Wild Wilderness: Review of Recreation Fee Literature

Is the Following Statement Fact or Fantasy?

This is a claim recently made by Wild Wilderness, a grassroots recreation group located in Bend, Oregon. Wild Wilderness is leading a national boycott of the new "Recreation Fee Demonstration Program" which is itself, a joint venture between federal agencies and the pro-wise-use, industry sponsored, American Recreation Coalition (ARC).

The Wild Wilderness boycott is not about a simple recreation fee. We object strenuously to ARC's intimate involvement and know, for a fact, that this program represents the thin edge of a thick wedge. The goal of ARC is nothing less than to motorize, commercialize and privatize America's remaining unspoiled mountains, lakes and trails. We are prepared to prove our charges! It is critical that specific recreation legislation coming up in the 107th Congress be defeated. For this reason Wild Wilderness is desperately trying to place this issue on the radar screen of environmental activists around the nation.

The following is a sample of references Wild Wilderness has collected in support of this claim. Documents pertaining to the ARC - Congressional connection as well as documents detailing future industry plans for recreational development on public lands have not been included in this listing. Wild Wilderness is prepared to share all of its researched materials with national environmental organizations, grass roots groups and interested journalists. For more information contact:

"To understand what is possible, we need only look to the Forest Service. In the first half of the 1980's budget cutbacks forced the closure of many forest campgrounds and reduced seasons of operation at virtually all others. Beginning in 1987, the agency initiated a program to replace its direct campground management with concession operations. In 1996, 70% of all camping in the forests occurred at concessioned campgrounds and campers are benefiting from improved conditions, longer seasons, and a national reservation system. And the general public also benefits, from the lower operating costs of the Forest Service."

The following materials are listed according to their file number in the Wild Wilderness reference collection. There is no significance to the order in which these are presented. All statements are direct quotations from the indicated internet source documents. Information in square brackets [ ] has been added for clarification.

Update Information: The quotes which follow were selected in 1997. Most web links on this page are now dead. Wild Wilderness can provide hard copy of these articles, if required.

L-1 (Isaak Walton) Most funding for natural resources and environmental programs is discretionary... This portion of the federal budget has been subjected to disproportionate cuts when compared to other budget functions. A decade ago, this section was about 2.4 percent of total annual federal spending. In 1996 it was down to about 1.4 percent.

L-2 (Wilderness Society) In the 2nd session of the 104th Congress, the assault on the environment initiated in 1995 lost some of its energy and inflammatory rhetoric. While a considerable number of members moderated their anti-environmental voting patterns, Rep. Young (R-Alaska), leader of the Congressional Committee charged with the stewardship of the nations public lands and wildlife, continued to pursue an extreme anti-environmental agenda...

In the 2nd session of the 104th Congress, a number of senators moderated their anti-environmental voting patterns. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), leader of the Senate Committee charged with the stewardship of the nation's public lands stuck to his extreme anit-environmental agenda. Chairman Murkowski received a "perfect" zero from the League of Conservation Voters.

L-3 (American Land Rights Association) Derrick Crandall, President of the American Recreation Coalition, is leading an effort for a new Recreation "Super-Bill." He is lobbying Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) toward including his recreation wish list in a bill Murkowski is considering...

L-4 (National Park Service)

Challenge Cost Share Partnership -- The CCSP was established to broaden opportunities for non-federal involvement in the activities of the National Park Service. The program encourages contributions from non-federal sources by providing a maximum of 50 percent federal cost-share amount for projects (a) on park lands or (b) off park lands but in support of NPS programs.

L-5 (National Forest Foundation) The National Forest Foundation, created by the US Congress, is the official nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service...

The Forest Service is prohibited by law from soliciting outside funding and the Foundation is expressly permitted to fulfill that function.

A new area of fundraising that the Foundation has become involved with is cause-related marketing. The Foundation has had meetings with two major corporations to discuss the connection between people who visit the forests and their products and how a partnership can be formed to promote both entities while generating funds for Foundation Programs.

