Below are letters received by Wild Wilderness from real people who are deeply troubled by the recreation fee demonstration program and the associated commercialization of America's public lands. Many of these letters were sent to Senators, Congressmen, federal agencies and/or local newspapers.
It's important that such views be widely heard. Please consider sharing your thoughts on this important subject with your friends, your community, your elected representatives and with us.
Thank You
I am thankful that I got to enjoy wilderness in the 80's when you just drove to your favorite trailhead, signed the trailhead register, and started hiking with no bureaucratic interference of any kind. Those were the good old days. I still go to wilderness areas, but the permits and parking fees, mountain fees, reservations required in some areas, and all the other bureaucratic wastes of my time and taxpayer dollars piss me off and they degrade the overall experience. I have seen no improvement of any kind to my wilderness experience due to the fees and permit requirements. But I'm sure a lot of bureaucrats are happy to collect a fat paycheck for collecting the fees and issuing tickets because someone took a hike on land they already owned without a permit. Thankfully, I'm now 46 years old and in at most 30 or 40 years will no longer give a shirt. Also, thankfully I do not have children who will have to live in this sad country of bureaucratic morons. The fees are having a negative impact on conservation groups. They have seen membership go down as people were forced to spend their money on fees forced upon them by the federal government at the point of a gun. Many people had to drop memeberships in groups such as the Mountaineers (me included) because the fees simply got too high. Serves the Mountaineers right, since they came out in support of the fees, but many groups are pro-wilderness and the future of wilderness is at greater risk because of reduced membership and revenue. I am now a member of the Mazamas and will continue to support them as long as they are against the bureaucratic, senseless fees. I had my forest pass but it wasn't good enough on Mt. Adams where they want $30/year for a Cascade Volcano Pass as if Mt. Adams isn't part of the National Forest System. The person that dreamed up that pass ought to be taken out to the woodshed to be given a good old-fashioned ass-whipping. Then I went down to Mt. Shasta and my forest pass wasn't any good down there either. They wanted all kinds of parking fees and hiking fees to hike up a mountain I already own and pay taxes to support! I'm sure the fees and permits will explode completely out of control. Now that they've gotten their foot in the door there is nothing to stop the bureaucrats from ruining the wilderness experience completely. Remember, many of them hate wilderness and environmentalists/hikers in general because the FS is buds with the loggers first and foremost. Keep up the good fight against ignorance and bullcrap. R.W. |
Dear Commissioners; I appreciate that our County is considering this resolution against an expanded fee system in our forests. I can cite numerous good reasons to pass this this county resolution against these fees and fee demo. Best of the good reasons? Fee demo has NEVER been properly voted on. Both times it made it through federal legislative procedure using anti-democratic midnight riders attached to omnibus bills. This was done because the corporate forces (ARC) behind these fees knew they could never stand up on their own merits. It was originally called fee-demo back in 1996 to demo-nstrat that people would go for it, which they have NOT done, in droves! The single best reason our county has to reject fee demo and this recreation access tax (RAT) is that fee demo dumps an inordinate amount of the hidden costs of maintaining the Land, which Colorado donated to the federal system, right back on the very descendants of the people who gave the gift in the first place! We volunteer to maintain and build the trails, our people volunteer to go find lost hikers and hunters, and recover injured ones too. We volunteer to oversee the health of the forests in unpaid committees that check on the federal government. On and on. Now if this fee demo is allowed to stand, I believe we are doomed to eventually paying every time we want to go camp or go for a walk. This is like sending France a yearly maintenance bill for the Statue of Liberty, or any time a Frenchman wants to go see the Statue of Liberty. "Thanks France we really like the statue, but you owe us for it's upkeep." The counter-claim that fee demo is a small fee, very limited and won't stop Americans from free access to the federal lands is akin to the claim that the Iraq war will be over quickly, it's costs will be nominal, we were defending ourself from WMD's, the drug prescription plan will only be 400 billion,... you get the idea! Here is an example of where this fee program is headed. When the National Parks started charging fees for private Grand Canyon river trips back in the early 80's it was $25. I just paid almost $1,900 for a Grand Canyon river permit last year! This is a 76 fold increase! I suggest if the Federal government is unwilling to properly fund our gift to them through general revenues, simply give the land back to us Coloradoans, and we'll take care of them ourselves! I suggest our first 'fee' will be to any non-Coloradoans, (especially those from Ohio,) to come see our "purple mountain's majesty, above the fruited plains." ( These well known words were written from the summit of Pikes Peak.) ...AND NOW THE BEST REASON of ALL The altruism of our ancestors that recognised the great gift to the future of wild and untamed nature, free for all Americans to enjoy their shared history, and the beauty of our mountains, is being gagged and tied to the auction block of commerce. The stewardship of these lands, which was given to us, and we owe to the future, we now abdicate for thirty pieces of silver. People can still see and enjoy the land,.. only as long as they can pay? Fee demo and the RAT in all it's perverse forms is akin to standing on the shoulders of giants,... wearing very tight blindfolds. I have a suggestion in the same vein as the RAT,... this Spring lets toast up the seed corn for pop corn, and all go to the movies! I know our county has already passed one resolution against fee demo, and I'm grateful they did so. I hope you will continue to reject the shortsighted manipulations of commerce, forced on us by the federal government, and clearly understand the stewardship responsibility we all owe to the future. J.F. |
Public lands were established so that all Americans could enjoy them. Part of our income tax (proportional to income) was meant for their maintenance budget. Now there are fees that are not proportional to income. A low-income family of four would have to pay $20 each to take a hike, have a picnic, or even park. (Unless they paid $85 to $100 each for an annual pass.) Such recreation is clearly prohibitively expensive for them. Should middle- and low-income taxpayers make up for the immense tax breaks for the rich that have contributed to a $400 billion federal deficit? Deadbeats who don't pay up. Not only do they risk being cited for non-compliance, they will be charged with a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $5,000 and six months in jail. By comparison, damaging a fragile wetland with an all-terrain vehicle results in a $75 fine. "Let us hope that is not the case." If most of the fees collected are to be used at the discretion of public land managers, what possible accountability will there be? Whether or not income from fees is spent on pick-up trucks, consider this: A General Accounting Office study recently found that the USFS spent about as much on administrative costs and enforcement as the amount of recreation fees collected. Sen. Larry Craig has long been an opponent of fees for public lands. He was one of the four western senators who fought hard to exclude the provision from the Omnibus Appropriations bill. That provision (HR 3283) was inserted as a rider by Ohio Rep. Ralph Regula, who has no public lands in his district. This far-reaching bill passed without a single public hearing, any congressional debate, or even a vote. Talk about fairness! L.J. |
Remember the Northwest Forest Pass, a $5 fee to stroll in our national forests? Fees for remote trails were dropped in response to public outrage. High-use areas still charge fees. Now the bad news. Forest fees just became permanent for all Forest Service and BLM lands nationwide. HR 3283, the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, was attached as a rider to the giant, $388 billion omnibus appropriations bill by Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio (who has no public lands in his district). HR 3283 never received House approval, was never even introduced, given a hearing or voted upon in the Senate. This law represents a staggering loss of public access. Hundreds of millions of acres administered nationwide by the Forest Service and BLM are now potential fee zones. Failure to pay is punishable by up to $5,000 and/or six months in jail. Drivers, owners and occupants of vehicles not displaying a pass will be presumed guilty of failure to pay and can all be charged, without obligation by the government to prove their guilt. Some national forests already require fees to place foot or tire anywhere inside their boundaries. Will local forests soon follow suit? Learn more at www.wildwilderness.org. S.M. |
An Editorial by the Pasadena Star News Published on December 04, 2004 COME on, fellas. The public is not that stupid. We're speaking about Congress voting to make the forest Adventure Pass a permanent program (ouch!) while at the same time saying the Forest Service will let up on those who drive in and park on the side of the road. However, everyone else i.e. the vast majority will still be required to buy the pass or face fines. If this was an attempt to mollify their citizenry, the Forest Service can go fish. The public can see through this hypocrisy. The Congress is simply polishing turds. We all know it, citizens know it and county supervisors know it. The Adventure Pass program stinks. It is double taxation, an excuse by Congress and the Department of Agriculture for not fully funding the forests with existing tax dollars. It is a way to keep poor people out of the forest. It is part of the commercialization of our public lands. It gives pay-to-play new meaning. No matter how much Congress or the Forest Service tries to pretty it up, the Adventure Pass will always be an ugly stain on our forest. |
Recreational Access Tax - You've just been forced to buy it. Public lands should be exactly that..public. Meaning accessible to all, not accessible to who has $85 or more. Forcing the public to pay this fee to walk in their public forests goes against what our lands were set aside for.protection and for the enjoyment of the public. As with many issues these days, it seems that in order to win, one markets and sells the issue like a deodorant commercial convinces you you'll become beautiful with the use of their product. And if this doesn't work, you buy a few politicians, sprinkle it with some behind the scenes back scratching and throw in some blackmail for good measure, and your born the Recreation Access Tax, (appropriate acronym, R.A.T). As is all too often, the unknowing victim, ends up the American public. The unpopular R.A.T. program was attached as a rider to the giant omnibus appropriations bill by Ralph Regula (R-OH), after the bill went through the House and Senate. It was signed off on Monday. Regula interestingly enough, has no public lands in his district. Slipping the Recreation Access Tax into a must-pass bill is abhorrent and goes against the democratic process. This is the wrong way to create law. If you're against the program, no worries, the fine is only $5,000 and up to 6 months in jail for not buying your pass to take a walk. I used to believe that our democracy had enough checks and balances to prevent abuses of power. Now I now that it only takes a group called the American Recreation Coalition (ARC) to buy themselves Ralph Regula. L.M. |
Dear Congressman: In recent months, I became aware of HR 3283, the Federal Recreational Lands Enhancement Act, sponsored by Representative Ralph Regula of Ohio and recently amended by Representative Richard Pombo of California. In recent weeks, I have followed HR 3283, very closely in sincere hopes that it would fail to be added as a rider to the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for 2005. To my utmost disappointment Mr. Regula managed to attach it as a rider during closed door negotiations. I have read the Bill through many times. The more I read, the more I question why a Bill of this nature has any business becoming law and imposing threats of serious criminal offense on Every Citizen of Our Great Country. The very idea of imposing a Class B Misdemeanor which carries a $5,000 fine, up to six months in prison, and possible probation is a slap in the face of Our Democracy. To add further insult to injury, a Class A Misdemeanor with a $100,000 fine, up to a year in prison, and up to five years of probation was included. Plus, according to the United States Code, a group or organization would face double the fines for not purchasing the proper pass or permits. Why overload our Federal Court system with noncompliance violations? Penalties as listed above, make not having a permit or pass a greater crime than which people who operate a vehicle under the influence or users of illegal drugs have to face. Plus the Class B and Class A Misdemeanor would make it very difficult for some people to be hired for certain jobs, thereby forever damaging their employability record. My interpretation of the collection and spending of the fees reveals very little accountability for the possible Trillions of Dollars that stands to be collected from, primarily, those citizens living closest to Federal Recreational Lands. I say Trillions because estimates I've heard is that the Pass this bill proposes may cost somewhere between $85 and $100. If only the 44 million sport fishermen in the United States were charged that much for a Pass it would mean between $2.94 trillion and $4.4 trillion dollars would be going into Special Accounts for the Lands Agencies and out of our economy. What about the Hunters, Hikers, River Runners, Kayakers, Picnickers, or simply people who want to get out of the city for a few hours? HR 3283, nor any of its predecessor Fee Demo Bills and extensions, ever received a full vote in either chamber of our Congress. This Bill will be Law that the Citizens of Our Country must Abide by Unless it is pulled from the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill NOW. The Fee Demonstration Project that spawned the Permanent Fee Bill is a miserable failure, I see evidence of it everyday in the National Forest in my "backyard." Throwing more money at a failed program is not going to fix it. We are a Nation of Innovative People and Given Creative Incentives the problems existing within the maintenance of our Jointly Treasured Federal Recreational Lands will be managed without having to disguise a tax as a user fee. HR 3283 is not and never will be an effective Democratic Recreational Lands Policy. It actually bears the appearance of placing a great segment of Our Nation's population on involuntary house arrest and herds the other segments of Our Society in to over-managed controlled areas almost like concentration camps. For the benefit of every citizen in the United States of America, I call upon you to Honor the Ideals set forth by our Forefathers to maintain open lands for the enjoyment of us all in continually supporting Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Restore funding to our Federal Lands Agencies, Stop HR 3283 now. V.H. |
Congress tacked a particularly noxious rider onto the recent appropriations bill, extending by 10 years the unpopular forest fees we must pay to visit our public land. The rider makes the punishment for walking on our public lands without paying a fee up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. These draconian penalties are over the top and must be removed by our representatives before the bill is voted on in final form next week. Something is deeply wrong with a system that punishes a citizen for walking on public land with six months in jail. Public land maintenance money must come from Congressional appropriations -- not from coercing hikers and locking out low-income people from the forest. K.R. |
