(National Day of Action to End Forest Fees -- SUPPORT MATERIALS)
The following is an example news releases from which you might wish to borrow ideas when writing your own release. This example contains a large quantity of background material and "messaging".
PRESS RELEASE XXXXXXX JOINS ORGANIZATIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY IN PROTEST TO USER FEES ON PUBLIC LANDS Contact Person: YYYY TTTTTT Ph: aaa-aaa-aaaa Email: bbb@bbbb Members of XXXXXX and other concerned citizens will be holding a demonstration / press conference on June 15th, in response to The National Day of Action to Protest the Fee Demonstration Program. They will be demonstrating on the steps of the KKKKK State Capitol at 10:00 a.m. Volunteers will be handing out information and speeches will be given by members and affiliates of the XXXXXXXX, explaining the problems with "Fee Demo." The purpose of the protest is to communicate to people and more importantly, to Congress, the importance of keeping public lands free and open to the public without encumbering them with unnecessary or unwanted user fees. It is part of a nationwide protest to raise citizens' awareness that their public lands are being taken over by private interests who want to limit access by imposing user and recreation fees. Turning nature into a commodity underlies the Fee-Demo project authorized on a three year trial basis in 1996 by Congress. For the past 100 years, our nation's public lands have been managed so as to obtain the maximum amount of product that could be extracted from them. Today, a major shift in federal land management policy is being developed and implemented. Instead of extracting commodities from nature, nature itself is being converted into a product to be repackaged, advertised and put out into the market. In 2002, the experiment drags on as Congress continues to give public land managers the ability to turn recreation and tourism into means to generate revenue. Created via a rider added to an Appropriations Act, Fee Demo allows the Forest Service, Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and BLM to charge admission for the use of our public lands. This has allowed the recreation industry to partner with federal agencies to exploit public lands for private gain, turning our National Forests into an eventual network of amusement parks. There are many Fee Demo stations around the state. The FFFFFF Highway Fee Booth in the GGGGGGGGG National Forest is one example. Here are the main reasons why Fee Demo needs to be stopped: 1. Fee Demo is basically double taxation. We still pay for the upkeep of public lands through federal income taxes, even with the user fees. 2. Fee Demo fosters development and commercial infrastructure on our public lands. It allows public land agencies to team up with the motorized recreation industry as well as private corporations, making the Forest Service and other such agencies dependent on motorized recreation, commercialization and concessionaires. Our forests will begin to be run like a business, with the prime consideration being maximum profit, not suitable wildlife protection. 3. No one asked! Congress put this program into effect without asking the public if we wanted to pay to play on the public lands we already own. No public hearings have ever been held and the program has never been initiated under the National Environmental Policy Act, which gives the public the right to comment on government decisions that will affect our lives. 4. Fee Demo discriminates against lower income Americans. 5. Fee Demo is not helping or “improving” public lands. It is merely filling in for money that has been mismanaged or cut. If Congress would fund a public lands recreation budget to maintain our trails and campgrounds, no fees would be needed. 6. Logging and grazing which DESTROY our public lands are SUBSIDIZED by the government. We pay to have our forests cut down and hauled away, but then are charged to walk in those same forests. As more wild areas are taken away by logging and development, we are left with less to enjoy and a higher price tag to appreciate what remains. The National Day of Action is being coordinated nationwide by Scott Silver of Wild Wilderness in Bend, Oregon. For more information or a history of the USFS Fee Demonstration Program, please call (541) 385-5261 of point your browser to www.wildwilderness.org. For information about the local protest, please contact: XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXX --- END ---