L-10 (Albion Monitor) A citizens group, the National Parks and Conservation Association, has issued a fact sheet denouncing the "war on the national parks" by members of Congress. Citing ten specific bills and several efforts to cut or redirect funding, the group charges that Congressmen with "an anti-park agenda" are attacking the National Park System and seeking to undermine individual parks. ...

Immediate actions are directed at upcoming Senate hearings on a bill by Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska). The group says Murkowski, along with Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), and Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah), have blocked efforts to reform park concessions and are working with the concessions industry to "preserve and expand the sweetheart deals and taxpayer subsidies concessioners now enjoy."

L-21 (National Parks Conservation Association) Every enterprise -- and everything is an enterprise in free market environmentalism -- must pay its own way. Since recreation is the most highly subsidized of all the uses of public lands, recreation users, says PERC's executive director Terry Anderson, are "the biggest pigs at the trough." So national parks must be made to support themselves through user fees. If they cannot, then the sound of park gates closing is the sound of the market telling us we have too many parks.

Whether we like it or not, the national environmental discussion is turning in PERC's direction. When we enter these discussions, we cannot forget that the national parks, forests, grasslands, seashores are not "federal land." They are our land, yours and mine. If we lose them, we will never get them back.

L-22 (National Park Conservation Association) -- Concessions Reform Stymied -- The Murkowski and Hansen bills (S.114, H.R. 2028) would actually strengthen park concessioner monopolies and subsidies, prevent competition for contracts (lack of competition keeps fees low), and mandate concessions monopolies on national forest, refuge, and other federal lands.

L-25 (Mother Jones) The 218-member, bipartisan Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, established in 1989 in part to preserve and protect America's habitat, is one of the largest, most powerful, and least known caucuses on Capitol Hill...

"CSC is nothing but a conduit for the oil and gas lobby, developers, and the gun lobby to have influence with caucus members," says Peter Kelly of the League of Conservation Voters.

...It shows CSC [members] to be fraudulent conservationists," says Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the U.S. "They're pimps for corporate America."

L-26 (Wilderness Society) "If the Forest Service policy won't allow that, we'll change the policy. If we have to cut off funds to get your attention, we'll cut off the funds." Sen. Frank Murkowski on timber sales in the Tongrass, August 11, 1995.

L-27 (The Wood River Journal) The Sawtooth National Recreation Area announced this month that the visitor's center at Redfish Lake will not open this summer season. Federal budget cuts are cited as the reason... Consider the following: In 1992, the budget for the 800,000 -acre SNRA was $3.5 million. Last year it was $2.1 million. It's now $1.8 million. The recreation portion of the budget has fallen from a high of $1.9 million in 1992 to less than $500,000 today. On the Ketchum Ranger District, all funding for trail maintenance was eliminated in the current budget...

Volunteerism and local fundraising are great short-term solutions. Yet for the long-term, a greater reliance on user fees appears essential. Whether it's a toll booth on the road into Redfish or an annual pass for bikers and boaters, it's clear to us additional revenue is needed to keep our national treasures from being degraded.

L-34 (Defenders of Wildlife) Stewardship Under Siege: The Coming Attack on Our Public Lands, provides fifty pages of details warning that the nation faces a "September Surprise" of legislative proposals endangering wildlife and natural areas in all fifty states, weakening protection of the entire National Wildlife Refuge System, and setting dangerous precedents for the National Park System and for the National Wilderness Preservation System...

The report notes, that "largely unknown to the general public, these sneak attacks would shift management from conservation to development."

L-35 (Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America) A few weeks ago, cartoonist Gary Trudeau ridiculed corporate sponsorship of national parks in a series of biting "Doonesbury" cartoons. To American Recreation Coalition president Derrick Crandall, the idea is no laughing matter. His organization represents many companies who benefit from the booming $350 billion a-year outdoors industry. Industry leaders know a lack of outdoors-recreation facilities or deteriorating conditions in national parks and forests could lead to a decline in outdoor interest. This, in turn, could mean a downturn in outdoors-gear sales.

Crandall met recently with chief operation officers from corporations such as Disney, Coleman, Kampgrounds of America and R.E.I. as members of the Recreation Roundtable. The group works with Congress and state governments to push a set of initiatives.