Dear Congressman Walden: I wish to express my concern over the public land user fee proposals currently under consideration. I urge you to support legislation similar to Senator Thomas's S 1107 as it is currently written and to oppose Congressman Regula's highly objectionable bill HR 3283. I moved to Oregon to enjoy the outdoors and the hiking, camping, and climbing that this beautiful state offers. To me, being able to get away from the world of cars, buildings, roads and signs of human activity to go to this precious national commons, to walk in the outdoors, climb a mountain, sit by a pond is a spiritual experience, a return to my roots, a revival of the relationship between myself and nature. But these values?and my activities?have been severely crimped by the grim imposition of hiking and climbing fees. Although it is not impossible for me to pay them on a teacher's salary, these fees are so morally repellent that I find myself avoiding going to areas I once loved. What is the injustice? First, it is unjust that a family which cannot afford its own vacation hideaway should now have to pay simply to spend time in the woods. I remember my pre-teaching years living at poverty-level wages. Every free day saw me climbing in the Cascades or the Olympics. Had trail fees been in force in those days, I would have been priced out of my only activity. I understand that there are provisions for contributions of in-kind volunteer work instead of fee payment. But when I called the office of the Wallowa Whitman National Forest to arrange my in in-kind volunteer hours (I was willing to do anything but collect fees from others), I was told I had to pay the cash instead. Second, Public Law 104-134, which created Fee Demo, directs the Forest Service and BLM to: "encourage private investment and partnerships to enhance the delivery of quality customer services and resource enhancement, and provide appropriate recognition to such partners or investors." But the bill was passed without hearings as to whether the public wanted its forests "enhanced." Mr. Pombo, as a citizen, I am an owner and stakeholder in these national forests and resent the attempt to transform me into a customer of a service. Nothing ruins my sense of freedom in the wilds more than having to pay to hike, climb, and cross-country ski in a national forest. The wilderness values I and many other Americans hold dear are ruined by commercial concessions and facilities for the motorized vehicles whose manufacturers sponsor "partnerships." For those who want such "enhancements," there are numerous private facilities. I have no objection to reasonable fees to use developed campgrounds or enter national parks, which by their very nature have more developed lodges, visitor centers, and activity programs. But I strongly object to fees merely to walk in the backwoods. Third, the Forest Service makes several disingenuous claims. The first is that the number of users who pay fees indicates public support. Instead, many of these payers do so rather than risk an unpleasant encounter with an armed ranger. The Forest Service does not count those who complain or protest. Neither does it count those who simply avoid hiking because they cannot pay or are otherwise offended by these fees. A second claim, that "all users should pay," is also a spurious one. There is a tremendous difference in charging corporations who profit from high-impact extraction of resources from public lands and ordinary citizens who hike privately and engage in other low-impact activities. Furthermore, extractive industries are charged fees far below market value. The price paid for many timber sales does not pay the Forest Service's full cost of administration, roadbuilding, and other expenses. The anachronistic and exploitive 1873 Mining Law permits mining companies, some of them foreign, to scar the landscape, extract minerals without royalties and even buy patented land for pennies on the dollar. Under the hiking fee scheme, ordinary citizens engaged in low-impact hiking and camping are being forced to subsidize corporate resource extraction. Third, legislative requirements and the rangers' claim is that at least 80% of the money will be used for direct trail and facilities maintenance for the upkeep of facilities and the protection of the forest. But both the General Accounting Office audit of 1998-1999 and the Department of the Interior report of 2001 show that the actual percentage was only 34% and 27%, respectively, far below the advertised 80%. These numbers support the claim made above that hikers are being forced to subsidize activities other than hiking. With the proliferation of "No Trespassing" signs, there are not many Waldens left where we can roam free. Hiking fees sell our national commons, our freedom and birthright. I resent the attempts to take it away. I resent being forced to pay the fees. I resent the secretive way in which fees were established. I resent the way appropriations were cut to make the Forest Service dependent on hiker fees. I resent being charged with a misdemeanor?as Regula proposes?if I do not pay. I resent the exploitation and commercialization of our wild heritage. To ensure that national forests are fully supported and funded by Congress as a commons for all Americans, to eliminate the cruel fees on ordinary citizens, I urge you to look towards Senator Thomas's bill as it was passed and to reject Congressman Regula's exploitive and punitive bill. Respectfully submitted, D.R. |
Dear Congressman, Please do not support extending the Recreation Fee Demo Program for the US Forest Service, or the BLM and US Fish & Wildlife Service. Their intended use for local improvements is a sham, as most "improvements" are unwanted. The April 2003 GAO Report shows it cost the Forest Service $15 million of our tax money to net $15 million in Fee Demo fees. This is a fiscally irresponsible misuse of taxes and a public burden. The money raised by Fee Demo to use lands we already own is not worth the ill will generated. I'm outraged that I should be at risk of a fine for parking off the shoulder of a forest road for a 10 minute walk, for taking a photograph, watching passing wildlife or for briefly using a pit toilet (yes, one must even pay $5.00 to park for that unavoidable human need)! At Madeira Canyon in the Carson N.F. in AZ. and elsewhere, I have observed that Fee Demo income has chiefly been used to erect "improvements" such as unsightly "No Parking" signs everywhere, and to block all roadside parking. This prevents dispersed forest use by forcing humans into a few new "improved" parking lots and fee campgrounds where they must pay a per diem close to the annual free-ranging cattle unit fee. There are a lot of ironies here. What net benefit is all this? How does it enhance the recreational experience or our freedom? "Fee Demo" must be rescinded. All it "demonstrates" is that those without an alternative, must pay. Public objection has no official expression. Fees penalize those Americans who most use public lands - families of urban workers and the rural taxpayers, by doubly taxing them, and worse, by taking the 'wild' out of their hard-earned wilderness recreation. C.G. |
Back at my car after a hike, I received my first "Test" of the season - a certificate of Non-Compliance - which looks just like a parking ticket. It is not a real parking ticket - not yet. It is a manipulative sneaky lie. "The Test" is to realize this -- to stay Non-Compliant - and simply not pay the fee, which is really just a bluff - "testing" who will blink first. I have discovered that many others are not paying the fee. Recent editorials in Twin Falls and Denver papers ask people not to pay the fake fee. This is a national issue, testing the future of commercialization and privatization of our public lands. We are being trained and "tested." Many people say "Oh George, it is only $16." This is not about money. I smell a rat. Actually, I smell three rats. Rat One; Why is there no fee to camp along many local creeks? Rat Two; Why such sneaky legalistic wording on the trailhead signs and fake tickets? Rat Three; Since there is no common sense or business logic to this program, what is the real agenda, and who is behind it? There is NO fee to camp along many local creeks. Heavy RVs, trucks, bikes, horses, kids, dogs and garbage - in meadows? -- along delicate stream sides? - with NO fee? Yet, the impact of my car on a gravel lot requires some kind of extra double taxation. Completely illogical; this concept would fail the third grade business class. Why are so many signs needed? One sign says "Recreation Fee Test Project." A few feet away, needing to be on a completely different sign, for some legalistic reason, it says "Trailhead Parking Pass Required." Well make up your mind. Why so sneaky and secretive, with legalistic word play? Why not just speak in clear straight forward terms? This creates suspicion and ill-will. If it is a real law, why are banners over the road trying to convince us? - claiming: "It is the right thing to do." I made some calls. I found www.wildwilderness.org - and downloaded the latest May report of Government Accounting Office Report - regarding USFS Management of the Fee Demonstration Program. The GAO report is absolutely scandalous, revealing total unaccountability, millions of slushy dollars floating to and fro to prop up balance sheets. The Fee Demonstration program is loosing money, just trying to pay for program administration, say nothing of doing anything for forests or people. In any decent small business, or pre-Enron corporation, the managers of these programs would be fired. So what is the real agenda behind this mess? Who is pushing it? Who is tolerating this mis-management? This is not about the Forest Service. This has been dumped on them. Also, we must not be distracted by petty partisan politics - used brilliantly to keep the public polarized. The money lenders are in our temples. American politicians, land, and business are all for sale to the highest bidder. Like all deep politics, we need to keep our eyes on the money trail. It seems the big agenda is to slowly train the public consumers -- to accept attitudes for how the corporate mentality will slowly and steadily inherit mis-management of our public lands. They hope to train us to pay fees, for more concessionaires, for more parking lots, air conditioned 3-D movie theatres, more trendy lodges with clean boutiques and other money making ventures we don't need on public lands. A $16 trailhead parking pass is just the tip of the iceberg. Write your senators. Invoke the GAO May Report. Do - Not - Pay - The - Fake - Fee. G.G. |
Now is your chance to stand up for freedom in your own back yard. The Fee Demonstration program that took away your right to freely travel your canyons and much of the Forest , is up for comment from the public. "Those who would trade their land and freedom upon it for outhouses, deserve neither" Are you willing to trade your freedom on public lands for outhouses??? Well that is what the Fee Demonstration program suggests. Ask any lawyer, if you willingly pay a fee to enter a property, you are admitting that you are not an owner of that land. Think ot it, in one fell swoop con artists in the Government took away your land and your freedom upon it Freedom loving leaders of the past realized the importance of free public lands. Most of America's founders came from nations where the land primarily belonged to the king or his lords. Anyone who didn't pay the bribe etc. to get on the land got an arrow between the shoulder blades or got their hands cut off if they were caught on the land. Consider the fact that the government knows they can get money for improvements on this land by indirect taxes, but instead some have opted for an ' in your face, direct demand for their paid permission before you enter the land' thus crushing any notions you may have had about the land being yours or you having freedom upon it. Brainwashed? many of the general statements coming from the public are favorable to the program. It appears some like the program and prefer outhouses to freedom. This is a sad indication of just how far removed Americans are becoming to the concept of freedom. The Founders of America did all in their power to get governments thumb off their necks, and we are doing all we can to put it back on. Tell the Forest Service how you feel, after all it ''WAS' your Forest. W.S. |
The Forest Service has nearly bled to death from congressional budget cuts. Smelling an opportunity, the circling vultures who came up with fee demo are largely those who believe the USFS would be better run as a business (translation: if they controlled it). The only way to control a common public stock is to deregulate it and turn it into a commodity. Some public stock does not lend itself to deregulation or commodification. I mean, you’re from California, do we need to revisit the energy debacle? Fee demo is double taxation (triple if you put volunteer hours in on trails), exclusory and discriminatory to those with limited incomes, unconstitutional, and downright annoying by nickel and diming the public whenever they take a walk in the woods. And much of the fee goes to implementation and enforcement rather than back out onto the districts. Public land management must come from the public coffers. Every citizen receives benefits from public lands in the form of watersheds, clean air, wood products, etc. Even if they never get off the couch and visit, that opportunity is available for them or their heirs. I have no objections to all of the programs that are in place to protect our natural resources. In fact, most of them have been in place long before fee demo was ever invented. What ticks me off is how the public has been bamboozled into thinking it’s their fault the land management agencies can’t do their jobs. If you want to tell the Feds something constructive, tell them to adequately fund the USFS with the fee you pay every April 15. D.R. |
In addition to the unjust & unfair fees to visit our national forests & BLM lands, I oppose paying visitor Fees & the Disneyfication of our nation's National Parks Why? We once had a great and extensive wilderness & living life support system. And I didn't use to oppose Park fees. But yes, as the fees have continually been increased, as the Parks have been increasingly commercialized and operated by concessionaires, as my visits have been increasingly managed, controlled or directed, the more I have come to believe these fees are also bad. The collecting of the fees and the corresponding commercial management of our Parks are turning Nature, that should be part of our collective and individual birthright, in all its sacredness & glory into but another Disney-like commodity. Available to the highest bidder for despoiling or trashing with footprints, garbage cans, RVs, pollution and asphalt. Disneyland is also very clean, neat and organized, the attendants are very helpful & nice, but it is not and will never be Wild Nature. T.H. |
I wish to register a protest against fees for use of federal lands. We have this in CA and it is a hardship for people on fixed incomes and low incomes. With all the new taxes, fees, higher gas prices, etc., etc., you will be eliminating a large segment of the population from using public lands which belong to the public!!!!!!! It is terrible to not be able to drive through a forest or other area without paying to stop and walk through an area or perhaps picnic and just get away from the city to breathe a little fresh air and see some scenery. I am on a fixed income and I am just about at the point where I will be eliminated from doing something that helps to give a lift to my soul. I have been a Republican, but I am getting very frustrated with so many of the things that are being eliminated that the "common man" could alway take for granted in this country of ours. Please pass this on to the legislators and President Bush for me. Thank you. D.J. |
Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the "lower 48," attracts thousands of hikers each year, for good reason. From Whitney's 14,494-foot peak in Sequoia National Park, an awesome array of Sierra Nevada mountains extends to the north and south horizons. Hikers celebrate completing the John Muir Trail on its summit. But today hikers cannot set foot on Whitney without entering a political dispute. Park and forest officials now charge permit fees of $15 per person to hike at Whitney and other popular areas. Everyone who visits them casts a vote on this policy by choosing to either pay or not pay. For this, you can thank Congress and Presidents Clinton and Bush, who authorized the Fee Demonstration Program in 1996 and renewed it every following year. An experiment at 385 national parks and forests, the Fee Demonstration Program fundamentally changes citizens' legal rights on public land. To generate money to support national lands that lawmakers had neglected, the Fee Demonstration Program increased park entrance fees as much as 400 percent. In Yosemite National Park, for instance, the entrance fee jumped from $5 to $20. No one likes bigger bills, but national park visitors have long paid entrance fees, and at least the parks collect these equally from everyone. Other aspects of the program are less palatable. Actually, the Fee Demonstration Program breaks new ground in two revolting ways. Through it, the government charges for access (in the form of parking passes) to lands previously admission-free, like national forests. For example, the government wants visitors to forests in Southern California to buy the Adventure Pass for $5 per day, or $30 per year. In parks where the government already charged entrance fees, the program seeks to raise additional revenue selling hiking permits for popular areas. In California, these include $15 fees per person to hike at Mt. Whitney or Mt. Shasta. In summary: national forests, which require little maintenance and have never charged fees, now do. National parks multiplied their fees several times and now charge visitors an extra tax to take a walk. This is bad policy for several reasons. First, it financially discourages low-impact hiking, which would be detestable even if the government didn't simultaneously subsidize destructive forest industries such as logging and mining. Second, this represents double or even triple taxation. American citizens own public lands and pay taxes to finance their management. When park officials dramatically raised entrance fees under the Fee Demonstration Program in 1997, insisting they needed money for backlogged maintenance projects, that showed Congress had already failed its duty to adequately support parks through appropriations. Taxing those visitors again for hiking compounds that failure by asking Americans to pay the same bill a third time. If we do, what's next? Toll booths on Crystal Springs' trails? User fees for walking on sidewalks? I'd like to hike up Whitney again, and I can afford $15. But I can't live with myself if I encourage the government to swindle more hikers, or even worse, prevent poor Americans from visiting public lands. So if I return, I'll probably hike "unofficially." Someday this attitude will get me in trouble with a ranger. When that happens, I'll politely point out that I'm an American citizen and that I don't recognize the government's authority to tax me for hiking on land the people own. I encourage you to likewise oppose this extortion by writing Congress. Better yet, refuse to pay the fees. America's people deserve their land back, and this asinine policy will never change unless we complain loudly. M.J. |
