" WILD AND FREE IN THE 21st CENTURY "

A Campaign to Halt the Commercialization, Privatization and Increased Motorization of Recreational Opportunities on America's Public Lands

In the next millennium, will Americans enjoy free access to pristine forests, deserts, mountains, rivers and streams, or will wild nature be developed into recreational products and sold to those with thick wallets or those most willing to buy access? The answer to this question will be decided in the next few months and you can play a major role in determining the outcome.

In 1996, Congress began a test to determine whether people were willing to pay to visit public lands. This program, called the "Recreation Fee Demonstration Program" (Fee-Demo) was developed in partnership with the American Recreation Coalition (ARC). ARC is a trade association which primarily represents motorized recreation and has testified before Congress that "Recreation fees on public lands were one of the issues which prompted the creation of the American Recreation Coalition in 1979." ARC also represents numerous companies that are eager to construct and operate privately- owned recreational facilities on public lands now managed by the US Forest Service and other federal agencies. Current laws severely restrict such private undertakings, strictly limit the fees which may be charged and attempt to exert some minimal level of regulation upon motorized wreckreation. ARC is industry's vehicle for getting around all of these obstacles.

Fee-Demo is a small part of the larger effort to promote Industrial Strength Recreation and to redefine how people recreate on public lands in the 21st century. Fee-Demo is intended to demonstrate how to most effectively charge for the enjoyment of amenities that have traditionally been free. Before 1999 ends, ARC and other proponents of this pay-to-play ethic will attempt to pass legislation to facilitate what many have dubbed: The Corporate Takeover of Nature and the Disneyfication of Public Lands. Once it becomes legal to run public lands for their revenue generation potential, there will be no end to the new products and services that will be offered. For the US Forest Service and their private partners, the perceived financial opportunities are simply irresistible.

In recent months, over 100 environmental organizations, outdoor recreation groups, state and local governments have called for an end to the highly unpopular Fee-Demo program. Bipartisan legislation, called the "Forest Tax Relief Act of 1999" has been introduced to immediately eliminate this program from all National Forests. Yet even with all this opposition, the land managers who stand to gain from charging recreational fees are telling Congress that people actually like to pay them. They are telling President Clinton that Fee-Demo is so successful, that he should call for fees to be permanently authorized without further delay.

To keep these lands wild and to continue the long tradition of free access, we must use the remaining months of this millenium to send an irrefutable message to Congress and the Clinton Administration. We must let them know that we OPPOSE being treated as customers and that we oppose the current attempt to commercialize, privatize and motorize lands that we own.

To ensure that our intense disapproval is heard loudly and clearly, Saturday August 14, 1999 shall become a National Day of Action. In communities and on public lands across this nation, people will be demonstrating their determination to protect our forests and other special places and to keep them forever 'Wild and Free'. For information on how you can participate in this special event, or to learn more about this extremely important issue, please contact: