"The recreation industry is moving quickly to take over the forests, mountains and deserts that the loggers, ranchers and oil and gas guys are vacating. Indiction are that this new extractive industry, which carries with it user fees and increased motorized activities, isn't going to be a huge improvement over the natural resources industries."Source: Ed. Marston, publisher, High Country News, April 27. 1998 (NOTE: Links that are now 'dead" at their original location
can generally still be viewed at The WayBack Machine.)
Also Available: FEE-DEMO IN THE NEWS
(Outdoor recreation is undergoing a sea change as the region enters the 21st Century...The traditional conception of parks, beaches and waterways as open spaces for passive relaxation is gradually giving way to a more active, regimented and costly vision of outdoor leisure. Instead of unadulterated green acres and uninterrupted shoreline vistas, the park or beach of the future is more likely to feature mountain biking, kayaking and guided nature walks, with detailed rules spelling out where, when, and how leisure-seekers can participate. And instead of being subsidized and managed by the government, those highly organized forms of recreation -- everything from golf courses and marinas to inline skating parks and water slides -- will increasingly be run by private contractors seeking a profit.)
(Tucked away in a corner of the U.S. Forest Service Web site are plans and documents which could lead to the closure of hundreds of campground water systems and ultimately, hundreds of campgrounds themselves throughout the national forest system. The time-hallowed practice of fetching water from a hand pump -- for preparing meals, washing dishes or washing dirty kids -- may become a thing of the past. Like a small-town post office, where people meet and talk, the campground hand pump is where campers meet and talk, forming friendships that can last a weekend or a lifetime. That could all disappear in a few years, said primitive recreation advocate Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness in Bend, Ore. ... “The reality is that the Forest Service has been trying to close campgrounds since the camping heyday in the '50s and '60s,” Stahl said. Driving to a campground and pitching a tent has been replaced by 30-foot RVs that haul ATVs on a trailer and demand full utility hookups. Campers are more likely to entertain themselves with ATVs, motorbikes, video games and satellite television than by hiking, fishing or just messing around in the outdoors, he said.)
(Not quite a century ago, "mountaineering buff" Stephen Mather complained to then Interior Secretary Franklin K. Lane that the parks were being ruined. In response, Lane invited Mather to run them himself, which he did for 13 years. Mather's first order of business as Assistant Secretary of Interior was to pass a National Park Service bill; in 1916, with tremendous public support, he succeeded with the passage of the Organic Act, creating the protective aegis parks needed. Mather, who fended off repeated attacks against park preservation philosophy, would have been pleased with Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas and others who claim to be dedicated to preserving national parks "by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations," as mandated under the Organic Act. But today, it appears that guiding preservation philosophy is under attack. ... Wild Wilderness Executive Director Scott Silver says there was a time when outdoor recreation on public lands was looked upon as a public good, and land managers provided basic services and managed opportunities to recreate upon public lands as part of their mission. But, he said, that is no longer the case. "Today, outdoor recreation is being operated as a pay-to-play business with management decisions driven by bottom-line considerations and an ideologically driven desire to transfer responsibly for the delivery of recreational produces, goods and service, to private interests," Silver said)
(Wanted: Private vendor(s) willing to propose visitor services and
concessions on thousands of acres of national forests surrounding an
erupting volcano, near major metropolitan area. Helicopter tours? RV sites?
Hot dog stands? All offers considered. Inquire at Gifford Pinchot National
Forest.
Faced with a chronic shortfall of money to maintain and operate visitor
centers on the main highway to leading to Mount St. Helens, the U.S. Forest
Service is making a public plea for help from private enterprise.
The solicitation, released this month in the form of a 150-page prospectus,
has drawn criticism from environmental groups, concern from scientists and
doubts about the ability of private enterprise to sustain the cash-strapped
visitor centers.)
(A visit to Mount St. Helens may soon offer more than a steaming volcano.
Think commercial helicopter tours, snowmobile and mountain bike rentals,
yurt camps, vacation cabins and mobile snack carts at scenic viewpoints.
The U.S. Forest Service is entertaining bids for those and other privately
run operations at the national volcanic monument. The goal is twofold: Offer
new recreation options and, officials hope, bring in enough money to make up
for declining federal support.
Commercial operations at the 110,000-acre monument surrounding the volcano
have mostly been limited to cafeterias and gift shops tucked into visitor
centers and a few climbing guides.)
(To ease bellyaching and blisters, a new idea has emerged: Install a
Swiss-engineered people mover, the Monorack, a mountain-worthy variation of
a monorail, that will extend the machinery atop the mountain farther into
the wilds. The idea comes from the folks at the Mt. San Jacinto Winter Park
Authority, which operates the aerial tram. They think whisking visitors
effortlessly up and down the ramp makes sense and is a logical extension of
the tram.
The concept of a people mover seems fine for many day-hikers who schlep the
grade, which sometimes is called Heart Attack Hill. For many people who are
disabled, overweight or aging, smoothing out the rigors of the hiking path
makes sense. On a recent day, Florence Allen, a Burlingame resident with a
lung condition, struggled up the incline. When she heard about the people
mover idea, her comment was: "Oh, how nice."
But to many environmentalists, building a people mover in mountain
backcountry is an unnecessary and unwarranted intrusion into the wilds.
Environmentalists bitterly fought, and lost, when the aerial tram opened in
1963. Forty-two years later, the debate is being renewed. Some worry a
people mover would lead to creeping commercialization and wreck the natural
experience.)