There is a man in our midst that some people may not be familiar with. Derrick Crandall of the American Recreation Coalition. His coalition signed a 1996 agreement to help promote and explain the fees for the Forest Service. The coalition represents sporting goods retailers, amusement parks, campground chains, snowmobile manufacturers and other segments of the recreation industry. The Coalition's goal is to see to it that federal forests eventually become more like amusement parks where major corporations can make a profit, rather than the backwoods place's free Americans have always been able to use at will and take their children to, to be close to creation and away from what the coalition want's the outdoors to become. Mr. Crandall, the coalition and the Forest service has been challenged by opponents. Calling it undemocratic, unconstitutional and discriminatory. Crandall and the USFS have responded in effect by stepping on their own foot in acknowledging that they propose giving free permits to anyone who can prove a financial need or is willing to volunteer for trail maintenance work. They propose creating "second-class citizens passes" In other words, they suggest that poor people should be allowed to earn passes by working at sub-minimum, virtually-slave, wages. No one should have to suffer having to prove themselves to be poor to be able to enjoy what is rightfully ours. I have never been against the paying of fees in campgrounds. But that is not the point here. The point is that these proposals have tinges of Nazism. To charge us every time we might want to stop along the highway to take a walk in the woods. These power hungry corporate opportunists have but one objective. To get the forests commercialized. It has nothing to do with maintenance or public participation. It is strictly money and profit orientated. To eventually commercialize the recreational freedoms of this country. They have the nerve to say, "We believe that this nation needs more people with an intimate connection to the great outdoors than ever before." Now that is a crock of you know what if I ever heard one. They have no idea what "intimate connection" is except their hands on our money. What they are really saying is that "This nation needs more people to pay them for what many, like my self fought for and many died to preserve. Our freedom and the freedom for "all citizens" to use and enjoy the true heart and soul of this country. The outdoors. We did not fight to allow people such as these to scheme on how to profit from our freedoms. President Bush and some members of congress want to make this ‘demonstration' permanent. Please contact your congressman and ask him to oppose this ‘undemocratic' action. M.F. |
Dear Editor, I read your recent story about Fee Demo with some interest. Five years ago, Fee Demo was a non-issue and those few of us who challenged recreation user fees were marginalized as nuts. No more! The main reason for supporting Fee Demo has always been that the money goes to support our national forests. If only this were true! Despite a milder than expected fire season in 2001, the U.S. Forest Service overspent its firefighting budget by about $230 million. According to an AP story, "The overrun comes even though this year's fire season burned roughly 520,000 acres, about one quarter of the 2.1 million acres that burned last year. It also happened despite the $1.9 billion that Congress sent the Forest Service to bolster firefighting ranks and reduce fire hazards after the major Western wildfires of 2000." As a result of this overspending, the USFS took money from it's recreation budget to cover the shortfall, suspending more than $12 million in national forest spending, including trail and campground construction and replacement of decaying public toilets to replace money overspent in its fire-fighting budget. Let's put the size of this cost overrun into perspective. In Congressional testimony on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 Forest Service Acting Associate Deputy Chief, Denny Bschor, stated that the USFS had collected $71 million from recreation user fees CUMULATIVELY since the introduction of the highly unpopular Fee Demo program in 1996. That means the USFS's 2001 fire-fighting cost overrun is three times the cumulative gross fee-demo revenues collected in five years! June 15th, 2002 will be a National Day to Protest Forest Fees. I suggest your readers do what they can to take part. P.S. |
Editor: This is a response to the letter to the Editor on 2/14 which unfairly characterizes Fee Demo opponents as those who don't want to pay their share. If we want to try on cute metaphors to simplify a complex issue, let's try this one: A proponent of the expansion of fees on public lands reminds me of a person who supports charging admission to public libraries, placing toll booths at all Interstate Highway interchanges, and making public school students purchase punch cards to attend classes. Is this fair to level such a blanket charge? Of course not. This discussion needs to be elevated a few notches. The debate centers on how we should manage and pay for the management of our public lands. Most of us who oppose the expansion of the controversial Fee Demo Program share a number of key philosophical beliefs: 1. The American People already own the Public lands and pay taxes each year for their upkeep and management. Low impact uses like hiking, fishing, hunting, crosscountry skiing, picnicking, or going for a scenic drive should not be assessed an additional fee. Paying reasonable fees to use developed sites like National Parks and maintained campgrounds is OK. 2. More fees mean less funding from the government. The net financial situation for public land management agencies will not improve. 3. A shift to the "pay to play" mentality will inevitably create an economic dependence on motorized recreation and commercial development. 4. The requirement to pay on-site access fees falls heavily on those least able to pay. Studies in New England have found the fees to have a "significant exclusionary effect" on lower income families who are just not going to public lands as much. The opposition to fees is not a money issue, it's a management issue. For over a century, the opportunity to enjoy simple recreation on our public lands without being overly regulated, harassed, or charged has been a "Birthright." We'd like it to stay that way for our children. M.N. |
Though I can afford to pay the fees, I wouldn't enter a public land
area that charged a fee if it was the last wild space on earth. The very
idea is so despicable...that armed, uniformed police would check one's
papers and extort money under threat of fines or arrest in the
wilderness!!....that the mind reels that anyone would accept it or dare
to promote it. This is, of course, especially true when one considers
the toleration of scofflaw resource extraction industries all over our
public lands...industries (some not even from this country) that barely
pay anything, IF anything, to take and destroy what they please.
This is not, of course, comparable to some private entertainment
business. This is OUR land...PUBLIC land...owned and maintenence paid for
(if necessary) via EVERYONE'S taxes...at progressive rates everyone can
afford with ease. Support services and infrastructure for various
private park enterprises MUST be, of course, paid for BY those
industries, if such industries are allowed into our public lands at all.
If these enterprises can't afford their own expenses, what are they
doing in this business in the first place?
I'll just sit on a public bridge and watch some river roll underneath
before presenting myself or family to some quaintly-dressed police
officer to PAY (!!!) to walk in the woods. I don't know about others
but I go to the wild lands to get AWAY from such stuff. I CERTAINLY
don't go there to help support businesses that hope to profit without my
approval or with no financial return to me for use of MY public lands.
No...I do not consider the "convenience" of a restaurant or hotel
adequate return.
The only silver lining to this "fee" business is that finally, both
left and right wing people are coming together in protest, realizing that
they are all being TAKEN to the cleaners by corporate thieves. If those
who destroy and use our forests, deserts and beaches etc for free...and
even at a profit...don't pay for their damages or even pay proper
royalties to the owners, what else is it but thievery? It's only
"legal" because private business allies happen to have inserted
themselves into public government and have excluded the public from
decision-making. And that only happened because the mainstream media
are part of this system and, understandably, declined to TELL anyone
what's going on. Wouldn't work if anyone knew about it, would it?
Stealth business. Is this some form of "victory" for some? Do they
enjoy taking advantage of people? Why? What were their parents like?
J.J. |
Regarding The Daily Sentinel's Jan. 25 editorial concerning the Yankee Boy Basin court case: I'd think the Sentinel would wait until the defendants had a chance to present their case before acting as judge, jury and hangman. The editorial used words like "political theatrics," "comic opera" and "palpable nonsense" to describe protesters' intent and attempted to paint the defendants as wild, insane radicals. Actually, they are a mix of Democrats and Republicans, college students and retired professionals, motorized-use advocates and environmentalists working together to ensure that our heritage of public access to public lands continues without fees. The editorial mentions that the public agencies can charge access fees to "specific areas." However, all 19 national forests in the Pacific Northwest have been considered one "specific area," and four in California are "specific areas." Yankee Boy Basin is a very small part of the Fee-Demo puzzle, but it represents the beginning of enforced fees on a variety of federal lands in Colorado. It should be pointed out that charging businesses to make money off public land is far different from charging taxpayers. It seems to me that the "widespread debate in the West," outside of one county commissioner and the Sentinel, is between 3rd District Rep. Scott McInnis and his constituents. The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, many of whom have been McInnis supporters in the past, have tried to meet with the congressman to no avail. We have met with eight county commissions which have passed resolutions encouraging Congress to restore federal funding for public lands and to abolish the Fee-Demo program. Rep. McInnis refuses to acknowledge the widespread disapproval of the program in his own district. It is not through the courts that this wrong will be righted. Only through citizen input to senators and representatives that our heritage of open access to the public lands continue. R.F. |
I do not know of a free society, past or present. I consider a free society one in which freedom is accessible to everyone and I define freedom like Thoreau; one is free if they can excersise their own moral sense (but not a lack thereof). One of the things I love to do the most involves a desperate climb to the summit of some remote peak where (if I can stand to sit there) I sit and feel things that very few other people will ever feel. It is no overstatement to say that while I cling with human claws to a knife-edge ridge with the wind in my face and a thousand feet of air below my feet I feel a reverence and a humbling smallness that I have never felt anywhere else. The experience in its entirety is spiritual for me. It is a lonely state often made more so because I like to do it alone. It is a pilgrimage of sorts that allows me to let all the extraneousness of life fall away leaving only the "essential facts of life". Imagine then that I am often required by a new "rule" to pay for this experience. Congress has allowed the US Forest Service to charge me five dollars every time I park my car near a trail. On some peaks I must pay fifteen dollars to go above 10,000 feet. Needless to say I can not stand being charged by mankind to see God. Such an imposition is immoral in the deepest sense. It is as if the police have come into my church and demanded that I pay for my sacrament. Perhaps the most essential part of my moral sense is my free access to those experiences that bring me the deepest kind of understanding (enlightenment, if you will). No doubt I endure other indignities to have these experiences but at least I could previously feel that once I left the trail that I was in my church all alone. I can no longer get that feeling so easily and, I'm afraid, the Forest Service has made my cathedrals into Disneyland. Yes, I feel that my connection to the cosmos is now blocked by a sign that demands money. This "Fee Demonstration Program" is still not a law in the technical sense and I have written impassioned letters to my representatives and the president telling them how much the idea offends me. Little good it will do me because every six months since 1998 the Forest Service has gone to Congress with the numbers of permits sold and used them as "evidence" that the public is willing to pay (even though you can be cited and fined for not paying). I feel I have no recourse and that I am a slave in some sense to a system that I believe is irresponsible and immoral. When I think of it (not all the time of course) I feel extremely angry and trapped. I don't know of any other wilderness area where you are charges simply for access. In many places you can be charged for mandatory rescue insurance, transportation, etc. but these are charges for goods and services that cost money to produce. There aren't that many wild places left where people can go to experience things that humankind had no part in producing and I believe that even if you never go to these places that there is something about the mere existence of wild places that maintains intact some part of the original animal nature of humankind. What could be less natural than being forced under rule of law to pay to walk in the woods. What if Thoreau was charged fifty cents to watch the ants at Walden? If he were he could not have been confronting the "essential facts of life" but would rather have been confronting the seedy greediness of humankind. I can't imagine (for myself) how I could be made to feel less free than to be charged to sit up on a mountain wondering how long its been there and what forces willed it to be there. I can't give you five smelly one dollar bills to breathe the incense of the firs after a rain and to sit on that snowy ridge wondering if that wind is a caress or a thrashing. Not less could I give you money for the trees and mountains that are not yours or mine because to do so would be to admit that there is no place beyond your reach. And that, is a lie I will not be enslaved to. K.R. |
Did The Daily Sentinel's editors go to school in America? They do not yet understand the basic precepts under which this nation was founded. I read the Sentinel editorial supporting Fee Demo with some dismay. We already pay taxes. Taxes are intended to pay government labor, materials and other special programs. If we start paying for public-lands access, what precedent will this set? Other federal, state, county and city governments will start to do the same. Consider property taxes. Imagine our property taxes no longer provide for our city parks... our sidewalks ... our street lights ... our schools. We will start paying separate fees for each and every little item. There is a reason for the federal tax we all pay to one place - so that we know exactly how much we pay and to provide us some reasonable ability to hold our government accountable for its spending. I challenge the Sentinel's assertion that there are only a "few" people fighting Fee Demo. The Sierra Club for one is hardly a "few" people - not to mention the hundreds of other environmental and educational institutions that are speaking out against this effort to commercialize our public lands. And then there are the hunters and fishermen like myself. For once, I am standing with the environmentalists. The Sentinel proposes to sell away all that this country stands for. K.B. |