L-37 (The Spokesman-Review) Wilderness advocates may boycott Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth's field hearing on public access to federal lands Saturday...

Skeptics believe the hearing is an orchestrated means of promoting snowmobile and off-road vehicle access to all areas of the national forest... "Snowmobilers and off-road vehicle groups wanting access to every last peak and vale will have a field day while advocates for wildlife, fisheries and nonmotorized recreation won't be heard at all," complained Larry McLaud of the Idaho Conservation League.

L-38 (High Country News) Attacking the environment through the yearly appropriations process is not new. But this year's congress may take it to new heights...

Forest Service. --- The House bill cuts resource protection programs while increasing the timber budget by 30 percent. Compared to last year's actual spending, this year's budget proposals cut forest research by $12 million; state and private forestry by $24 million; ecosystem planning by $20 million; recreation spending by $1.3 million; fish and wildlife management by $3.2 million; and rangeland management by $27 million. Timber sales, however, get a $7.5 million increase...

L-39 (High Country News) -- Congress is reworking 100 years of federal policy --

Right-wing conservatives, who have long believed that the nation would be best served if public lands and resources were in private hands, believed that their hour has come...

The parks closure provision is one of dozens of examples of how the leadership of the 104th Congress is using the budget and appropriations process to roll back laws enacted to protect lands, resources and the public health. Two days after the parks closure vote, House and Senate conferees agreed on an appropriations bill for the Interior Department that critics labeled outrageous. Spokespeople for environmental groups charged the bill could nullify programs protecting endangered species and open most public lands to developers. Many of the budget riders were attached to the spending bills without hearing or public comment...

Rep Scott McInnis was outraged when Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah) used the "open process" and a budget rider to force the Forest Service to sell ski areas to the companies that own the ski permits...

At a recent White House news conference, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt called the Republican assault on environmental protection through the budget "a gross perversion of the democratic process" and said it was intended chiefly to pay back the lobbyists who supported them. "What motivates them is the money-changers in the temple," Babbitt said. "The lobbyists are saying 'it's our money that put you in power and it's our turn and here's our menu.' "

L-40 (Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission) The 104th Congress is considering numerous bills that, if passed, would negatively impact fish habitat... Some in Congress are using the appropriations process, where funds are earmarked for the agencies responsible for natural resource management, to weaken habitat protection measures. By not funding or reducing funding for a program, its effectiveness can be reduced or eliminated...

Some legislators insist that cuts to agencies such as the EPA are only efforts to reduce the federal deficit. However, environmental groups, many in the fishing community, and others in Congress charge that the defunding of natural resource agencies is a backdoor attempt to roll back environmental protections.

L-41 (High Country News) Business isn't being conducted as usual on Capitol Hill these days, and no better example exists than the perils besetting the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund, created in 1965 at the heights of the Great Society, was designed to finance federal purchases of land for recreation and habitat enhancement, and to give states grants for parks and recreational facilities. The trust fund, financed by $900 million a year in royalties on offshore oil and gas development, now holds a whopping $10 billion. Interest on the principal is doled out through the National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for deserving projects...

On May 18, the House of Representatives passed a budget resolution placing a five year moratorium on all Land and Water Conservation Fund Spending...

Grassroots environmental organizations and land trusts, which often shun overt politicizing, are mobilizing to keep the Land and Water Conservation Fund alive. They realize that won't be easy because of the anti-federal lands sentiment in this Congress...

L-44 (High Country News) Some environmentalists say Republicans want to keep funding from continuing resolutions at bare bones so as to have a bargaining chip in the continuing debate over riders to the appropriations bill. "They will starve these agencies and force them to the table," says [Wilderness Society staffer] Gawell. (The Republicans) are saying if you don't buy the riders that are going to rewrite the laws, we will slowly destroy these agencies. It's a hostage game."

L-45 (High Country News) John Garamendi, deputy secretary of the Interior, laid it on the line. "Let there be no doubt," he told the audience. "We expect federal land managers to be part of developing tourism in their locations..."