(“That’s the thing about this hobby,” John Davis of
Lee’s Summit says outside his $300,000 house on wheels as he
cooks two T-bone steaks on the grill. “The more you say you
like to get out and rough it, the more you want to get it just
about like home.” Nationally, more people are forgoing tents
for RVs, surveys show. The Missouri Department of Natural
Resources is getting the message. It is spending $2.5 million
to have electrical hookups installed at 70 percent of its
state park campsites, up from 50 percent...
Amenities people are seeking for camping mirror ones they
want in hotel rooms, homes and cars, says Derrick Crandall,
president of the Washington-based American Recreation
Coalition, a nonprofit group that advocates policies favorable
to outdoor recreation. “It’s a reflection of where the
American public is comfortable,” Crandall says. “Yes, they
want to be out where they are seeing nature, they just don’t
want to give up everything they have at home.”)
(In 2004, the federal government awarded the NRRS contract to InterActiveCorp, which owns numerous web-based services, including Ticketmaster, Ask Jeeves, Hotels.com, Match.com and ReserveAmerica. The latter company will manage the Forest Service's online campsite and cabin rental program if InterActiveCorp ultimately prevails in the bid protest. InterActiveCorp, headquartered in Ballston Spa, N.Y., is headed by Chief Executive Officer Barry Diller, the former chairman of Paramount Pictures who mentored Michael Eisner, former chairman of the board of the Walt Disney Company ... Allowing a private corporation to manage the reservation system, Silver says, whittles control away from the Forest Service.)
(For Rorick and other conservationists, three key issues are in play: the concept of natural quiet, the integrity of wilderness and the growing recreational commodification of the backcountry. Heli-tourism, which today takes many forms including heli-skiing, aerial sightseeing and bush camping, rocketed to record levels in the 1990s-and the trajectory continues to climb. Tremendous amounts of money, millions upon millions of dollars in profits each year for private companies, are at stake.)
(The wilderness might seem like the last place you'd find video games, computers and DVDs, but today's young people are used to having electronic media virtually everywhere they go. And campground operators, eager to stop their pool of visitors from shrinking, are struggling with how and whether to accommodate them. To attract visitors, state parks in California, Texas and Michigan are offering wireless Internet access, and Col. Rick Barton, superintendent of Maryland's 49 state parks, says he's exploring the idea.)
(Berkowitz: What will all this mean for the average family that might want to go camping or hiking this summer?
Silver: Recreation in the great outdoors is becoming increasingly scripted so that
your average family will find less adventure and greater predictability and
they are going to find themselves forced to make choices as to what
experiences they can afford: More advanced planning will be required,
reservations will have to be made, and decisions such as whether to select
the premium camping site by the river or the discount site by the toilet
will become part of the planning process.
Your average campers are likely to find themselves sleeping in a tent
surrounded by motor-homes. Sounds of nature will be replaced by sounds of
generators, televisions, showers and toilets flushing. National Park
Services, such as interpretive presentations that once were free, may now
carry a price-tag. Hiking trails will be inaccessible unless a fee is paid;
the same thing with lakes, rivers and streams. Attractions that catch your
eye and would otherwise draw you to them will, quite literally, be
off-limits unless you have purchased the required pass or booked in advance.
Those on tight budgets will likely find themselves deciding that standing by
a particular stream and peering into the water, is just not worth the cost.)
(But debate continues to echo over the fate of mile-wide Yosemite Valley. A collection of park aficionados believes the various projects are overwrought, overpriced and intended to hasten the park's final transformation into an ecological Disneyland, a place where pricey hotel rooms outnumber low-cost campsites 3 to 1. "It's all part of the yuppification of Yosemite," said Angela Caldera, co-founder of Yosemite Campers Coalition. "They're turning it into a wilderness Club Med catering to the affluent, a for-profit place more than a public park."..."They are messing with Mother Nature," said Caldera, a La Habra resident whose family first stayed at Lower Pines Campground after World War II. "Don't they think the park on its own, the falls on their own, are enough to generate awe?" Joyce Eden of Friends of Yosemite Valley suggests the park went over the top; she would have preferred far less grandiose improvement. She rues how boulders were uprooted and walls were built "like something you'd see on the Washington Mall." She compares the bus stop structure to Stonehenge's ominous slabs and dubs the new restroom "the abominable bathroom.")
(The job posting for a new director of tourism for the National Park Service cites the usual requirements: expertise with budgets, ability to set priorities. But a new skill -- the ability to ''create, nurture, and expand tourism programs that promote private sector support" -- has environmentalists worrying about creeping commercialization and added strain on already overburdened parks. "It smacks of heavy corporate involvement," said Jeff Ruck, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, outlining the first of several concerns with the position. "Marketing tactics could influence policy and lead to promiscuous partnering. That would allow wholesale commercialization and 'Disney-fy' our national parks.")
(A very real danger from the current 'parks' promotion is that every area will end up the same, with locals displaced by commercial operators, development, tourists, noise and congestion....There must also be a moratorium on the granting of commercial concessions and further development of facilities..."Its about time the public at large had a say, and not just special interest groups and DOC determining the future of the high country"...)
(In the current edition of Rotman Magazine, they recommend that companies appoint a chief experience officer (CXO) to develop experiences that will complement the products or services they sell. "What turns any offering into an economic experience is charging admission - charging for the time the customer spends with you," Pine says. Some might say the experience economy has already arrived. There is certainly no shortage of theme parks, video arcades or upscale food emporiums. But Gilmore and Pine envisage a day when bankers, brokers, factory owners, consultants, restaurateurs and retailers will all "get into the business of staging experiences." Some might dismiss the whole notion of selling contrived experiences as ridiculous. Gilmore and Pine do have a penchant for over-the-top language. {"The new challenge perhaps can be defined best as the management of the customer perception of authenticity."})
(The bears, moose and mountain lions that roam Yellowstone National Park will get a new animal neighbor this summer: Mickey Mouse. To test an expansion of its vacation business beyond theme parks and cruises -- and beyond Florida and California -- the Walt Disney Co. will begin offering weeklong guided tours later this year through the wilds of Wyoming and Hawaii. Disney will run 15 of the 30-person group tours this summer at a "test" cost of between $5,600 and $7,800 for a family of four, airfare not included. If the tours prove popular, they could become a fixture in Disney's lineup of vacation offerings and even be expanded to other destinations, the company said.)