In response to The Daily Sentinel editorial, "Tickets, Please," the Sentinel defends the U.S. Forest Service enforcement of the agency's "clearly stated rules" - rules that were promulgated with absolutely no public input. The only input came from corporate interests whose goal is to develop and control access to public lands for profit. The Sentinel claims that the program allows public-lands agencies to charge access fees to specific areas and use the bulk of that money to improve or otherwise protect the resource areas burdened by excessive public use. Well guess what? The Forest Service's own literature states that a taxpayer earning $40,000 annually contributes a measly three cents to the entire recreation budget of the U.S. Forest Service. Now Congress is withholding those three cents from the agency and demanding people pay five bucks at the trailhead. The Forest Service is doing a great job sugar-coating this program. But it won't tell the public that the state legislatures of California, Oregon, and New Hampshire have all issued resolutions seeking an end to these fees. If one doubts where Fee Demo is heading, just look at California's "Adventure Pass." Taxpayers in California have to pony up five bucks simply to enter their national forests and step outside their vehicles, for any reason, regardless if they use a trail. If Fee Demo becomes permanent, this will ultimately become the norm on public lands nationwide. Learn the truth about this scam called "Fee Demo" by visiting www.freeourforests.org . Then write Congress and demand they return everyone's three cents to the Forest Service and dump the fees. S.M. |
Public land is NOT a commodity for the private sector to develop into a playground for only those able to pay. Public land was set aside decades ago to provide unspoiled terrain for American Citizens to enjoy. Now the ARC holds closed door meetings with land managers and is attempting to "steal" our land from us (the public) and then re-sell it to use for profit. I am not a customer, I am part owner. Public land is NOT a commodity. How soon until these audacious, greedy people usher in "swingset fees" and "fun taxes" at the city park? Is not Public land analgous to your city park? It's land set aside for all to enjoy, funded through taxes. National Forests should be there for all to see and enjoy regardless of personal income. Any fee is double taxation. The money collected thus far from the demo program has not even been used as promised and is frequently diverted from the "promised" end use. The whole thing stinks and seems to be filled with half truths and lies about where and how the money will be spent. This isn't the real issue though. The private sector should not be able to take over, control, and profit from people visiting, public land. Special use permits on public land have existed for quite some time now. They do not allow an entry fee to an area to be collected though, only to charge for services rendered on a specific plot of public land. They do not allow anyone to deny access to an area if they don't wish to buy and use the offered services though( example: a backcountry lodge can be maintained and operated in a certain area, but folks can still visit the area without paying for use of the lodge). P.S. |
So the federal government is looking into charging you fees to let you into their Spring Mountains? (Review-Journal Jan. 24). The issue of charging people admission to public lands has touched off furious public outrage everywhere they have has tried to introduce it. Let me tell you how it works here where I live. Our local version was introduced as an "experiment" four years ago, the fee is a $30 "Adventure Pass." Make no mistake, they have to enforce this thing: We have forest service employees ticketing people for pulling to the side of the state highway to enjoy a viewpoint or throw snowballs. People have been brought to court for back country bicycle riding. Picnic areas are now deserted, even on big holiday weekends. Our local businesses are mad, almost all refuse to sell Adventure Passes, and the perception is that weekend and holiday traffic is down. Flustered visitors from "down the hill" often can't find anywhere to buy the thing and turn around and go back. Us locals ignore it, except when the forest service starts chasing our school kids away from the spots where they "hang out", which they have done. Any warm and fuzzy relationship there may have been with the forest service has turned cold or even adversarial. Volunteering is way down. Watch out, Nevada! People shouldn't have to pay admission, under penalty of being fined, to enjoy their great outdoors. J.K. |
Who owns the public lands? The people or the government? This fee plan has been a long time in the making. For more than a decade before the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program came along Congress kept cutting the budgets of the public lands to the point they could not keep up. So how have our fees been used? What of the $120,000 out houses? What of the signs that imply that volunteer labor is paid by the fees? What of signs that say services that have been there for 20+ years are now paid for by the fees? The Recreation Fee Demonstration Program is part of a plan to turn the people from owners / citizens into just more customers. The public lands offices do not have owner relation's desks. They have customer relation's desks. If the backers of this program can get us used to paying to go on public land then they can come in and give us some of what they call quality recreation for a Disney size fee of course. So just who is lobbing for user fees on public lands: To name a few supporters American Association for Nude Recreation, Walt Disney Company, International Association for Amusement Parks and Attractions, foreign manufactures, big oil companies. So join up with the nudists and give your owners rights away and pay the fee. If the forests are to be run with a profit motive why should we volunteer? Who volunteers for Wal*Mart? US Forest volunteer on strike |
The January 25 editorial, "Tickets Please" attempted to ridicule those who, essentially, prefer to have open access to their own public lands and pay for its maintenance by two or three cents a year in progressive taxes instead of being forced, by armed forest police, to pay "fees" and have to show "passports" to even take a ten minute walk in their own woods. There is nothing ridiculous in this position. The editor might have gotten away with this derision of activists using the time-honored tactic of civil disobedience to protest, but the dishonesty of the editorial was glaringly, almost humorously, revealed half-way through. The editor claimed that "...ranchers, timber companies and mineral firms pay for the costs their respective activities impose on public lands." Should one laugh or cry? These users of public lands do not pay anywhere near fair trade rates for services rendered and, in fact, are regularly exempted from paying compensation and reparations for effects of even repeated violations. These entities are charged rates that were below bargain rates over a hundred years ago, a result of tactful political payoffs. These private industries, some not even from the U.S., take huge profits and never return appropriate royalties to the public owners of the lands. They are, in huge effect, paid by U.S. citizen's tax money to take whatever they want. It's as if they charge the Forest Service fees to let them steal public property and revenue. If the Forest Service wants to charge fees...fine. But make those fees a percentage of tangible profits taken from the lands and make sure that damages and environmental law violations result in adequate restitution, economic penalties and jail time. We are a "tough on crime" society, are we not? It is also glaringly unjust that the public owners of these lands must pay at "going rates" equivalent to admission to commercial, non-public recreation sites...yet the resource-using and extracting industries are still, in the year 2002, paying rates established in the 1800's! Apply this rate system to mere visitors who take nothing from their lands and we'd have an annual fee of about three cents...coincidentally, just about what we already pay in taxes to take care of our forests, beaches, mountains, deserts and the rest. J.J |
The user fee program is a smokescreen: a deception designed to distract the public from its real intent. It is simply a means to transfer the burden of budgetary constraints back to the public sector. The usual argument for the defense of the fees is that they generate income that provides trail maintenance and facility upkeep. What the Forest Service fails to mention is that none of these programs are new. Facility and trail maintenance have been in the budget for decades. In fact, much trail maintenance is done through volunteers, trail adopters, or programs like the Northwest Youth Corps who receive their funding under the auspices of providing positive, alternative, avenues for teenagers to engage in. The only thing new is HOW the Forest Service has determined to pay for facility upkeep. My two primary complaints are that the fee amounts to double taxation since we already pay for the Forest Service/Park Service/BLM with our income tax and that it is discriminatory to those with limited incomes. But at the most fundamental level it sets a bad precedent. Once we accept the burden of holding up the Forest Service what's to keep the fees from escalating like postage rates? That is not a governing body I'd like to see managing our public lands. I would prefer to see the lean efficient organization that for 100 years has managed to do an adequate job of balancing conservation with preservation. That opinoin varies depending on whether you're speaking with Earth First! or Wayerheauser. Congress was wise to make the user fee a demo program. I think they knew the public would revolt to a sudden, absurd policy change. Like a frog in a frying pan with the heat being turned up gradually until it's too late to jump out, we're getting slow cooked. There are those in Congress as well as a few corporations who specialize in selling outdoor recreational equipment or providing recreational services who would like to see our use of the public lands regulated. They veiw the public as consumers and our use of public lands as a commodity to be brokered. I suggest that this is condescending folly and that they would be better suited to regulate something important; say, the utility industry perhaps. I suspect the public believes taking a random walk in the woods is a basic tenant of American freedom and that subsequent attempts to regulate our use of National Forests is akin to claiming ownership and in conflict with the concept of public trust for which the government is responsible. I continue to believe that until Congress makes the user fee mandantory civil disobedience is one of the strongest voices we have in this issue. Until it is law; only our unified non-compliance will speak our discontent. The root of the deception is that if you paid your fee last year during the demo period; that was your opt-in acceptance of the fee program. Don't' be fooled. Get out of the frying pan while there's still time. I can't ask everyone to take this risk but I wish we would all go to our favorite trailhead and put a sign on our windshield that says 'I will not comply with the user fee'. I applaud Mr. DeFazio for taking on this covert, imperialistic threat in Congress. D.R. |
The book of Revelation in the Holy Bible predicts a time when no one on the earth can buy or sell anything without a physically applied mark to justify their personal allegiance to the government of their country. The "Mark Of The Beast", as it is referred to in the Bible, is definitely going to present problems for those who refuse to accept it. They won't be able to buy food, pay their mortgage, pay their taxes, or anything else you can think of. They will be incarcerated and killed for failure to comply. Now we have the Adventure Pass. We cannot go into a National Forest, supposedly given to the "people"/ "U.S. citizens and worldwide vacationers" and supported by our Federal tax contributions, unless we purchase an Adventure Pass. We have check points, gates, and Forest Service employees that will write us a ticket if we fail to comply. We have others that will sell the pass for their own personal profit motives, not giving a second thought that they are helping to support a program that has taken a personal and very important national freedom away. Our elected officials have selected this program called the demonstration program. Do they all agree with this program? No, thank God; although the majority seems to according to their vote in Congress. That's the scary part. Presently, Terry Dahl, a member of the FREE OUR FORESTS office for failure to pay a fee, (Adventure Pass). Mr. Dahl is using his constitutional rights to protest the adventure pass. Freedom of speech, the right to assemble, the right to protest, are included in his defense. U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder will make a ruling in this case. If Mr. Dahl loses this case, we as a nation have lost so much more. I will use my freedom of speech rights, which we still have at this writing, when I go into the forest. If a person protests the Adventure Pass and applies the Freedom of speech statute, a judge must decide if in fact other laws are violated against the protesters constitutional rights. I will keep you posted as to the Judges final decision. God never charged us anything to enjoy his creations. It's a shame elected officials can't follow that wonderful example. Thank God Adam and Eve didn't have to purchase an Adventure Pass in the garden of Eden. Where would they get the money? L.C. |
"Is this America or Russia? We now have to purchase a pass from the government to take a hike or bike ride or to look at wildflowers on our own public lands. It's not enough anymore to just pay taxes; we must now pay the government for the pleasure of enjoying Nature as well. Congress sold our valuable right to freely access public land in 1996 when it surreptitiously authorized the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program without any public discussion. It allows the Forest Service, BLM, Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife to charge fees and enter partnerships with private corporations to develop and commercialize the 631 million acres of public land they manage. Corporations now operate campgrounds for profit, and fees can be charged to access all of our national forests and public lands. Do we need to see a Berlin Wall around our public lands to realize that government has created a barrier locking us out of the most precious areas Nature has to offer and into our cities? This barrier is detrimental to the health, wellbeing, and freedom of our citizenry. Separation of business and state is just as critical as separation of church and state. Only Congress can end this egregious scheme by restoring funding for forest maintenance and protection, ending the commercialization that demands our money to enjoy what Nature, not corporations nor the government, provides. A.L. |
I believe that the practice of charging American citizens to access publicly-owned lands is unethical, immoral, and a gross misinterpretation of the power than has been vested in our government by the American people. There are numerous economic and constitutional reasons why this "pay-to-play" program should be scrapped immediately, but the most important is that our publicly-owned lands are held in trust by the government for the American people, and not for ransom from the American people. Taxes paid from the hard-won wages of our citizens support the work of the Forest Service, who is entrusted with the stewardship of the lands that belong to every American. To this day, these funds have been allocated to aid corporations, and not to preserve or protect our greatest natural heritage-our forests and rivers, our living life-support system. The amount of money spent by the Forest Service to develop roads, suppress fires, and prepare forests for harvest are truly subsidies for corporate profit, and nothing else. The same is true for other industries, including mining, grazing, and drilling. In short, I have paid taxes for years that have not been used to create and maintain the recreational facilities that this fee demo program is supposed to support. My taxes have instead been turned into corporate subsidy. This is a disgusting abuse of power, resulting in the destruction of the environment that supports all our lives. For more information about these very real and disgusting abuses, please visit www.forestcouncil.org B.S. |
I write to you to express in the strongest possible terms my opposition to the attempt by Congress to force the American people to pay a fee to use their own Public Lands. I would remind you, Sir, that the Public Lands are ours by statute and long custom and that the Congress' function in the matter is to appropriate the funds to care for them and not to charge the owners for their care twice, first by taxation and then by so-called "user fees." The concept is shameless! The outrageous "user fee" scheme, hatched in the minds of unscrupulous elected officials who have no respect for either the rights or the intelligence of the citizens of this country, is a cynical and blatant con job which some of you with a remnant of integrity and courage should be loud in protesting on our behalf. Beginning in the 80s and continuing through the shoddy, disgraceful era of Mr. Gingrich and his gang of embarrassing frauds, the Congress has engaged in a systematic shell game to shift funding of programs designed for the nation's benefit onto the taxpayers who already pay for them. It must not continue and you must not contribute to such chicanery with this unjust, ill-considered, and punitive outrage. I ask you to see to it that the idea of "user fees" on citizens for using their own property be killed in your subcommittee, as it deserves to be. The American people whom you are elected to serve will thank you. P.E. |