"Recreation is going to be our business in the future," said [undersecretary of Agriculture] Lyons. By the year 2000, recreation will account for $97.8 billion of the $130.7 billion generated by activities on national forests, he said. Fish and wildlife generate $12.9 billion, minerals $10.1 billion, timber $3.5 billion and grazing about $1 billion...

The Forest Service has a $1 billion backlog of work that need to be done on recreation facilities and trails, said Lyons, directing a plea at the tourism industry to lobby Congress for funding. "We need you involved," he said. "So far recreation and tourism have been silent partners in the political environment. We need people to stand up and speak up. Policy and politics is a contact sport. We hope you'll get in and rough it up."

L-46 (High Country News) In general, though, this president is going to dance with the ladies who brung him. His margin of victory came from middle- and upper middle-income suburban women... It isn't that they don't agree with environmentalists about national parks, forest, recreation areas and the like... Public lands are simply not a priority for them. They aren't for Clinton, either. One of the few credible stories in presidential advisor Dick Morris' book is the one about how miffed Clinton was after Morris convinced him to take an outdoor vacation to appeal to the recreationist impulse among swing voters. He pouted because he wanted to be in a fancy resort hotel and play golf.

L-50 (Outside Magazine) You're wending through an alpine meadow, savoring the melodious 'twee-twee' of the avifauna, when you stumble upon a sign reminding you that you're in Bag Mac State Park. You pull out your trail map, which cajoles you to keep shopping 7-Eleven, and then follow the path to the valley below, where the famed Exxon Grizzlies gambol for gawkers.

Far-fetched? Maybe not. In a move that some observers say could spark a national trend, an advocacy group sanctioned by the California Department of Parks and Recreation this month will begin seeking a few proud sponsors to rescue California's cash-strapped natural havens.

L-51 (National Parks Conservation Association) On Monday, Sept. 18, House Republicans will attempt to use a back-door parliamentary maneuver to pass two bills that threaten the integrity of America's National Park System. Led by Reps. Jim Hansen (R-Utah) and Don Young (R-Alaska), Republicans plan to suspend the normal rules of debate and ramrod the measure through with no amendments or discussion allowed... The bills are:

H.R. 260 -- Would create a commission to draw up a list of units of the National Park System that should be removed from National Park Service Protection...

L-52 (National Parks Conservation Association) -- Concessions "Reform" Still Alive -- Removal of H.R. 260 "is only a partial victory [NPCA president] Pritchard pointed out. The budget reconciliation bill still contains a measure, sponsored by Rep. James Hansen (R-Utah), that would lock in the sweetheart deals enjoyed by millionaire concessioners who provide food, lodging, and services to park visitors." By including an anti-competitive, bogus concessions 'reform' bill in the budget package, Congress could harm the parks and rob taxpayers for the next 30 years, "Pritchard warned...

NPCA fought H.R. 260 not just as a threat to parks, but for the danger it posed to all of America's public lands: forest, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas. "If H.R. 260 had passed, it would have been the foot in the door to opening other public lands to exploitation and development," Pritchard explained. "The 369 areas managed by the National Park Service are the most protected public lands in our nation. If a park closure commission had been approved, it would have only been a matter of time before other public lands were reviewed for removal from protection."

L-53 (??) "I know that extreme environmentalists would probably assassinate me in the first six months, but for these first six months, I'd have a whale of a good time ... If we take over, we're going to do a parks closing commission... if you've been there once you don't need to go again." James Hansen (R-UT), Chair of the Subcommittee on Nation Parks, Forests, and Lands on his parks agenda prior to 1994 election (Denver Post, 11/6/94)

L-55 (National Parks Conservation Association) The threat to park closures is aggravated by recent congressional resolutions, which call for a nearly 40 percent slash in NPS funding over a seven-year period. According to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the cuts for fiscal year 1996 alone could force closure of up to 198 of the smallest or least visited units, which included Arches National Park, Mount Rushmore National Monument, and Ford's Theatre National Historic Site. "Congress will have ... achieved what some are attempting to do with a parks closing commission," Babbitt said.