("The days of the five-by-nine wall tent have pretty much gone away. A lot of people don't want to sleep on the ground anymore,' he said. "We have to reach out and explore ways to provide quality recreation facilities."... Concepts include: A retreat center with conference space. Arts center for ``artists in residence' to showcase various art forms and provide public education. A small, outdoor performance space. A ``higher end' RV park to support onsite facilities and area tourism. A working vineyard managed by the community college for public education and interpretation. Habitat restoration that would develop a portion of the park as a model stewardship area and learning lab.)
(The basic problem, as NPS sees it, is that fewer people are camping and boating in our national parks. The only consistent area of growth for the national park system is increasing commuter traffic – something termed “non-recreational use.” “In its quest to ‘Disney-fy’ the park system, the Park Service risks sacrificing the very qualities that make national parks special and worth visiting,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, pointing, for example, to the year-long “Partnership Agreement” that the Park Service has had with the Travel Industry Association of America. “By reaching out indiscriminately for every corporate opportunity, the Park Service may suffer unintended side effects of promiscuous partnering.”)
("For example, Taylor asked, how many Americans who are no longer limber enough to camp out know that many forests have ski lodges or other places to sleep? "They don't do a good job of explaining people's options," she said. Derrick Crandall, president of the American Recreation Coalition, envisions using high-tech recreation to draw a new generation to the national forests. The Forest Service could open its lands to geocaching -- a sort of scavenger hunt in which participants follow clues posted on the Internet and use handheld global positioning systems to locate hiding places for items. "I do think we have to understand that recreation on a national forest needs to change," Crandall said. Crandall doesn't believe that he is proposing to turn forestlands into amusement parks as some environmental activists fear now that the federal government is looking to charge more recreation fees.")
("The agency said in its decision that allowing heli-skiing in the wilderness study area does not preclude the area's future inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Over-the-snow activity will not alter the wilderness character, the agency said....Heli-skiers have said their only impact is tracks in the snow that eventually melt away.")
("It's true that our agency's mission is to get people into direct contact with the world of nature and the great outdoors, and the vast majority of our visitors come here to get away from cellphones and pagers and other technical gadgets from the urban world," says Tom Harvey of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. "But there is a certain niche audience that might find the service useful." Birders, for example. And their distant relatives, the RV snowbirds. In fact, says Mr. Harvey, the idea came from park visitors themselves - especially those exploring the Texas coast. The service will be free in the five Texas parks for three months; then TengoInternet, the wireless provider, will charge about $15 a day.)
("We used to do recreation on the side," said Bob Ratcliffe, deputy manager of recreation and visitor services for the agency. In fact, the public would sometimes derisively refer to the BLM as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining. That's changing. With recreation gaining a higher profile, the agency has earned a new nickname - the Bureau of Leisure and Motorhomes. )
(Government agency managers and volunteer hosts who once ran public campgrounds are giving way to private concessionaires. "The change is almost complete. The volunteer campground host is a vanishing species," says Benzar. Paid hosts "are there for the money and they're the ones harassing people for using picnic tables." The increased role of concessionaires and paid hosts on public lands is symptomatic of a growing, and some say ominous, movement by our land management agencies toward privatization. The U.S. Forest Service says private companies are helping to keep campgrounds open and public lands healthy. Critics say the cozy relationship is accelerating the transformation of public, natural resources into privatized, developed commodities; creating a customer profile and a corporate ethic in place of a citizen profile and a conservation ethic.)
(If a great blue heron strayed onto the Averbach's site, they might not notice. Inside their 39-foot Fleetwood RV (which can start at $150,000), Maida Averbach bakes bread in her own oven and watches cable television. The fresh night air? Skip it. "I've got my air conditioner." The Averbachs pay a $46 base rate per night. Why bother? "The whole idea is to travel," David Averbach said. Adds Maida: "Kids today, they need to know that they can go camping. This is nature. It's just beautiful.")
(Looming over the other houseboats at Wahweap Marina, gleaming white from its first deck all the way up to the railings on its third, the brand-new Odyssey looks a little like an ocean liner that has somehow found its way onto the placid waters of Lake Powell. The 75-by-16-foot houseboat is the biggest rental on this man-made body of water, which straddles the border of Arizona and Utah. And it is by far the fanciest, with a hot tub and a wet bar, staterooms with TV's and DVD players, and a living room with a fireplace and an up-to-date entertainment center. "We wanted to build the best rental houseboat in America," said Steve Ward, director of public relations for the division of Aramark that runs commercial enterprises on Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.)
(Getting back to nature doesn't mean sacrificing comfort. Whether it's hauling a trailer, driving an RV or packing up the four-wheeler with the bare necessities, camping is a relaxing way to enjoy a summer vacation....)
(The "Great American Road Trip'' is back, but the rules of the road have changed. Americans are buying more recreational vehicles, shopping for last-minute bargains on the Internet and looking for adventure vacations that don't require much physical effort or discomfort, tourism expert Roger Brooks told about 400 people on Monday at the 2004 Governor's Conference on Tourism and Recreation... Brooks, CEO of Olympia, Wash.,-based Destination Development, opened the conference Monday with what he calls "The 10 Commandments of Tourism in the Aughts. First on the list was don't ignore the growing market of RV travelers....)