I would like to add my voice to those in opposition to fees under the USFS Recreation Fee Demo for simply hiking in our national forests. I am a biologist, and my family and I are frequent visitors to the forests where we live in Oregon as well as elsewhere in the West. I am unwilling to pay an "access fee" on top of the income tax I already pay for the extremely low impact activities I pursue on national forest land. It is inconceivable that just as we have record federal surpluses and are considering massive tax cuts that we can't provide for the free enjoyment of federally owned land. The fee demo is part of a transparent shell game, any money collected results in less appropriated from general funds for the USFS. Please increase the Forest Service recreation budget to a level necessary for this unpopular fee program to be dropped. Please add this letter to the record for Public Witness Testimony on this issue. N.H. |
I oppose forest fees because part of my taxes already supports recreational use and the Forest Service. We pay taxes annually to support government and important programs. I appreciate the services these taxes bring me. But the highly unpopular and unjustified Recreational Fee Demonstration program is not in accordance with the rights and needs of our citizens with regard to their public lands. I am also concerned because the fee program discriminates unfairly against people with lower incomes. It is a regressive tax. And it encourages Congress to lower, even more, the appropriations to the agencies for managing recreation. At this rate, soon only the rich can enjoy our public lands. Another reason why I strongly oppose forest fees is that putting visits to public lands on a fee basis has an insidious effect on managers -- it gives them an incentive to make decisions for the wrong reasons; they will be not only tempted but financially forced to prioritize the uses that bring in the most income -- even if these are uses that cause the most damage. This is no way to manage our public lands. I ask the Subcommittee to increase the Forest Service recreation budget by $50 million. This may be what it will take to manage appropraite recreation positively. Citizens everywhere are increasingly turning to our public lands for recreation, and at the same time Congress is reducing budgets. This is not logical and it is not right. I do not object to paying fees for modest facilities like campgrounds, but I and others do not consider it fair to have to pay for simple access to our public lands. We should not be treated as "customers" paying for a "service" which the agency "sells us; we are the owners and the managing agency is hired to be the stewards of our lands. National Forest improvements to infrastructure should not be upgraded as much as National Parks, for example. Simple upkeep and maintenance is all that is necessary. V.H. |
I recently spent a wonderful week in Washington DC at taxpayer's expense enjoying the Smithsonian and Art Galleries, National Postal Museum, and other free taxpayer American heritage sites. I think it is wonderful my money is being used to teach so many people about our heritage. Out west, we don't have much culture and history. We do have the marvels of our forests and the ecosystem learning and recreational opportunities. I want my tax money used to provide these amenities as freely to our hardworking citizens and school kids as Washington DC provides their citizens and tourists with their free amenities. Furthermore, my tax money was already used to help the timber companies extract much of our resources by creating roads and providing planning through the USFS. It stands to reason then, that I, as a taxpayer and westerner should be able to drive these roads for free and park at the trailhead to walk in my heritage without these fees, which obviously violate the concept of sharing the resources of America freely with the citizens who own it. Please eliminate the Fee Demonstration Program and let Americans of all economic classes have ready access to the recreational opportunities and educational resources of our forests. Sincerely, P.P. |
"User fees" for the simple act of walking on public lands is an affront to taxpayers. As more and more land is developed and population density increases, the need for simple recreation and rejuvenation also increases. As a mother of two, the idea that Oregonians should have to pay for the right to take their kids on a simple weekend hike in the woods is an outrage. While the program's Trojan Horse was the plan that such fees would pay for ecosystem restoration, in fact that is not where the funds are being spent. New signage, paving parking lots, office space for USFS staff, and new toilets, plus a huge budget just for collecting the fees, is how the money is being used. These items in the Forest Service's budget may be worthy, but they are not restoration efforts and it is a lie to say restoration is the point of the program. The Forest Service provides useful services to the public in various ways, but to, in effect, erect toll gates for the right to walk on public lands is not the way to fund those services. B.T. |
Telluride Daily Planet Friday, May 25,2001 http://www.telluridegateway.com/archive/2001_archive/052501dp.html Dear Editor, The "Forest Circus" sure has received a lot of attacks lately. I wonder why? Well, let's just think about the reasons. The Forest Service doesn't consider what us lay people think they should be doing with our money and resources. But we shouldn't expect anything otherwise from such a wasteful government. For example: our leaders sitting in D.C. won't even pass a bill restricting campaign financing, so they continue to accept outrageous amounts from mining kings, oil dukes, ranching rulers and timber monarchies. The timber industry produces reports that this or that forest should be harvested to prevent disease or forest fire, etc. Who made them the scientists of our natural resources? Of course our leaders listen to the industry because of the copious amounts of donations paying into their retirement funds. The Forest Circus practices a policy of below-cost harvesting in which it costs us taxpayers more money to build roads, develop areas, etc., in order to get into remote areas and harvest the trees which don't even provide a break-even source of income. The government lets ranchers run their cattle all over our public lands for as little as $1.50 per head of cattle. Meanwhile, the beasts are destroying the soil, eroding riverbanks, trampling seedlings and eating all the oxygen-producing green plants. Is it all about the almighty dollar? What happens after these mega-money-making, environment-destroying corporations have extracted all the resources, left our environment ruined, laid off all the workers and left the area? Nothing. Does the government require them to clean up? Rarely. Just take a look at the end of our beautiful valley and you see the examples everywhere. Perhaps if our government managed its budget (our money) appropriately, we would not have to pay these extra user fees that are being implemented this summer. Or perhaps if our so-called leaders forced the industries to invest money and resources back into the environment from which they stole from, we "users" would not have to pay again. There are some recreational uses that do have an impact on the environment but they are not nearly as bad or polluting as the major resource industries (the real "users"). The government promises the user fee money will be returned to the area, but will it make a difference? Probably not because I assure you the government will only decrease the budget that would have otherwise been allocated to the resource protection. They are quite famous for deceptive plots such as this. Another issue: Our tax money is paying for Forest Circus employees to hike the woods looking for illegal camping. Are they going to hire someone to walk the woods looking for illegal mining, off-roading or cattle grazing in sensitive areas? Will the Forest Circus step up enforcement of environmental laws that are blatantly being disregarded across our area or nation? I very much doubt it. You work for us, Garry Edson, not for yourself. Why don't you invest your time, our money and our resources enforcing the environmental laws that are continuously being disregarded by these huge corporations, instead of chasing campers? If the Forest Circus leaders were elected instead of "appointed" by buddies in D.C. surely we would have the right doing the right jobs for the right causes. Here is a challenge to all the leaders in government: stand up to your boss, do the right thing and listen to (and hear) what your constituents want. But then again, like father, like son - or like president, like Forest Circus. Everyone should demand our government be held responsible for their deeds. They are already too far out of hand. J.D. |
To the editor, Salt Lake Tribune, It is with great dismay that I read Judy Fahys' article on fees. (http://www.sltrib.com/07062001/utah/111294.htm) People are laboring under the misinformation that their fees are going to improve and maintain parks, trails, campgrounds and other government-controlled areas. WRONG. In Washington State in 1999 (the last year that I have a report for) a measly 19% of money collected on "fee demo" permits actually went where it was supposed to go, trails, access, parks, etc. Fully 81% of money collected went toward collection of the money--personnel, offices, signs, and so on. Why "fee demo" dollars should be buying radios for Forest Service personnel, for example, is beyond me. Who appointed Derrick Crandall as spokesperson for The American public? He is PAID by those who provide recreation for a fee. The people I talk to are incensed to have to pay to park at a trail head. The American public does NOT think it is fair. They do not support the fee. They also do not want fines and jail time for enjoying the outdoors. To say that the fact people are paying for a pass means they support the fee is outrageous. They are being coerced into buying the passes. It is amazing to me that one person, U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen, is able to prevent a hearing in the House. It seems that the members of Congress need to do the job for which they were elected. I live near the Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest. Each year more and more trails and roads are closed. "They" say it is because there is no money to maintain them. People are being channeled onto fewer and fewer trails. It is necessary to put your name into a lottery for permits to some popular areas in Washington State a full year ahead of the time you intend to visit that area. Where is the accounting for the "about $176.6 million collected" just last year? Wake up, Congress. Maybe we need another Tea Party. E.H. |
Hi, I'm writing in response to the insinuations and misinformation contained in your recent article on the USFS fee demo program on public lands. Attempts to evade, obfuscate and thus dismiss the very real issues and concerns being raised by many diverse American citizens who are opposed the USFS fee demo program are an example of poor journalism. Such journalism is an insult to the intelligence of your readers as well as a disservice to the reputation and integrity of your publication. In a nutshell the issues are relatively simple and clear: 1. Public lands agencies already have a budget to cover recreational management costs-the fees do not contribute to this budget, represent double taxation and are unnecessary. 2. Many of the recreational "improvements" the USFS is proposing are not wanted as they will only result in further degradation of natural ecology environments-eg: more asphalt, roads, and loss of native wildlife habitat,etc. 3. Public lands are one of the last of the people's Commons, one of the last areas of common territory left in our nation where people can exist without fees, rent, purchase-and all they represent, eg: being tied into the dominant economic system and having to pay for a spot to stand upon on this earth. A place to exist should be an inherent birth right of all peoples and species born on this earth. This program represents an usurpation by the USFS of this birth right, of the people's last remaining commons-will it take a wide public Robin Hood style rebellion to retain that which we all own in common? Are we to let city dwelling computer bound bureaucrats literally "take all the trees, put them in a tree museum, charge all the people a dollar and a half (inflation? greed? --$5 a night/$30 a pass??) just to see them"? I grew up in the woodlands and forests of this nation. Some of my ancestors were here before the first European set foot in these once wild and free lands. I, and many other forest and rural dwelling American citizens continue to claim these lands as our Commons, our inherent birthright as both citizens and living beings. Instead of further reducing the people's commons, we should be looking at revoking the charters of the corporations which have seized much of the people's and native citizen's lands-and at exercising oversight over corporate lands, mandating sustainability, ecological recovery, and restoration, as well as providing employment and citizen access over the lands in our communities now claimed by greed driven corporate paper fictions. There is an innate difference between corporate lands and citizen private property, just as there is between amusement centers and tourist resorts and public common lands. Let's not let the inanity of Forest Service usurpation programs fool us from addressing the real issues facing us today. And let us not loose our commons to the money gouging antics of the USFS, or anyone for that matter. A.R. |
Forbes Editor -- This story misses on every point. As chief economist of a billion dollar company, I am an avid capitalist. As legislative affairs director of our local chapter of Backcountry Horsemen of America, I am an active recreationist. As a board member of our county parks department, I am an fervent conservationist. As a member of the faculty of a local university, I teach MBA students decision-making skills using all the information. As a taxpayer, a Republican, a conservative, and a voter, I'm embarrassed by your misinformation. I'm not a backpacker, don't wear Birkenstocks, avoid granola, and abhor socialism. Your story is a disgrace to capitalism, an insult to recreationists, a slur on conservationists, and an affront to the truth. I remain a staunch opponent of user fees. I've already paid my taxes to support public lands. I don't relish paying twice. I write my congressman on a regular basis, requesting adequate general fund financial support of our public lands. Your writer should quit name calling, and start behaving like a journalist. Randy Barcus Spokane, Washington (name used with permission) |
Dear Editor: I just returned from a glorious weekend of solitude and reflection in the mountains. The quiet lake, the magnificent rockface, the lovely songs of countless birds renewed my spirit. When I returned to my car from the trail yesterday, I found a "friendly reminder" from the Forest Service because I did not display a recreational use permit. Apparently the note I had left on the dashboard, which stated that I was in the area for spiritual, not recreational, purposes, was ignored. I actually paid the Forest Recreation Fee for several years, but I eventually realized that doing so reinforces an alienated relationship with the natural world. It makes spending time in the forest just another consumer choice, like going to the movies or to an amusement park. To me, the forest is not a commodity. It is my spiritual home; it is the habitat of virtue. Furthermore, public lands belongs to us, the public, and we pay the government to take care of them for us. I will not pay the $5 fee, and I will no longer purchase the $30 season pass. This pay-for-use system is wrong. Nevertheless, Congress has just extended the fee "demonstration" for another year. President Bush has already asked Congress to extend the program for another four years and Senator Bob Graham (R-FL) has introduced legislation (S.1011) to make the fees permanent. Those of us who cherish public lands, who wish to keep them public for our children and their children, must speak up now to let our representatives know that we oppose the marketing of our forests. P.B. |
1. It imposes second tax, although labeled as a "fee", on citizens
for forest expenses that have already been paid for, over the years
and currently, through taxes.
2. Lack of Congressional funding for Forest maintenance and so forth
clearly shows lack of Congressional concern for the very problems
supposedly "solved" by this program, the most burdensome,
undemocratic, aggravating, potentially troubling, potentially
dangerous, inevitably nature-harming, unbalanced, costly, regressive
"solution" imaginable.
3. Low income people would be arbitrarily and discretionarily denied
access to their own public natural resources. Money is NOT a
requirement for U.S. citizenship.
4. Funds collected through fee programs, though they may sometimes be
used to "improve" on nature or offer legitimate public services,
represent substantial public subsidies to the private recreation
industries which plan to use public lands for their own private
business purposes. Those who visit public lands will be compelled to
contribute to these subsidies under threat of fines or arrest.
5. Much of the funds go to administration of the program.meaning
vehicles, video cameras to document violations, staff to enforce fee
compliance, toll booths and the like. Unlike on highways, etc.,
where one might be required to show "papers" to police for various
reasons, in public lands, the natural experience is diminished greatly
as everyone in a park or monument will now be scrutinized for proof of
fee payment by gun-wearing, uniformed officers. It is not amusing or
clever that the USFS sells "passports" to give citizens access to the
public lands. Passports are documents required of visitors to most
foreign countries, NOT to visit natural parts of one's own country.