L-56 (National Parks Conservation Association) On May 23, the House Parks Subcommittee will consider H.R. 2528 which would extend in perpetuity permits for 65 season cabins in the Mineral King Valley of the Sequoia Nation Park. NPCA urges Members of the Subcommittee to reject H.R. 2528 because it will interfere with the National Park Service's fulfillment of its mandate to manage these public lands for the benefit of all Americans. Furthermore, by granting virtual ownership status to these permittees at Mineral King, Congress will be sending a strong message...

L-57 (National Parks and Conservation Association) Although LWCF [Land and Water Conservation Fund] today has dedicated funding sources (principally from revenue from outer continental shelf leases and oil and gas extraction), the majority of these funds are diverted to other purposes. More than $11 billion is presently credited to the LWCF U.S. Treasury account. The Congress and recent administrations have exhibited limited commitment to the act generally and minimal recognition of its original purpose to enhance access to state and local recreation resources. Since 1981, appropriations for LWCF state assistance grants have declined by at least 90%. No funds were appropriated for state assistance in fiscal years 1996 and 1997, and the President did not request LWCF state assistance or urban park funds for fiscal year 1998. Appropriations from LWCF for federal land conservation have declined by about 50% since 1981.

L-60 (Salt Lake Tribune) The Forest Service has something business magnate Earl Holding wants badly: 1320 acres around the base of his sleepy ski area east of Ogden...

Holdings acquisition of the Devil's Gate properties is contingent on congressional passage of a land-exchange bill sponsored by two Utah Republicans, Rep. Jim Hansen and Sen. Orrin Hatch. The bill, drafted after a decade of futile efforts to arrange a swap through regular Forest Service channels, got waylaid last month when the Senate killed the Omnibus Parks Bill because of opposition to the Utah Wilderness measure drafted by Hansen, Hatch, Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz. But the Snowbasin swap has been separated from the omnibus bill, and Hansen is confident its passage is imminent...

"We're opposed to the precedent this sets, allowing ski resorts essentially to buy their mountains to do real-estate development, Berggren [of The Citizens Committee to Save Our Canyons] says. "Snowbird could go to Congress and say, 'If you give us White Pine Canyon, we'll buy you some terrific land in the Uintas.' If that happens, we'll lose accessible lands in the canyons. We'll regret that."

L-61 (??) On March 13, 1996, Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah) shepherded a bill though the House Resources Committee that authorized a land swap between the U.S. Forest Service and R. Earl Holding, a Utah developer...

Holding and his wife both made campaign contributions to Hansen. They also gave money to another supportive Utah lawmaker, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who sponsored his own version of the legislation. In fact, they gave $1000 apiece to Hatch's leadership committee, the Capitol Committee, on March 12,1996. The next day -- the day that the landswap bill was before the House committee -- the Capitol Committee gave a $5000 contribution to Hansen's campaign.

Hatch's staff denies that the contribution had anything to do with the Snowbasin deal, which saw final passage in the waning days of the 104th Congress.

N-67 (Defenders of Wildlife Magazine) Each generation must deal anew with the "raiders," with the scramble to use public resources for private profit, and with the tendency to prefer short-run profits to long-run necessities. "The nation's battle to preserve the common estate is far from won."

President John F. Kennedy spoke these words 34 years ago, but they are just as true today. And the most dangerous of all current raiders are powerful members of Congress from the West. Their aim is to help the special-interest supporters in the timber, grazing, energy, mining and recreation industries further selfish exploitation of the public lands. Apparently of no concern is the worthier purpose of managing our national estate for the long term benefit of our whole society.

...public lands management has always been dominated by politics. So economics and ecology have little relevance beyond being debating points. It hardly helps that when Congress assigns members to the committees having jurisdiction over the public lands, it looks to those very lawmakers likeliest to reap rewards by favoring massive exploitation. Thus we have congressional foxes guarding public chicken coops.

Rather than trumpeting their real intentions, the 1997 raiders are quietly advancing bills with such names as the "Public Lands Management Responsibility and Accountability Act," "National Monument Fairness Act" and "American Lands Sovereignty Protection Act." And it all sounds so innocent. For who's against more responsibility, accountability, fairness, protecting our sovereignty? But once you get past the rhetoric, it's the same old raids. To paraphrase a line from an old TV series, only the names have been changed to protect the sponsors.