(Some money once spent on salaries will go for building projects. Parks will have to cut expenses or find a way to bring in more income to make up the difference, Prosser said. Some employees may lose their jobs. "It has to do with getting more customers coming to the parks and the customers who are coming, offering them additional services, making more money off the things we sell, like our retail operations, our golf courses, our fishing piers," Prosser said. He came to the job last year from Horry County, where he worked as the managing partner of a golf club resort and was County Council chairman. Officials also are considering turning over certain operations to private companies, to promote the parks more and to offer discounts to draw more visitors during nonpeak seasons, he said.)
(Part of the use comes down to money. The Parks and Recreation Department has a policy to recover 35 percent of its costs through revenue. Lodi Lake Docent Coordinator Kathy Grant said she was disappointed the opportunity to make money was missed in BoardStock. "Bottom line is, we've got to make money. We need to make money off our resources, and the lake is one of them," she said. "I have to laugh at the people who said it would hurt wildlife. It's already man's park at the front." Beckman said more events simply mean more tourists to spend money here. "With all the budget issues facing the city, tourism is a viable way to enhance the local economy. We need to consider those options.")
(Gene Foley, chairman of the Cross-Country Ski Association, which promotes skiing on groomed trails, says there are 210 exclusively cross-country resorts in his group. Many are expanding their offerings, from state-of-the art equipment to spa facilities. But here is where free enterprise gets tangled up in itself. Skiers want serenity and a cheap way into the winter wilds, so someone had better package it up and sell it to them, even if commodifying it dilutes the very qualities sought.)
(Budget pressures are not the only reason for killing the pass, Panarese said. The camping pass hurts private businesses, he said, both those that operate some state campgrounds under contract to the division and those that operate their own RV campgrounds...."The fee increases and elimination of the (camping) decal make our facilities more feasible for private operation," Panarese said. "State parks is gradually moving, in order to keep our parks open, more and more to private operation.")
(At 2.4 million acres, the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is the largest in the lower 48 states. But it also is the most motorized - so much so that the solitude one expects of a wilderness can be shattered. The Forest Service should stick to the outlines of Church's vision. That means holding the line on motorized traffic in this central Idaho wilderness - and certainly not expanding it. This latest plan goes down the wrong path.)
(An outcry has persuaded the San Juan National Forest to withdraw its plans, at least for now, to spend about $700,000 developing 20 campsites, three toilets and other amenities at this high-mountain oasis just a mile west of the scenic Skyway, a world-famous stretch of U.S. 550. The plans had also called for a new gravel parking lot next to the highway and a contract with a concessionaire who would collect camping fees and monitor campers. "It's just too much for Little Molas. It's part of a trend by the federal government to make our public lands into commodities and then market them back to us. It's our own backyard. We want to be treated like owners, not customers.")
(The committee was also encouraged by Steve Arveschoug to "think big" when brainstorming the future recreation at the lake. Arveschoug, general manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District expressed his lofty vision. He urged planners to "make it (McPhee) the ultimate guy/gal fishing experience ... why not?" This vision would incorporate a series of shops along the edge of the lake, near the outskirts of Dolores, and would resemble a river walk like the one in San Antonio, Arveschoug said. )
(Officials at the White River National Forest, where Copper is based, wrote a scathing evaluation of the program earlier this year, denying the resort's request to continue the program. "The Beeline Advantage program was operated, managed and marketed to effectively exclude members of the public from participating while at the same time providing a select group with special access privileges to public lands," the report concluded.)
(For some camping purists, a backpack, pocket knife and two sticks could be considered a heavy load of outdoor essentials, but to a growing number of luxury campers, a list of necessities could include a travel espresso machine, laptop and three-piece sushi set with chopsticks. "There's a whole new variety of campers out there who want to do it their own way - luxuriously," said Linda Profaizer, president and CEO of the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.)
(She said that with the ever-expanding size of RVs, in which some people have chosen to live, many older RV parks are unable to accommodate the larger vehicles. But the Carlsbad KOA offers 40-foot-wide and 70-foot-long pull-throughs for RVs, allowing a bit more breathing room. The park also boasts a recreation room that can seat up to 100 people; a store with groceries, gifts and bait; and laundry, restroom and bathing facilities, Connie said.)
(The Pocatello, Idaho, group filed an appeal to the White River National Forest Plan opposing creation of more wilderness and closure of access for off-road vehicles and snowmobiles. As grounds for the appeal, the BlueRibbon Coalition said the Forest Service must be more responsive to user trends. "Non-wilderness uses are just exploding," said Bill Dart, public lands director for the coalition. "You have to sell what the customer wants." The coalition's appeal cites data in the forest plan that showed off-road vehicle use increased 74 percent between 1984 and 1996 and mountain bike use shot up a staggering 214 percent on forest lands. Hiking grew at a smaller rate, the coalition stated, so it makes no sense to designate more land as wilderness and reduce access at a time when motorized and mechanized demand is growing. "We feel there's enough wilderness," Dart said.)
(For a weekend in the wilderness, be sure to pack up your PlayStation, microwave and laptop before lacing up your hiking boots. It's time for Colorado State Parks to start making money. "You're going to see us adding even Internet access to some (parks) so people can drive in and plug in and shoot their digital pictures off to their grandkids," Department of Natural Resources Director Greg Walcher said Wednesday. "A lot of states are starting to do that around the country and we're going to start doing that, too.")
