation are coming.

Public lands management could easily become a never ending stream of public/private partnerships because, we are told, there is no alternative public funding available. To avert a real crisis, Congress must restore appropriations, sufficient to maintain and protect our public lands. Failing that, the choices are higher recreation fees or increased private intrusion and commercialization.

Wild Wilderness maintains an extensive Internet site devoted exclusively to the dissemination of information about recreation fees and the changing future of public-land recreation. We can be found at: http://www.wildwilderness.org

This document was prepared by Wild Wilderness. To learn more about ongoing industry-backed congressional efforts to motorize, commercialize, and privatize America's public lands, contact:

Scott Silver, Executive Director,
248 NW Wilmington Avenue,  Bend  OR 97701
Phone (541) 385-5261    E-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org