N-68 (Tourism, Sport & Leisure Industry) The goal of tourist development is that of development in general: more people making more use of more environments aided by more infrastructure ranging from ski lifts to marinas.

L-70 (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) In addition to facility development, Reclamation is renewing and entering into new Memoranda of Understanding with partners to advance recreation and outdoor ethics programs...

Reclamation has ongoing partnerships with many public and private partners and we are continually looking for more. Certainly that's a goal of the Departmental Travel and Tourism initiative chaired by Interior Deputy Secretary Garamendi.

L-78 (Natural Resources Defense Council) Few would disagree with the assertion that the 104th Congress launches an unprecedented effort to weaken fundamentally the nation's landmark environmental laws. Major targets included the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Superfund law, and various public land protections...

--Using the Budget Process to Undermine Environmental Protections--

The budget process provides another avenue for indirect, but devastating, attacks on existing environmental laws. While amending an environmental law directly requires debate, hearings and public scrutiny, the same affect could be accomplished without the same accountability by denying the agencies responsible for enforcing the laws the money to do so. The budget was a major battle ground for environmental issues in the last Congress and will likely continue to be in the 105th.

L-79 (Heritage Foundation) The 104th Congress...enacted into law more privatization in just one year than occurred during the entire eight years of the Reagan Administration...

Perhaps in no other area was the difference between past and present performance as dramatic as it was in the 104th Congress's success in privatizing government run enterprises.

L-80 (The Congressional Institute Inc.) Federal regulators, private businesses and environmental protection groups are currently engaged in an intense debate over the future of federal lands. How 28 percent of the nearly 2.3 billion acres of land in the United States will be managed is one of the primary natural resource challenges facing the 105th Congress... the fundamental issue confronting Congress is whether the management of these lands could be carried out more effectively by the states, localities, or private entities...

In addition to transfers from the federal to state and local government, privatization has also been discussed as a means of improving the wise and effective use of current federal lands. At a time when facilities and services in America's parks are in decline and fewer federal dollars are allocated toward these purposes, privatization appears to many to be a sensible option... Turning over construction and concession contracts to private companies on a competitive bidding arrangement, privatization advocates argue, would improve the effectiveness and affordability of these services

One proposal currently being considered by the Congress would provide the competitive awarding of 8100 concession contracts on federal lands. Related provisions would also encourage additional private-sector investment in facilities on federal land... Other legislative efforts would adopt more private-sector approaches to recreational fee assessment and collection. H.R. 2107 (Hansen) would require each national park to establish an annual recreation fee revenue target. The park would then be authorized to retain no less than 75% of the new recreation fees collected.

L-81 (National Parks Conservation Association) The National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) today faulted a congressional subcommittee for approving a bill that could force the National Park Service to astronomically increase the amount charged to visitors for entrance to the parks. NPCA President Paul C. Pritchard said the bill "will shift the Park Service's mission from resource protection to revenue generation." "The main issue here is that the national parks were established to conserve the natural and historic resources that Americans value. They were not intended to be self-financing economic engines."

L-82 (National Parks Conservation Association) NPCA feels strongly that the public should be asked to pay more only after the myriad commercial users of the national parks, from filming companies to park concessioners, are asked to pay a fair share first.

L-88 (Earth Island Journal) --Washington's Top Ten Worst Environmentalists--

Meet the 104th Congress' anti-environmental alliance -- a posse of senators and representatives supported by the Wise Use movement, corporate polluters, real estate developers and industries that derive their profits from exploiting federal lands for oil, timber minerals and grazing. There are so many of them that it is hard to track their hyperactivity, but their aim is clear --they intend to dismantle 25 years of bipartisan environmental legislation...

As Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Frank Murkowski (R-AK) is the most powerful of the tribe...

Fellow Alaska Republican and Chair of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee Don Young echoes Murkowski's resource development stance as he rails against the "waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual bunch of idiots" who support strong environmental safeguards...