6. Some of the funds are used to "improve" trails etc for motorized
"recreational" vehicles which are utterly incompatible with the
natural experience and, in fact, cause extensive damage to the natural
state.
7. The program has been run as "Demonstration" program to evaluate
public response. Reportedly, anyone who pays to enter a park or
monument is counted by the Forest Service as "yes" vote for the fee
system. However, this is, to be accurate, fraudulent because people
have no option but to pay or else risk fines or arrest. The Forest
Service offers no way to vote "no". Those who would visit a park but
do not due to the costs are not, and generally cannot, be counted.
Further, the USFS has absolutely no incentive to tally as "no" votes
any letters or calls or other protests that they may receive. In fact,
the USFS has great incentive to ignore such "votes". An independent
tabulation system, done by an entity with no conflict-of-interest, is
clearly called for.
8. No private business in these public lands will be content to
maintain any level of business but, instead, will do all possible to
expand. This will entail, inevitably, increased fees, increased
destruction of the wild lands.and increased outrage from anyone
concerned about preserving the wild lands. It is not hard to predict
that formerly natural destinations will become virtual fortified
battlegrounds.to the detriment of any and all entities involved
(including the forests and other lands).with the possible exception of
commercial prisons and police equipment suppliers.
9. The open injustice of requiring citizens to pay to merely visit
their public spaces is evident in that private extraction industries
involved in logging, mining, drilling and grazing are subsidized by
the public to, often, destroy any parts of the natural landscape they
find profitable. Such industries pay obscenely, obsoletely low fees
that are insults to any definition of justice, fairness or even
legitimate business practices. Further, as documented thoroughly, many
of these industries are rarely indicted, if indicted at all, for
repeated violations of all sorts of federal laws. Often they are not
even required to pay reparations to the public for damages.
To tolerate this aspect alone tells the entire public, and even
those overseas, that justice is not a priority or even an interest of
the U.S. government. Adequate fines and payments to the public from
private extractive industries could pay many times over for the very
things now claimed to be reasons for regressive fees on visitors.
10. The entire public benefits from the public lands, whether or not
some ever visit those places. They benefit in clean air, clean water,
preservation of species and maintenance of the very balance of nature.
Therefore ALL must share the costs, not just the relatively few who
visit. This comes to only about a penny per person a year, if that.
Thank you for whatever you may do to stop this legislation and to
investigate and address reasons why any elected official would ever
propose such a thing.
J.J. |
This note is in response to Outside Magazine's online artice by Jennifer Villeneuve regarding the federal fee demo program for public lands (http://www.outsidemag.com/news/headlines/story_thu2.html). Several quotes in the article by NPS personnel and one recreation organization give the impression that the public doesn't mind paying fees to visit public lands they already own, as long as they know how the money is getting spent and as long as the fees do not discriminate among visitors. The tone of the article leaves readers with the impression that the public is at least moderately in support of fee demo. This is a very false impression! People are going to court all over the West to defend their opposition to being coerced into paying fees simply to walk on land that already belongs to them and that they already support through their tax dollars. People have been approached at trail heads by armed USFS rangers and threatened and intimidated in efforts to extort the fee from them. Those who pay the fees are counted as "supporters" of the program. Those who refuse to pay are not counted as "opposition." Those who stop visiting favorite trails and backcountry areas in order to avoid the unpopular fees are not counted as "opposition." The agencies only count those who go along with this program that has been foisted upon them. By not counting all the opponents, the agencies hope to convince the broader public that the program is actually popular! As your article does point out, the American public has never been granted a formal comment opportunity to voice our true opinion of fee demo. We are simply being expected and even coerced to comply. It is true that it takes money to maintain existing trails, hire wilderness rangers, and enforce visitor use limits in popular areas. But it is not true that fee demo is "necessary" to supply those funds. Congress had little trouble at all allocating millions and millions of dollars the past several decades to support commercial logging by private industry on our public lands. Revenues collected from logging did not come close to covering the costs paid by the government to construct logging roads and administer commercial logging activities. Now, with commercial logging in decline on public lands, Congress could just as easily choose to allocate adequate funds to non-motorized recreation on public lands. Instead, the agencies are working in concert with the commercial recreation industry to establish fee demo as a permanent program that requires the public to pay each time they choose to visit their u ndeveloped public lands. The commercial recreation industry is pushing fee demo because it allows them greater control of public lands recreation as a marketable commodity. The recreation industry is busy forming "partnerships" with the public lands agencies. The public has never been given the opportunity to say whether or not we want our public lands agencies to be entering into "partnerships" with commercial interests, or whether we want our public agencies to start following "business principles." These commercial "partnerships" are aimed at monetary profit, not at protecting natural quiet, wilderness solitude, and the freedom to roam at will across our public domain. Under fee demo, the recreation industry gains greater monetary profits as visitation and recreational use increase -- more recreationists means greater marketing and sales opportunities. The agencies are now referring to visitors as "customers." More facilities, larger parking lots, smoother roads, easier stream crossings, nicer toilets, and other developments bring in more people -- thereby yielding higher financial profits for industry and for the public lands agencies through fees collected. Therefore, the ultimate result of fee demo will be increasing development of remote areas -- privatization and commercialization of our public lands. It has never been the purpose of public lands to provide financial profits to government or to commercial entities. Public lands are part of the public trust heritage available for all Americans to enjoy. Public lands provide public goods that the private market is not equipped to provide. Fee demo will reduce our public trust heritage and instead emphasize "services" and "facilities" favored by those who are willing to pay the most to play. It will not favor those with modest incomes or more modest recreational interests, such as those who enjoy simply strolling, picknicking, or daydreaming on our public lands undisturbed by armed rangers extorting fees. Fee demo will deliberately and methodically lead to the disappearance of wilderness and wilderness freedoms, in favor of developing our remaining wild lands into playgrounds where recreation can be mass-marketed for industrial profit. T.E. |
I am sending you this message as I was told you folks were performing a survey in regards to "fee-demo" and paying for our access to public lands. Enclosed here are my reasons for opposing fee-demo. 1) Wilderness and our sense of wildland perservation and recreation is a product of freedom. Our system of government gave the world its concept of wildland preservation. Free and unfettered access to public lands has always represented the physical manifestation of what it meant to be free. National Parks are the exception - they allowed limited fees to support a more structured form of recreation for those unfamiliar with the outdoors. Tour buses and concessionaires were provided for the 'soft' recreationist. But on Forest Service , BLM and other federal lands, I sought just the opposite. I am a 'hard' recreationist. I do not want the services or the concessionaires. The rules and regulations of such things contain me. I seek escape from such things. To summarize, when I go hiking, I am not just exercising my physical body but that of my free nation as well. I have a right to be free. Forcing us to a recreational model takes away our freedoms - it necessarily implies wilderness and wildland preservation will also eventually be lost. In this case, our wildlands will become a commodity traded on the stock market. 2) By the nature of the implemenation itself. There has been no public comments accepted by Congress and the government agencies involved with fee-demo. It essence, it is being forced down our throats. That in itself tells me there is something very wrong with our government and necessarily implies that there are motivations here that do not benefit those whose voices are being suppressed. 3) Accountability. We have one federal tax so that we might hold the government accountable for how much we 'pay' the government. It also allows us to account where the money goes. Ten percent here, twelve percent there, etc. One tax with a distribution model. That is the ethical and moral way for a government to operate under a free state. 4) True exploration is contradictory to intensive management. They are mutally exclusive. All things desire to explore the wonders of their world. I can be forced to stand on the trail as a 'ranger' tells me all about the things that we are looking at. Or, as a child would, I can step off that trail and explore for myself... to recognize and EXPERIENCE my place among those marvels. One represents sterilzed recreation (motivated by political and monitary interests), the other is holistic in seeking a true understanding of ourselves and our place in the world in which we find ourselves. 5) A tax on the peoples pleasure. Our pleasure 230 years ago was tea. It was taxed. We had a Boston Tea Party - the birthing pains of a new nation. Today our pleasure is outdoor recreation. The political precepts (political and monitary motivations) are the same. It really has nothing to do with environmentalism but with history, social equitability and accountability of ones' government. Those in Congress who support these fees have lost sight entirely of what America is all about. They have intentionally turned a blind-eye to the founding principles that had defined and sustained this free nation. Quite frankly, should it be possible, I would suggest that they be prosecuted. They certainly lack the integrity to be called true Americans. K.B. |
Dear editors, I was disappointed to find that you have presented the fee-demo issue in a light which minimized the level of opposition to the program, ignored the level of industry backing pushing for privatization, and misstated the actual financial mechanics underlying the collection and spending of the fees. Your attributed quotes from Federal employees nicely captured the spin techniques that they have been spoon-fed by their corporate benefactors. Already the framework of the fledgling propaganda campaign is taking shape: "people like to pay the fees", "the fees are reinvested in local infrastructure", and so forth. What we don't hear is that this is just the beginning, as the program will eventually evolve into full privatization of the public lands. What is not expressed is that most infrastructure improvements involve pouring concrete and building gift shops and other hallmarks of KOA's definition of "improved" facilities. The facts on the ground are different. The facts on the ground show individuals and small groups rolling a stone uphill in acts of advocacy and education, peaceful civil disobedience (including arrest), and other forms of activism. The facts on the ground show the usual array of corporate campaign contributions, phony grass-roots organizations, and disingenuous public statements made by the backers of the program. A review of the organizations lobbying for the program includes the likes of KOA, Disney, and a collection of ORV manufacturer groups. Is this your reader demographic? (is this your advertiser demographic)? This program is quite simply the next wave of for-profit companies exploiting the public lands at taxpayer expense. Last time the taxpayers subsidized companies to graze and log our lands. This time around, we will subsidize the industrial recreation industry as it paves and privatizes the National Parks and Forests. From strip-mines to strip-malls. As with previous experiences, these large companies with their millions of dollars in PR budgets and lobbyists are inundating us with spin and false populism. One underlying premise is correct: the Forest Service needs more money. But that problem was deliberately created by Congress through a series of defundings. The problem can be fixed by them too. Write Congress now and urge them to end fee demo and re-fund the Forest Service. Outside Magazine is setting themselves up for a future feature article: "Whatever Happened to our National Parks?" M.M |
Thank you for addressing the Recreation Fee Demonstration Project. This issue needs more attention from magazines with a wide audience such as yourselves. It appears that most Americans blindly follow the powers that be and ante up their user fees each time they pass the toll booth, not realizing that this is a demonstration program, instead of a mandatory fee program. We each have a choice (for now). We can pay up at the door to use "public lands" that we have already paid for through logging, mining, and grazing subsidies that flow like water through the tax streams or we can protest this asinine program dreamt up by ATV users and grumpy old men in suits, living in Washington D.C. Many people do not realize that their hard earned tax dollars are being paid to corporate America so that the extraction industry can rape the forest by building new roads to access harvestable timber and precious minerals. Until I stop involuntarily paying these subsidies, I will not pay to play in our public lands. I will not pay while ranchers are allowed to use public lands (at prices that are 20% of private enterprise grazing costs) to graze cattle which crush native plant life, cryptobiotic soils, ruin trails, and pollute our backcountry streams with their waste. I will not pay while the majority of the user fees go towards paying the Rangers to enforce this program. What little money remains after the enforcement activity is paid goes towards new and improved bathroom facilities (i.e. Maroon Bells in Aspen, CO) & maintaining paved roads so that more people can access everything, everywhere, from the comfort of the automobile. I will not pay when needed funds could easily be appropriated by our Congressman from billions of tax dollars we already send Uncle Sam each year. I will not pay for what is already mine and what is already yours. I urge each of you that have an interest in the future of our national forests to research this subject further and form your own, informed opinion. S.R. |
Recently, 50 of 100 protesters in southwest Colorado received tickets for not paying the Fee Demo charges at Yankee Boy Basin, between Telluride and Ouray. Our peaceful protest was met by an armed, full-fledged roadblock, with officers brought in from around the state. More are speaking out. The Sun Valley Idaho Mountain Express ran two editorials, “Forests for Fat Cats?” and “Shell Game.” An article in the Denver Post called “fees for public lands a medieval concept.” “Field and Stream” covered the privatization aspect of Fee Demo. California, Oregon, and New Hampshire legislatures have resolutions against the program. Arizona now has the Arizona No Fee Coalition, and Colorado, the Western Slope No Fee Coalition. Over 200 other varied groups are in opposition. Congress lacks the integrity or backbone to restore funding to public lands, yet subsidizes promotion of McDonald’s french fries and Gallo wine overseas, and adds unrequested billions in appropriations to the Pentagon. Now, they will allow greedy corporations a free ride with our public lands, while charging us to access and enjoy them. Referring to newly introduced Senate Bill 1011, “Shell Game” says, “The bill unmasks the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program and finally shows it for what it is: a government shell game foisted on a gullible public.” This bill, which would make Fee Demo permanent, also releases the Forest Service from a prohibition on displacing regularly budgeted funds, with income derived from fees. That means higher or new fees to replace more new budget cuts. That’s where “Forests for Fat Cats” comes in. J.H. |