(No, not a ski resort - it's the south pole. First there were the huts, then a gift shop, now they're building a road to the south pole. Is this the beginning of the end for the last great wilderness?)
(The Southeast community of Haines is still roiling over helicopter-assisted skiing and snowboarding in the narrow valley west of town. "It's come down to a battle between the people who want that business to grow and people who want to keep their quiet lifestyles," said Shelley McLaughlin-True. She and her husband, Tom True, saved for more than 20 years to build their dream retirement home up the Chilkat River valley. Now they're less than a mile from a heliport. "It sounds like your washing machine is off balance all day long" during the three-month helicopter season, she said. "People who live a lot closer than I do can't even carry on a conversation in their houses.")
(Clifford couches his hard-edged exposé in an aching nostalgia for the "golden age" of skiing, when it was still based on the Norwegian ideal of Idraet, a principle that involved strength, toughness, and moral development. Back then, he says, "skiers could pack up their Econoline van or Volkswagen microbus and drive to the mountains.... What mattered was skiing, and the social hierarchy that developed each season was predicated on their abilities on the mountain." This is a far cry from the social divide that exists around today's ski towns, where one newspaper ad declared: "This May Be Your Last Chance to Build an 18,729 sq ft Home in Aspen.")
(Now, how does this relate to the situation at the Valles Caldera? There, the trustees are mandated to make their operation financially self-supporting. They are, in other words, in business. And because they are in business, they will inevitably sell their products to the highest bidders. They will go after whatever the traffic will bear, which includes at this very moment elk hunts at (tens of thousands of dollars). I was told that these hunts are now paying the salaries of Valles Caldera personnel. Can one realistically expect it to go any other way?)
(Fun is one of America's obsessions, and therefore one of its biggest businesses. Recreation is at least a $300-billion-a-year business -- and growing. And while that figure includes health clubs and indoor tennis courts, "clearly the bulk of it is outdoor recreation," Crandall says. Most of it comes from the mechanized sector -- recreational and off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, motorboats, and the hotels and restaurants that cater to the drivers thereof.)
(The cash-strapped Wildlife Service, which manages 95 million acres of federal land on a budget not much larger than the price of one stealth bomber, has been under pressure since the Reagan administration to bolster its revenues using private partnerships. The idea is that providing recreational opportunities on refuge lands can bring in money for conservation work while still ostensibly upholding its mandate: "Wildlife First." As the Bush administration seeks to accelerate such partnerships, Midway shows the kind of tricky compromises or outright clashes of values that can result.)
(Munson said it's going to take a lot of outside funding to preserve the homes, which require hundreds of thousands of dollars in upgrades before the public can use them. "It's going to be very expensive to get those things up to code and make them safe for access," she said. ... Schwiep said to generate money, a "pay to play" approach is likely and the previous leaseholders have already begun the process of forming a trust.)
(There are stacks of firewood labeled itsy-bitsy, medium and big honking stuff. In the trim outhouse is a stack of feminine supplies. Folksy and convenient, the Dancing Moose yurt in the Colorado State Forest could be a harbinger of 21st century camping.)
("There's another problem with most Gifford Pinchot campgrounds: Many date to the 1930s and won't accommodate today's large recreational vehicles. The forest has campgrounds that cater to tent users in an increasingly fifth-wheel world. "The trend is toward increasingly larger RVs with more amenities and more users," Porter said.")
("Owen Lammers, director of Living Rivers and head of the coalition fighting the new marina, said that the National Park Service "is demonstrating a massive bias for motorized, flat-water recreation, and pimping for that." The coalition complains that park officials are skirting federal regulations by not conducting a formal Environmental Impact Statement to study in full the marina's potential harm.")
("All across this region and elsewhere in the West, the rough is being scraped away from what is left of our public lands. Not far from here is Sand Island, the storied put-in for rafters on the San Juan River. What do rafters need? A place to blow up their boats and camp one night before beginning their float. What is the government providing them? Thanks to fees, they now have an absurd concrete launch ramp. Welcome to adventure. Don't worry about getting your feet muddy. And please enjoy the new showpiece visitor center and maintenance building and ranger station and the field of solar panels to keep the cash registers running.")
("This fight about snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park is not about protecting the park," he says. "It's about power, money and who controls access, plain and simple." Like other snowmobile businessmen I have interviewed, Loomis is so assertive, it's hard to get a word in. I am trying to tell him I am not so interested in the park - that's the typical story of profit vs. preservation - as I am in the town itself. The emphasis on snowmobiles goes back to the town's incorporation, and it has gained such momentum by now, many people who live here think that it's become an industrial tourism monster.")
("WASHINGTON -- Dozens of federal jobs at Yosemite and Sequoia national parks could be contracted out to private profit-making companies under an aggressive Bush administration strategy now getting under way.... "Privatization seems to be the order of the day, and, of course, that means that the end point will be money, not visitor experience or resource preservation..." )
("So today, an ever-increasing flow of RVs and hunters head north on the haul road exercising a right they should not have. In 50 years, that road will change the Arctic more than drilling ever did. The oil fields will be gone. But the road will be paved. There will be hunting lodges, restaurants, trinket shops, petting zoos and airfields for flight-seeing tours. Spur roads will be pushed deeper into the wild. Imagine the fun for off-roaders. Hunters will fan out over hundreds of miles to ambush the migrating caribou herds, along with the wolves and grizzly bears that follow them. A mosquito abatement district will be established. Tourists will enjoy the splendor in an IMAX theater. The Arctic will be like everywhere else: the province of concessionaires, traffic, noise, litter. Another place to get a window decal for the fifth-wheeler.")