Utah's Jim Hansen, a Republican long reputed to be one of the most hostile anti-environmentalists in the House, has proposed closing some "problem" national parks, including Nevada's Great Basin National Park. Hansen advocates transferring all 272 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holdings to the states in which they lie. Hansen used his status as chair of the National Parks, Forest and Lands Subcommittee to push a bill that would open 1.8 million acres of Utah wilderness to industrial development and motorized recreation.

L-89 (National Forest Recreation Association) The National Forest Recreation Association is submitting legislation for introduction in Congress to reform how concessioners are regulated by the USDA Forest Service. The purpose of "The National Forest Recreation Site Enhancement and Management Act" is to preserve and enhance the opportunities for visitors to enjoy safe, high-quality recreation services and facilities on the national forest, through continued and increased private sector investment and management, and a more cost-effective allocation of government resources.

The bill calls for the Forest Service to develop a significantly improved program to encourage private sector investment, construction and operation of forest-based lodges, resorts, marinas, riding stables, campgrounds, and stores...

N-93 (High Country News) "How strange have things gotten in negotiations over the 1996 budget?" Interior Secretary Babbitt unveiled an ambitious 1997 budget last month even though his department doesn't have one for 1996.

"This is surely the most unusual budget year in the history of our nation," Babbitt said. He accused Republicans of "misuse and distortion of the budget process" in holding up his department's budget with a long list of policy riders. "The difficulties we are having with Congress are really not about numbers," he said.

For Republicans the strategy is simple -- make Clinton and the Democrats so hungry to restore agency budgets that they'll swallow controversial provisions, such as the endangered species listing moratorium, increased logging in Alaska's Tongass National Forest and a move to shift the new Mojave preserve in California from the National Park Service to the Bureau of Land Management.

L-97 (Defenders of Wildlife) Congress has broken its promise with the American people by misusing the Land and Water Conservation Fund. LWCF receives $900 million each year, and every year, as much as 85 percent of the Fund is diverted for purposes other than conservation and recreation. In fact, since Congress originally made its commitment to conserve the American outdoors in 1964, it has diverted $11 billion of LWCF to other uses. In recent years, Congress has not funded the state program at all. Every year, we lose countless opportunities to conserve precious resources and open space for all Americans to enjoy.

L-98 (Environmental News Network) Under the Republican majority, Murkowski chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Young is chairman of the House Resources Committee. Together, they oversee national parks and public lands. Stevens is the longest tenured of the trio. He controls the Government Affairs Committee and serves as senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Never has one state -- particularly a state with only three members of Congress -- chaired both of these committees at the same time and held such power over the nation's resources... The Alaska delegation meets at least once a month to plot strategy. So far, their actions reveal an attack not just on parks but on public lands in general...

When faced with opposition, however, they use other means to achieve their ends. Attaching last-minute amendments (riders) to budget bills to gain substantive changes in land management policy has long been a favored tactic of the Alaska delegation. This method bypasses the public land committees and avoids debate. When the House defeated the National Park System Reform Act (H.R. 260), also called the "park closure bill," Young and Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah) simply slipped it into a larger budget bill. (It has since been removed) "No discussion. No debate That's how this Congress is doing business," says Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who described the work method as a "back-room, back-door, (and) dead-of-night way" to do business...

The delegation's approach to Alaska's public lands may vary slightly, Stevens and Murkowski push for commercial development, while Young wants to transfer the lands out of federal ownership...

L-103 (Weekly Wire (Tucson)) I don't believe that the voters who put the Newtsies in power last fall intended to sell off our national lands and gut our environmental laws. I can't remember any politician running on a promise to devastate the natural assets of the nation. So we better wake up, folks, because that what's happening...

This Congress also plans to:... ignore the 30-year old law that puts into a Land and Water Conservation Fund the $900 million the government receives each year in offshore and oil royalties. Federal, state, and town governments use this fund to purchase parks and other land from willing sellers.

The Newtsies want the money to go to the general government pot. Many of these measures are touted as ways to balance the budget. But the budget can't be the real goal, because this Congress is not proposing to ask concessionaires who have monopolies in national parks to pay the government a fair share of their profits...