I just returned from a glorious weekend of solitude and reflection in the Cascade mountains in Oregon. The quiet lake, the magnificent rockface, the lovely songs of countless birds renewed my spirit. When I returned to my car from the trail yesterday, I found a “friendly reminder” from the Forest Service because I did not display a recreational use permit. Apparently the note I had left on the dashboard, which stated that I was in the area for spiritual, not recreational, purposes, was ignored. I actually paid the Forest Recreation Fee for several years, but I eventually realized that doing so reinforces an alienated relationship with the natural world. It makes spending time in the forest just another consumer choice, like going to the movies or to an amusement park. Furthermore, public lands belong to us, the public, and we pay the government to take care of them for us. I will not pay the $5 fee, and I will no longer purchase the $30 season pass. This pay-for-use system is wrong. Nevertheless, Congress has just extended the fee “demonstration” for another year. President Bush has already asked Congress to extend the program for another four years and Senator Bob Graham (R-FL) has introduced legislation (S.1011) to make the fees permanent. Those of us who cherish public lands, who wish to keep them public for our children and their children, must speak up now to let our representatives know that we oppose the marketing of our forests. P.B. |
While not a resident or regular visitor to the area, I am concerned that the USFS and many other management agencies are being forced down the new Fee Demonstration path by powerful corporate lobbies in Washington, despite tremendous outcry from average citizens. It makes me wonder who owns our country these days. What is happening here? Isabella Lake is merely a symptom, though the problem is nationwide and systematic. A formal “corporate Chamber of Commerce” called the Recreation Roundtable has, over a series of years, spent millions of dollars lobbying and purchasing influence in Washington in a well-documented attempt to effectively privatize all aspects of recreation on lands which the American people own. That is the real meaning of the relentless change to the Fee Demonstration (Fee Demo) private management model. Big players include Coleman, Disney, Amfac, Delaware North and many others, whose business is to sell aspects of recreation at the highest cost the market will bear. The Forest Service is especially hard hit by the profit-making scheme being pushed by the big corporate bullies. Collectively, their goal is “public” lands run and operated for their private gain. Don’t let them gain ground at Lake Isabella. Instead, please raise your voice for the maintenance of modest public budgets upon which land managers can keep the gates open, and facilities simple and without cost for all citizens. G.A. |
Our system of government gave the world its concept of wildland preservation. Free and unfettered access to public lands has always represented the physical manifestation of what it meant to be free. National Parks are the exception— they allowed limited fees to support a more structured form of recreation for those unfamiliar with the outdoors. I do not want the services or the concessionaires. The rules and regulations of such things contain me. I seek escape from such things. I have a right to be free. Forcing us to a recreational model takes away our freedoms— it necessarily implies wilderness and wildland preservation will also eventually be lost. In this case, our wildlands will become a commodity traded on the stock market. K.B. |
Those who support and are out to gain from the pay for play scheme fail to understand that there are thousands of people like myself that grew up in the forests. Had there been a fee when I was growing up I would not have learned what I did as a boy. We were a poor family and our only real recreation was outings, camping, fishing and hunting. There are still those families out there today. To impose a fee for all those who wish to trek into the backwoods or hunt and fish is going to prevent families such as mine from being part of our natural heritage and passing it on to their children. And what will those children do? Your guess is probably as disturbing as mine. It will more than likely be that they will resort to being part of one of the many worldly activities that drag our children in to the depths of isolation, rejection and separation of our society to day. There is no medicine for the spirit better or as good as time spent as a family in the outdoors. Our government is now grabbing at any and all prospects to reap money from the people to cover their mismanagement and excessive, blind and selfish spending. The people of the outdoors should not be just another source of income. The forests are ours. The government does not own them. They have no right to charge us to use what is rightfully ours. M.F. |
I heartily oppose recreation fees in our national forests, currently implemented as a pilot project called the Adventure Pass. It places a disproportionate burden on individuals recreating on forest lands— mining, timber and cattle concerns pay far less and consume far more resources. Additionally, enforcing the Adventure Pass strains Forest Service employee resources. Forest rangers have plenty of other tasks to attend to; it would be a sad thing if the program demanded the hiring of more rangers merely to enforce it. There’s also the matter of selling off concessions and services. It’s not clear how the outdoors have managed to become a commodity instead of a place to relax and be quiet, but it’s symptomatic of something very ugly -- pricing people out of nature. Count me in to fight it all the way. D.W. |
Charging the taxpaying public for the use of their own public lands or national forest land is wrong, and was never the intention of John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt, when these lands were set aside for the enjoyment of all. The American Recreation Coalition (ARC) is a powerful corporate lobbying effort made up of dozens of giant multinational corporations that are currently lobbying our elected servants in Washington, D.C. to privatize our public lands for a profit. They would just love to sell our publicly owned land back to us for a price. The cozy relationship between the Forest Service and ARC must be stopped dead in its tracks. The corporations that are involved in the effort to privatize our public lands for profit stand to take a cut of the profits and this is why they are involved. Once they get their feet in the door through the auspices of our bought and paid-off legislators, these corporate giants will develop and build hotels and resorts; they will charge fees at previously free campgrounds such as Isabella Lake, and in turn, charge the public a fee for this “service.” Currently, the Fee Demonstration program is a pilot program set to be extended a few more years, and ultimately made permanent if ARC has its wish, but we can stop that from happening by contacting our congressmen and congresswomen and senators and telling them in writing how we feel about that. Keep America’s public lands public B.H. |
No to fees! Charging fees for our three remaining free campgrounds is a big mistake. It will hurt tourism and our local economy. It will discriminate against the elderly on fixed incomes, the young and people of lower economic status. The Fee Demonstration Program has proven to be a disaster. We have seen the quality of facilities and the cleanliness of campgrounds decline under this program as fees have been imposed. Why are we being charged to use the public lands that we have bought and maintained with our federal taxes? This is double taxation. We need to urge Congress to restore the budgets of the Forest Service and other public agencies so they can administer these public campgrounds properly without extorting money from us every time we step onto our public lands. In the mean time we all know there is plenty of “fat” in the Forest Service budget that could be trimmed, making it possible for them to continue to maintain these camping areas on a fee free basis. We need more free campgrounds, not less! K.R. |
I am appalled and hurt to the core hearing about all the commercialization of our open spaces. I see the politicians want to make one big Disneyland of our great country. It makes me sick. Money, money, money is all they can see. What is going to happen to all our beautiful open spots? H.H |
Many different groups all across the country are protesting this Fee-Demo act that the Forest Service is trying to use to charge fees to use the only real “beach camps” on Isabella Lake. The groups contesting it range from the Sierra Club to off-road bikers— groups that usually oppose each other’s stand completely. But neither one feels paying fees for access to our public lands is justified. Now, take notice of the title of the bill, “Fee Demonstration Program.” Oh, that just means something they are going to test; try it out to “demonstrate” that fees in some cases can be a good thing, right? That it’s not really to set up permanent fees, right? Phooey! That’s just more government doublespeak. Fees to use our land (not the government’s) is simply more taxes. Tell the people in Washington to transfer some of that money used (wasted) to protect the spotted owl, the willow flycatcher or the desert tortoises to pay our park and forest rangers. We don’t need to pay more taxes to use our land. It’s time for the government people to wake up and see the obvious. It they manage to move taxpayers to the top of the endangered species list, they are obviously next in line! C.P. |
Derrick A. Crandall 7628 Huntmaster Lane McLean, VA 22102 Dear Mr. Crandall: I am writing to assure you that I am among those citizens who believe that we pay for the right to visit our National Parks and Forests every April 15 when we submit our taxes. The Fee Demo program advocated by you and others of ARC is, in my opinion, a way for the recreation industry to gain control of these precious national resources for personal gain, namely economic income. The commercialization of these natural resources will continue the erosion and destruction of their beauty. In particular, motorized vehicles with their accompanying noise, air and water pollution, as well as destruction of topsoil and vegetation, and seriously disturbing the wildlife, are the topmost reason for my firm opposition to the fee demo program. It is obvious that these fees are meant to make commercialization and motorization of the parks and forests increase at a rate that will bring more profit to those who produce and market the products. In addition, research shows that the fees are keeping low income families from enjoying these resources that belong to them and all Americans, not just the wealthy. There really is nothing to be done to "fix" the fee-demo program, because it is wrong and Americans refuse to accept it. S.Y. |
Dear Mr. Crandall, In response to your article in RV Executive (Oct. 99)I wish to inform you that it is not the "billions in maintenance backlog" or the "almost no expansion of facilities and services" which is keeping me from enjoying my usual recreational activities on the Los Padres National Forest. It is the Recreation Fee Demo Program (Adventure Pass), making me feel like a criminal every time I go to the forest without one of "your" permits to recreate on my own public land. You see, I steadfastly refuse to pay for a permit to recreate on my own land. It would be like my gardener charging me admission to enjoy my own garden, and I'm sure you can imagine what I would say to him (right before I fired him). It's time you faced the truth, Mr. Crandall, and publicly admitted that the Adventure Pass program is wrong for public lands. Most of us who enjoy our quiet wilderness time do not want any more of "your" services and facilities in our National Forests, thank you very much! Kindly keep your hands off of our public lands! J.H. |
Congrats to the Denver Post for a great editorial on the insidious Fee Demo program. First, you had the courage to admit that you, too, were fooled by the sweet promises that accompanied the initial program. Second, you had the guts to lay out the real problems: Congress and the agencies' own spending priorities. While so-called "free market environmentalists" trumpet Fee Demo as a stimulus-response panacea to problems on public recreational lands, they overlook one important issue. Our form of government is not "the agencies run themselves." If this was the case, we could simply turn over our tax dollars to the government -- and Congress would be unnecessary. Government would tell us what was good for us, what they were going to do, and how much it was going to cost us. Then they would levy the fees, hire armed rangers, build entrance stations, and bust us if we didn't pay up. Under Fee Demo, this is essentially what happens. Individual agencies get to charge citizens to access public recreational resources and then use the money for anything they want -- with NO public oversight. Obviously, the need for funding, as bureaucracies bloat and capital construction runs rampant, would never end. Americans would be faced with a continual spiral of increasing fees as unelected bureaucrats decide what's good for us -- and how much it will cost. Alternatively, and in line with the principles upon which the country was founded, is the concept that our ELECTED representatives in Congress keep a tight rein on government by deciding whether capital improvements like the million dollar outhouse mentioned in your editorial are absolutely needed. If they are, the job of Congress is to appropriate the money to fund them. Fee Demo stands this fundamental principle of a representative democracy on its head -- neither the people nor the Congress has veto power over the spending proclivities of federal bureaucracies. Like a kid in a candy store, they can build whatever they want -- and pass the charges off on us, no matter how outrageous. The right of the American public to access the lands that already belong to us is unquestionable. Just as it would be unthinkable that you would have to pay a fee to walk into your own home, it is unthinkable that citizens would have to pay to walk on the soil of their own country. Again, thanks for calling bullshit on the bureaucracy for its wild spending habits and on the chickenshit politicians who would abdicate their duty to responsibly apportion existing funding, letting non-elected agencies run, as you accurately said, "amok." G.O. |
Derrick Crandall 7628 Huntmaster Lane McLean, VA 22102 Dear Mr. Crandall, I read again today, with interest, your 1999 report on the progress of the Rec Fee Demo program. I am neither an "activist seeking a cause" or a misguided recreation community leader. I am just an old lady who highly values her freedom to visit our National Forests and other public lands freely anytime I wish. I want that freedom for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren also. That is why I am working very hard to see the END of Rec Fee Demo. Any so-called "misinformation" on this subject has been coming from you and your organization and up to now has been swallowed by some in Congress. BUT, grass roots, plain folks like myself and thousands of others are beginning to be heard loud and clear on the hidden agenda behind Fee Demo. Hopefully we will be able to keep our public lands free from the commercial and private sector you represent. Your efforts would be better served on other projects! E.N. |
I write to you as a voter who watched with great pleasure as you won your seat in the election this past November. I follow the record of the Minnesota delegation on environmental issues, and I inform a number of friends, including several who live in your district, of various imporant environmental issues as they arise on the Hill. (For example, I know how you voted on the CAFE standards.) I write to you now to let you know how I feel about one issue that you are currently considering, as a member of the recently re-named House Committee on Resources. The issue is the proposed re-authorization of the "fee demo" program, which is, in my considered opinion, a very bad idea for two reasons. First, I have lived on a limited income before. During that time, as a recent college graduate in a non-profit job in Washington state, I was paying back student loans and surviving on a salary that afforded me about $30 of discretionary spending money each month. Luckily for me, I was also surrounded by a marvellous endowment of federal lands, including half a dozen National Forests and two National Parks that I visited on many occasions. Even when though the enjoyment of the land itself was free, I was hard-pressed to visit as often as I liked, because that took gas money. Had I had to pay parking fees and trail use permits, I would not have been able to enjoy the public lands that are held in trust for ALL THE PEOPLE of this country (not to mention the thousands of species dependent on those lands). The FEE DEMO program, quite simply, WOULD HAVE PRECLUDED MY USE of the federal lands I love so much. I know that many others in my position would also be prevented from using the public lands. It is always difficult for people who are comfortably well-off to really imagine the effect of even seemingly small financial disincentives on those whose money is tight enough that every dollar counts. Please do try to imagine the effect the fee demo program will have on the poorest citizens who whish to enjoy our public lands, and be a voice for ending the fee demo program. A second reason the fee demo program is bad and should be ended, rather than permanently extended, is the way it will harm the lands themselves. There are two ways in which this harm will occur: A) SKEWED MANAGEMENT INTERESTS. By tying agency (USFS, USPS, BLM, etc) funding for management of the lands to recreational user fees and special use permits, the agencies managing these lands will find increasingly strong incentives - in fact may be forced - to dramatically change management plans to accommodate and encourage greater levels of use of the lands and greater permission of damaging uses of the lands, particularly in the form of motorized ORVs. As noted above, charging fees to park and use the land will act to restrict use of the the land by people who like to hike and do the least expensive and least damaging forms of