("These proposals have been the most contentious issue at the meetings, Wright said, because if passed they would reduce recreational opportunities for some users. Mountain bike and off-highway vehicle enthusiasts are flocking to the meetings in hopes of preventing that from happening.")
("WASHINGTON, D.C.-- For maybe the first time in history, people are so devoted to fun that some define themselves not by class, region or ethnicity but by diversion of choice -- baseball fan, hiker, snowmobiler. No wonder competing visions of recreation have turned political.")
("By giving us more terrain where we can play; by creating jobs; and by fueling real estate booms in once sleepy hollows, who could argue with skiing, right? But just as we chant “let it snow,” let us also make an honest assessment of the real impacts that ski resorts are bringing to sensitive mountain environments. The footprint is hardly benign.")
("The improvements definitely changed the clientele. But the population's [also] changed," says Laws. And that new clientele demands better access, smoother roads, bigger parking lots, and more campgrounds. All of which leads to a chicken-or-the-egg dilemma. Whether the Forest Service bowed to public demands for improvements, as the agency maintains, or whether a new crowd began showing up at Lake Como precisely because of the improvements probably will never be known. "They were coming anyway and we needed to do something," says Laws. Dan Ritter, the deputy district ranger for Darby and Sula, says the former Lake Como users-hikers, backpackers and canoeists-have probably been replaced by the motorized crowd. But like Laws, Ritter refutes the notion that fee demo created a build-it-and-they-will-come mentality. He says people like the new recreation scene at Lake Como, and don't quibble over the $2 fee.")
("In silence, we are forced to examine our lives, our hopes, and our dreams. To many of us, the wilderness is a place to think, to reflect, and to explore our relationship with the natural world. This is not possible with polluting engines or concession stands in the background. When quiet sets in, you get to ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing. That answer isn't always pretty. To some, I fear, the roar of an engine is used to intentionally keep away that powerful introspection.")
("Others suggest that by focusing his environmental attention on popular national parks such as Sequoia and Yellowstone -- already off-limits to logging, mining and other development -- Bush leaves national forests for more utilitarian uses championed by rural areas that helped elect him. "It allows him to use parks to show off his greenness, because everyone loves parks, but that does not interfere with his more rough-and-tumble uses of the national forests to appease industry," said Scott Silver of Wild Wilderness, a Bend-based group opposed to commercialization of public lands.")
("Though no one is suggesting that roller coasters be put in Yosemite, the contrasting approaches highlight one of the most important questions Ms. Mainella would face as head of the National Park Service: how to balance the tension between commercial interests that want to expand park visits and preservationists who believe restrictions are necessary to save the natural wonders from ruin.")
("Recreation is the next battleground. The fights over timber have been largely won by the environmental community," says Jim Lyons, who served as the Clinton administration's Agriculture Undersecretary for Natural Resources and the Environment. "As recreation increases, impact on the resources becomes visible. The public and environmental community have become concerned. That's the formula for a fight.")
(Promotion and expansion is the driving force of practically all capitalist industry. The outdoor industry is no different and neither is the bottom line pursuit of the vast majority of companies in outdoor recreation. Most business owners scream like a stuck pig about governmental rules and restrictions that inhibit business and admittedly there is a lot of bureaucratic foolishness in all governmental agencies. But the truth is, without regulation the outdoor business would look like a convention of chocoholics at a Hershey factory.)
(How can we continue to condemn the irresponsible and unacceptable behavior of people that we believe are damaging our irreplaceable natural resources, while ignoring or playing down the ever-growing destruction caused by us! Non-motorized recreationists--hikers, group hikers, bikers, climbers, rafters, kayakers, runners, action tour groups!--all those enlightened sportsters who wrap themselves in the environmental flag and send money to the Sierra Club while wreaking their own kind of enviro-havoc?)
(The Sierra Club didn't start out to set a nationwide
precedent or to define tourism as pollution. But it's not exactly
news that development can kill the golden goose, or to keep the
image Hawaiian, the golden plover.
Indeed others have begun to wonder just how "clean" the
tourism industry is. The attraction of a "wilderness experience"
has turned Yellowstone into an RV parking lot. In the Galapagos a
tanker carrying fuel for tour boats created a massive oil spill.
And even Mt. Everest has produced a tourist garbage heap.
)
("Listen," I said, checking the altimeter watch again, "I've only logged 3,450 feet of vertical. I can't go in for lunch until I hit 7,000. I'll page you in an hour.")
("For at least a century, policymakers looked at logging, grazing and mining as the best means for turning a profit on America's natural resources. Now it's the land itself that's the cash cow. Big companies like Philip Morris are part of that process, taking their products to the outdoors and roping us into their scheme through a kind of subliminal seduction of the way we see nature.")
(While most recreation groups are enthusiastic about the agency's newfound focus, several conservation groups, including the Colorado Mountain Club, are worried that improvements will come at the expense of the environment. The emphasis on partnerships with the private sector is of special concern. That push will lead the agency to favor those uses that generate more revenue, including off-road vehicle use, heavily developed RV facilities and facilities such as ski areas - all characterized by conservationists as "industrial recreation.")
(A coalition of more than 80 conservation, land protection and outdoor groups, including the Oregon Natural Resources Council and the Oregon Mountaineering Association, had opposed an earlier and similar version of the recreation agenda, saying it failed to protect national forests and promoted recreation instead of managing it. "Such a policy will create an endless spiral of additional development, with increasing environmental damage, in order to fund the existing infrastructure," the groups wrote. "Given the agency's inability to manage current recreational levels, the promotion of increased recreational use, especially of the more developed types, makes no sense at all." )
(We in the West must face the fact that sprawl and industrial tourism are a grave threat to our environment, quality of life and community. The West as a region still has an infantile obsession with the mythology of individualism. It is time for us to leave behind some of our 19th century baggage and embrace the power we citizens have to regulate ourselves through zoning and comprehensive planning and land-use regulations. If we don't, the interior West will continue to become a dysfunctional theme park for the rich.)
(Today's ecotourist, he said, wants both the pristine wilderness and the comforts of home. To lure them, the outdoor industry offers a range of adventure travel, from hiking to canoeing, kayaking, fishing and snowmobiling, with an emphasis on family participation. "They want that wild experience, but they want it to be safe and they want to get back to that lodge at the end," Bruno said. Outfitters "need ways to enhance and develop an infrastructure that can get people who will pay a lot for what they want." )
(Make no mistake, "public service" is not the motivation here. Clearly, the familiar money hungry triangle of industry, politicians and federal agency is rearing its ugly head again to feed on the American public's resources. People who hunt, fish, hike, camp or go boating in the national forests don't need massive new commercial development to accommodate their uses. More likely it would degrade the outdoor experience for most users while pandering to product offerings by the motorized recreation industry.)
(Free access to public lands is an important part of the American identity, they say, and raising fees could drive away poorer Americans. About 1 in 4 households surveyed in Vermont and New Hampshire that earn $30,000 or less annually indicated that fees would prevent them from visiting the national forest, says Thomas Stevens, an author of the White Mountain study.)
(The town is bracing for a crush of tourists unlike anything it has seen before. When the road opens June 7, it is expected to bring up to 1.4 million visitors a year – a more than tenfold increase. Hundreds of buses, recreational vehicles, trucks, and cars – many of them towing boats – will make their way through a 2.5-mile railroad tunnel under the Chugach Mountains that has been converted to handle vehicle traffic. The town is expecting up to 4,000 visitors during peak summer days.)
(The apostles of Manifold Destiny fall back on lame arguments about creaky knees, about everybody's grandfather having the right to personally inspect every acre of forest land while gripping a steering wheel, about the forest being out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But there's even a more disturbing aspect of Manifold Destiny, and it has to do with money -- those with the most money gain the most access.)
(A Sierra Club lawsuit against the Hawaii Tourism Authority over its efforts to lure more tourists has implications that go far beyond the tropical islands. The environmental group is trying to force the tourism authority to conduct an environmental assessment of the impact of tourism on Hawaii before the authority spends its $114 million budget to market the state.)
(Recreation has been building as a pivotal issue in the West for the past decade. Ed Marston, publisher of High Country News, a Paonia, Colo.-based newspaper that follows Western environmental concerns, traces the issue to population inflow that began about 1990. "Until relatively recently, we saw recreation as benign, or even a helpful counterweight to mining, logging, and grazing. Then suddenly, seemingly it emerged as this monster," he says.)
(Colorado's politicians claim that the White River plan could shut off the forest to motorized use. U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, a Republican who represents the Western Slope, has gone so far as to claim that the plan will imperil recreation and tourism on the forest.)
(So, why does the Forest Service pursue projects that don't benefit most people? Simple: It needs money to operate. There is no shortage of business interests offering cash for a piece of the forest, and no shortage of members of Congress who will take the cash to help them get it.)
(A private organization called the Golden Gate National Parks Association decided the place needed an identity, a marketing campaign and a logo people could carry home on a T-shirt, baseball cap, calendar or coffee mug. Sounds commercial, and part of it is.)
(Young's Alaskan colleague, Frank Murkowski, chairs the Senate natural resources panel. The two committees oversee the federal land agencies and make recommendations to the appropriations committees. They're joined by like-minded cohorts like U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho. Together they've transformed the federal land management agencies into congressional whipping boys. They have been cunningly successful in planting riders in appropriation bills that tie the hands of forest supervisors.)
(Forest Service has received requests for tours that feature ski planes, off-road vehicles, overnight trekking, hut-to-hut guided tours, cross-country skiing, snowmobiles, and a combination of float planes and helicopters -- as well as for tours of mining claims combined with glaciers. Not surprisingly, the Sierra Club looks askance at any increase in helicopter landings.)
(The principal purpose of publicly owned land is preventing private landowners from fencing the public out as they do on the East Coast and private ranches in the West. Now the government that holds public land in trust for us all is erecting a wall of dollar signs around it just as surely as if it was erecting a barbed wire fence.)
(But with a new trial management tool empowering local federal land managers, officials at one Forest Service district are eyeing their inventory of unused cabins with the thought of putting up backcountry hikers and skiers in the hidden, funky dwellings. Also fueling that plan is a growing horde of backcountry recreationists filling up the reservation books of Colorado's established backcountry hut systems.)
(WASHINGTON — Compared to the 9.1 million acres of wilderness sought by environmental groups, Rep. Merrill Cook's proposal for 13,000 acres of additional wilderness might seem like the proverbial raindrop in the ocean. But the Tom Thumb-size proposal is causing giant headaches for Snowbird ski resort, which has ambitious expansion plans in areas near the proposed wilderness.)
(Cell-phone chatter, already common at restaurants and shopping malls, is heard more and more often in the wilderness. Hikers and campers are tapping into personal directories to ask directions and apologize for dinner delays, to bum rides and call in sick. This is not amusing to many campers, hunters or others who appreciate nature's quiet.)
(A century and a half ago, Henry David Thoreau went to a quiet place near a Massachusetts pond to consider the value of nature. He later wrote: "In wildness is the preservation of the world." Since then, the concept of wilderness in America's open spaces has been transformed. Hikers now ply the farthest reaches of national parks, accompanied by the ring of cell phones. Helicopter tours whirr over far-off forests, and smog has encroached on stunning landscapes.)