recreation, without discouraging (and in fact probably encouraging, through building of more vast ORV trail systems, as the Forest Service has been doing over the past several years of the Fee Demo program) wealthier users who are more likely to own ORVs. This skewing of use and management priorities will increase more destructive and noisy uses of the land at the expense of quieter and cheaper uses which are more environmentally friendly and which I think most people still prefer. Management decisions should be made in an environment that is neutral, and not biased toward maximizing revenue from permits, so that management decisions accurately reflect the interests in maintaining the land for future generations; B) DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF VOTERS. I suspect that as the Fee Demo program will cause the public lands to be seen, more and more, to be the property of those who can pay to use them, rather than the property of all, including future generations. Those who can pay the fees and who use the land most frequently will feel more entitled to determine how the lands should be managed, even as poorer people come to feel (or are seen as being) less entitled to a say. Moreover, all the citizens (and species) who don't recreate on the land (or who just live there), but who still have an interest and a right to have a say in management of these public lands, will come to count less and less in the agency calculations over whether more parking lots should be build, more ORV trails blazed, or more efforts made to protect sensitive areas. (Do not be fooled by the claim that more user fees will increase the money available to protect and better manage the lands; this is the same sophistry that the US Forest Service pulled with Congress in the 1980s in arguing that the more logging they did, the more funds were generated to repair the damage done to wildlife values. The argument is false because it always costs more to repair than to destroy, and sometimes full reparations are simply impossible, ecologically speaking.) The citizens of the US are all supposed to be constituents of equal worth, whose opinions should be weighed equally by the agencies; if those agencies' funding comes more and more from fees, then those who pay the fees will become the first-class constituents, while those who cannot, or who cannot do so as often, will be relegated to second-class status, just as you might treat my comments as less important simply because I live near your district, not in it. But while the tiering of importance of constituents is acceptable from a US Representative whose obligations are weighted to her constituents, it is not the way the executive branch is supposed to work. The federal agencies are supposed to work for the entire nation, not for a particular geographic or recreational constituency. The Fee Demo program will pervert the management interests and motivations of federal agencies, and for that reason, as well as the other reasons I outlined above, it should not be renewed. Please stand as the strong environmentalist I hope and expect you to be, and oppose the extension of the Fee Demo program. M.N. |
Despite a milder than expected fire season, the U.S. Forest Service will overspend its firefighting budget by about $230 million. According to an AP story, "The overrun comes even though this year's fire season burned roughly 520,000 acres, about one quarter of the 2.1 million acres that burned last year. It also happened despite the $1.9 billion that Congress sent the Forest Service to bolster firefighting ranks and reduce fire hazards after the major Western wildfires of 2000." As a result of this overspending, the USFS will now take money from it's recreation budget to cover the shortfall. The Forest Service will, in it's own words, "suspend more than $12 million in national forest spending, including trail and campground construction and replacement of decaying public toilets" to replace money overspent in its fire-fighting budget. Let's put the size of this cost overrun into perspective. In Congressional testimony on Wednesday, September 26, Forest Service Acting Associate Deputy Chief, Denny Bschor, stated that the USFS had collected $71 million from recreation user fees CUMULATIVELY since the introduction of the highly unpopular Fee Demo program in 1996. That means the USFS's 2001 fire-fighting cost overrun is three times the cumulative gross fee-demo revenues collected in five years! While we're paying to park and hike or picnic on our public USFS lands, and being told this money is for trail maintenance and other recreational lands improvement, the forest service is stealing the money to spend on other projects. No one disputes that fighting forest fires is important, but isn't paying for it supposed to come from the forest service budget? Please consider that in Oregon and Washington, where the USFS has been most aggressive in collecting recreation user fees, the fee demonstration program grossed $5.9 million dollars last year. However, approximately 45% of that money was spent on projects with 55% going toward overhead, enforcement, collection and administration. In 2000, in the Pacific Northwest fee-demo provided less than $3 million in supplemental revenues for actual on-the-ground work. But on September 26, the USFS announced that they will take $12 million in funding FROM the Pacific Northwest's recreation budget and spend that money elsewhere. In other words, "we wuz robbed!" P.K. |
To the Honorable Representative Scott McInnis: I write to you on behalf of the Public Lands Coalition as the secretary of the coalition. Please make this letter and the enclosed documents part of the public record in regards to the September 25 oversight hearing on permanent authorization of the Forest Service Recreation Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo) held by the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. The Public Lands Coalition opposes permanent authorization of the Forest Service Fee Demo Program. We would rather see the Forest Service recreation budget fully funded through the normal appropriations process, thereby eliminating the need for fees. Additionally, we oppose the private investment and partnerships clause of Fee Demo as this could lead to a further shift from National Forest recreation areas managed by the government for all citizens to National Forest recreation areas managed by the private sector for private profit. The National Forest system was created with the philosophy of lands held in the public trust and should remain that way. Enclosed with this letter is a copy of a letter authored by the Public Lands Coalition. The letter makes a specific statement of opposition to Fee Demo, and has been endorsed by 126 organizations in 28 states. The list of these organizations has been attached as well. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this most important issue facing the future of National Forest management. |
Your November 14 editorial "End Forest Pass Experiment" misses the mark. You declare the Fee Demo Program (Northwest Forest Pass) a success, and call on Congress to make it permanent and expand it nationwide. This is hogwash. The program is opposed by over 230 groups, several state legislatures, and counties and cities throughout the nation. Most people who buy forest passes do so because they are threatened with fines if they don't buy them. In truth, Fee Demo is a corporate sponsored privatization scheme that threatens to eliminate free public access and introduce the profit motive to public recreation. Public Law 104-134 created Fee Demo. It directs the Forest Service and BLM to: "encourage private investment and partnerships to enhance the delivery of quality customer services and resource enhancement, and provide appropriate recognition to such partners or investors." The last thing we want are corporations as "partners" in public lands management! Public lands should be managed in the public interest, by public agencies. Bureaucracies have their shortfalls, but once corporations call the shots, public oversight goes out the window. Profits will supplant stewardship. How ironic that Fee Demo is touted as a conservative "pay-as-you-go" initiative. Get the government off our backs? Trim federal bureaucracies and reduce their power? Establishing the Forest Service as entrepreneur is a recipe for bloated budgets, higher fees, and more restrictions. A walk in the woods is not an entertainment experience we should purchase from the government. To learn the truth about Fee Demo, see www.freeourforests.org S.M. |
Is this an example of Forest Service philanthropy? (That's sorta like an oxymoron.) Or simply a desperate attempt to mitigate the unavoidable exclusionary effect that fees have on the economically disadvantaged? The USFS just doesn't get it. Twelve "fee-free" days out of the year is only 3%. The poor are still being barred from their public lands for 97% of the year. This is totally unacceptable! The poor are already prohibited from visiting the gems of our nation - Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, etc. - because of the exorbitant fees there (which increased even more because of the forest fee program). Now they cannot even take their children on a picnic in their local national forests without the rangers shaking them down for their hard-earned money. And where does the Adventure Pass money really go? The rangers' standard claim is that "at least 80% of the money will be used right here" for the upkeep of facilities and the protection of the forest. But both the General Accounting Office audit of 1998-1999 and the Department of the Interior report of 2001 show that the actual percentage was only 34% and 27%, respectively - far from 80%. Judging by the proliferation of Adventure Pass propaganda and green-garbed Gestapo interrogating and intimidating forest visitors, it seems a huge chunk of the money goes right into running the Adventure Pass program itself. Of course, the forest fee program was never meant to benefit the forests anyway. It's simply a government/corporate experiment to see if they can get away with taking money right out of your pocket without you having any say in the matter. D.N. |
Taken together, the National Park articles by Shannon Joyce Neal and “Trail fees cause furor” by Aaron Porter demonstrate how much park managers and those who protest the Recreational fee Demonstration Program have in common. The National Park articles repeatedly demonstrate that Congress will appropriate money for fancy, highly visible amenities, and the resulting maintenance overextends the park’s financial resources. Black Canyon’s Steven Riley described it this way. "This is the third time they've said, ‘Let's dump a lot of money into the parks,’ but there's not much base increase. They did the same thing in the ’80s and we didn't have the money to maintain it." As if the creation of maintenance intensive amenities weren’t enough, Congress and high-level public servants are also calling for land managers to increase the number of people using public lands, while on the ground managers pointed out that they don’t have the money to handle the increased use. Especially problematic is that those visitors have already contributed tax dollars towards the management of these lands, yet the parks are left underfunded due to inadequate appropriations. The articles call for increased appropriations, and fee opponent Kitty Benzar agrees. “We are totally in favor of using appropriations money, because the money could be put to good use.” Fee opponents realize that a steady flow of maintenance money will only come from appropriations, not from fees. With fees, “the parks cannot predict how much money will come each year.” Opponents couldn’t agree more. D.S. |
In this a year following a year of our greatest disaster ever to threaten our
freedom I have heard so much about freedom itself.
Our government does not own the forests. We the patriots do. The
government is paid by us to manage our land for us. If our government cannot
do its job then it is time we form a new Management For, From and By the
People.
I am a disabled Vietnam Veteran and I am ashamed to stand on the same
dirt with this snake.
I fought as did many men and women in all wars for our freedom. We did
not fight for this snake of a government and private individuals to take
advantage of out freedoms. We in fact fought wars to destroy this very same
snake as it tried to take control in other countries of the world.
This Planet was given us to care for and learn to live on as human
beings. If we let these actions take hold we are failing in our God given
assignment.
The devil itself may have been tossed from Heaven but has through the
years sprouted legs and risen out of the slime and is walking amongst us in
the body of the great pretenders in Washington and elsewhere that live on
power and greed in devour the name of Democracy.
I think it is time to put our heads together and let it be known we will
not stand for this dictatorship in this Free Country!
Now if you don't know what I am opposing. It is the Fee Demo Pay for Play
Program. The Charging of fees to use our natural heritage and
the obscene idea that our children must grow up in a society that has lost
all realization of what life is all about.
M.F. |
We Americans seem to have renewed appreciation for freedom. Let’s not overlook privileges that are close to home, specifically, the right to use our public lands as we always have. This birthright is changing as a result of the federal government’s controversial Recreation Fee Demonstration Program. Unfortunately, most people in this area don’t seem to be aware of this program which charges access fees to users of specific public lands. This so-called test program now has congressional approval to extend until 2004 after which, if not stopped, will be in place permanently without limits to the number of sites or amount charged. This is a fee, in addition to camping or parking fees, to visit public lands: U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands, national forests, parks and wildlife refuges. As Americans, and therefore owners of these lands, we formerly had the privilege to hike, fish, or drive most of these areas, without buying a permit to do so. Now, we face a government employee, a fee and a possible fine for accessing our public lands that seem to have become a commodity with our government. Since the 1980s, financial support for public lands has been reduced. Lack of money is not the problem. Rather, it is one of allocation. Responsible funding can provide the necessary money to maintain public lands without this double taxation. As a user of public lands, do not be intimidated into paying these fees. By paying, albeit grudgingly, you will be on record as supporting this demonstration program. This program can be stopped, but we must act now. We must write to our senators and representatives and tell them they will lose our votes if they continue to back this abhorrent program. Support the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition as it goes to court today in Grand Junction to fight this infringement on our freedom. S.J. |
Your Editorial regarding the Fee Demo program and the protesters in Durango deserves many responses. I'll be happy to provide one. The Daily Sentinel Editorial stated "For the record, we believe that it's entirely sensible to have recreational users of public lands help pay for the costs they create, just as it does to have ranchers, timber companies and mineral firms pay for the costs their respective activities impose on public lands." I don't know where your Editorial writer has been the past decade, but he/she may be interested to know that ranchers, timber companies, and mineral firms do not pay the costs for their respective activities on public lands. The timber companies are subsidized by the US Forest Service to the tune of over $1 billion per year. Ranchers are also subsidized by the US Forest Service and the BLM to well over $1 billion per year. Finally, hard rock mining companies steal literally billions of dollars in royalties annually that the US taxpayer never sees. Demanding that citizens pay to walk on public lands is arrogance at its best when corporations are sucking off the public taxpayer tit. Why doesn't your Editorial writer demand that welfare ranchers, welfare loggers and welfare miners begin paying their fair share? D.B. |
Your Editorial regarding the Fee Demo program and the protesters in Durango deserves many responses. I'll be happy to provide one. The Daily Sentinel Editorial stated "For the record, we believe that it's entirely sensible to have recreational users of public lands help pay for the costs they create, just as it does to have ranchers, timber companies and mineral firms pay for the costs their respective activities impose on public lands." I don't know where your Editorial writer has been the past decade, but he/she may be interested to know that ranchers, timber companies, and mineral firms do not pay the costs for their respective activities on public lands. The timber companies are subsidized by the US Forest Service to the tune of over $1 billion per year. Ranchers are also subsidized by the US Forest Service and the BLM to well over $1 billion per year. Finally, hard rock mining companies steal literally billions of dollars in royalties annually that the US taxpayer never sees. Demanding that citizens pay to walk on public lands is arrogance at its best when corporations are sucking off the public taxpayer tit. Why doesn't your Editorial writer demand that welfare ranchers, welfare loggers and welfare miners begin paying their fair share? D.B. |
Scott Silver, Executive Director
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Avenue, Bend OR 97701
Phone (541) 385-5261 E-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org