(The U.S. Forest Service may have had legitimate reasons for sending its employees to observe two ski races this past winter, but self-promotion wouldn't seem to be one of them. The agency's eagerness to take advantage of its 2002 Olympics opportunity is understandable, but its apparent fascination with the public-relations aspect of it needs to be restrained. Whom is the Forest Service targeting with its marketing efforts? It doesn't need an extravagant marketing strategy to advertise its status as the nation's No. 1 recreation provider. That's an option for a corporate entity, not a taxpayer-funded one.)
("I think a lot of people have lost touch with the land, and they really don't know how to go lightly on the land," DeVore said. "So we have folks out there target shooting at trees. Throwing trash everywhere. Compaction of soil. Camping in areas that are very sensitive because they're right on a creek. There seems to be somewhat of an overall insensitivity to others all around you. Because of that, we end up with some pretty severe environmental problems." )
("As the population ages, more people can afford a motor home and afford the traveling," he said. "They enjoy the atmosphere of the mountains and the trees" but not necessarily the cold, hard ground of traditional tent camping. Along with that have come more requests for amenities that would turn campgrounds into homes away from home. "I think they've become a more-sophisticated public, and they want to be able to take a shower or hook up their RVs with electricity," said Mandy Miller, an information assistant with the Sulphur Ranger District in Grand County. "The people who come to recreate say, "We want this, and we want this, and we want this." )
("But tourism is a devil's bargain. Communities welcome it as salvation, only to find that it transforms their home into something new and different. It twists how people feel about their place and in the end, themselves." )
(Ultimately, public land stewardship in the New West may mean considering viewpoints that have previously been out of the loop. "We've got a lot more interests that want to be at the table," said Dombeck of the Forest Service. "It can be frustrating and time-consuming, but this is part of the process. It's what democracy is all about.")
(As part of an effort to regulate use of the Terwilliger Hot Springs, the Willamette National Forest is launching an annual fee to use the area near Cougar Reservoir. The cost: $75. A $3 daily fee to use the hot springs, trailheads and boat ramps around Cougar Reservoir was started last year. Forest officials said the annual fee will benefit people who use the hot springs frequently.)
( For years, environmentalists have called for closure of many of the roads once used to gain access to timber sites on state and federal lands. But now that they have begun to get their wish, people from motorcycle enthusiasts to horsemen, snowmobilers, hunters, amateur miners and even hikers worry that the roads they depend on will be taken from them. )
( Much is being written lately by recreation enthusiasts who lack an understanding of ecology. It is convenient to scream "elitist" and "discrimination" when in fact many of those screamers are only interested in their own agenda.)
(If the administration decided to continue funding schools directly from Forest Service receipts, rather than general tax funds, the only potential source of revenue would be recreation, and that too is problematic.
A pilot program that imposes a new user fee on hikers, picnickers and others has encountered a buzz saw of opposition. Moreover, there is concern that commercial recreation -- from ski resorts to off-road vehicle franchises -- could be as destructive to national forests as logging.)
(Do ATVs cause environmental damage? Of course some of them do. Do environmentalists want to drive motorized vehicles out of the desert backcountry? Certainly. Is one group right and one group wrong? Can anyone figure out how to accommodate both groups? Nobody's even come close, yet. )
(The recreational complex plans include conference facilities, a lodge, cabins, beaches, boat ramps, a marina, picnic shelters, fishing piers, camping pads, playing fields, a game room, hiking, jogging and biking trails, and an environmental education center. The facilities are planned on 4,000 acres of land surrounding the lake.)
[NOTE: This project illustrates how profitable Lakeside Development is considered. NO LAKE EXISTS TODAY. Developers would create a lake using privately held forest lands.]
(Great Western Trail executive director Mike Browning of Salt Lake City believes the corridor will help eliminate some destructive uses. Marv Hoyt of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in Idaho Falls disagreed. "There is not a lot of emphasis on ethical use of motor vehicles," he said. "It is a widespread problem: motorists will go exploring.")
(The outdoor industry seems to be struggling with its role: How to protect the public lands and parks this industry relies upon for so much of its revenue? How much politicking should the industry do to protect the natural resources and facilities customers use? And how should industry, government, environmental groups and users work together to provide the infrastructure needed for public outdoor recreation? )
(Seems this recreation economic juggernaut has been built on the back of minimum-wage workers cleaning out the toilets and such for all those happy campers. The Department of Labor has been demanding that private concessionaires who run the campgrounds start paying prevailing wage rates that the Forest Service says will be between $9 and $10 an hour.)
(The National Park Service could also erect skateboard half pipes along the perimeter of Old Faithful Geyser, maybe open a jet ski concession on Yellowstone, Jackson and Jenny lakes, send flocks of hangliders sailing off the Grand Teton, promote bungy jumping over the Gardiner River bridge and send tourists encased in padded barrels into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone... Strange as it sounds, it is the tale of how recreationists, who tout themselves as the benign replacement for logging, mining, and resource extraction, have by their own personal greed and selfishness, sullied places they claim to love.)
( For decades, environmentalists have concentrated their ire on the effects timbering, mining, and livestock grazing have on public lands. Now activists are shifting their focus to an industry with at least as much heritage in the United States, yet which only recently has been seen as a threat: Tourism.)
(As boy boomers age, they want bigger toys. Manufacturers of motorcycles, snowmobiles and personal watercraft are catering to these dreams with products offering wider seats, more comfort and more safety. Just don't take away that feeling of adventure.)