What is going on is not budget-balancing but resource grabbing. America's publicly owned resources have always been up for grabs under either political party, but previously the pace was restrained. Now it's furious. The grabbers know they have to take advantage of their buddies in power fast, before the public wises up.

L-105 (Sierra Club) The Sierra Club believes that as long as money is allowed to talk in the form of millions of dollars in campaign contributions, the saga of the 104th Congress will be told over and over again. Elected Representatives of both parties will rush forward to pass legislation destroying environmental safeguards at the behest of their contributors.

The Sierra Club believes that when forced to choose between special interest with cash and voters with concerns, too many members of Congress decided to take the money and run from their responsibility to protect America's environment for our families, for our future.

L-107 (Forest Service) The Forest Service's recreation fee demonstration program was developed in partnership with leading national recreation interests. Its implementation is occurring through a Challenge Cost Share partnership with the American Recreation Coalition (ARC). ARC's efforts will include explanation of the fee program to the recreation industry and recreation enthusiasts, as well as assistance in evaluation of the demonstration projects. For further information on ARC's efforts, contact ARC at 1225 New York Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20005 or ARC@funoutdoors.com

L-108 (Speech given by Secretary of Agriculture Glickman at tourism industry dinner 1996)

One of the recommendations that came out of the White House Conference was that we, and I quote, "...expand urban and rural economic development through a national strategy for fostering environmental and cultural travel and tourism." This administration believes that public-private partnerships must be the basis of that strategy.

We've already started working together. At many resorts you'll now see signs at the top of the lift that say "Welcome to your national forest." In partnership with the ski industry, we've developed an outdoor education program called, "SKECOLOGY" ... The program is being marketed by the National Ski Area Association for us , and it's been a big hit.

In Colorado we're working with the American Recreation Coalition to develop an online system to provide the public with information on camping and hiking opportunities on the national forests and state parks in Colorado. We're hoping to use this as a way to make it easier to book campground reservations in the future.

You are trying to establish a new 2-pronged public-private partnership though the National Tourism Organization and a public-private policy group. I share your hope that the legislation that's been introduced to establish this partnership will be passed. The NTO will take the place of the USTAA which is a victim of Congressional budget cuts.

L-109 (American Recreation Coalition) Washington, D.C., June 2, 1997 -- U.S. Senator Frank H. Murkowski (R-AK), a potent national influence on natural resource, recreation, parks and energy matters and the Senate's leading champion for a national recreation lakes system, has been named as the recipient of the ninth Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award... Both Great Outdoors Week and the award are sponsored by the American Recreation Coalition (ARC).

"The American Recreation Coalition is honored to bestow the 1997 Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award on Senator Frank Murkowski," said ARC President Derrick Crandall. "The Senator's energetic leadership on legislation to create a national recreation lakes system study and his new ambitious Recreation Initiative offer creative solutions for ensuring that all Americans can enjoy and be proud of our system of national parks, forests, rivers and lakes today and long into the future."

L-113 (Natural Resources Defense Council) Today, our public lands are under assault by the new majority in the 104th Congress, and by narrow private commercial interests who would raid these lands for short-term profits. Congressional leaders have developed a series of strategies aimed at liquidating our federal lands under the pretext of deficit reduction and government efficiency. The specific strategies include : 1) selling the public lands to private commercial interests; 2) virtually giving them away through transfers to states 3) liquidating America's national parks; and 4) tying the hands of public land managers with measures such as suspension and elimination of essential environmental laws. Some recent initiatives in the 104th Congress are described below, along with an explanation of how these efforts will benefit a few narrow commercial interests -- and rob American taxpayers.

...To date, the 104th Congress has shown itself willing to make it extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, for federal land managers to manage the lands entrusted to them. So far, Congress has carried out this strategy in three different ways: 1) by wielding its budget axe; 2) by putting favored commercial activities above the law; and, 3) by failing to protect federal land managers from extremists. The Congress has also made clear its intention to substantially weaken the basic laws governing public land management, including the National Forest Management Act. The net result of one or all of these tactics could be the same -- the elimination of the federal government's management role.

How To Obtain Additional Information:

A large quantity of extremely interesting material can be found by visiting the ARC internet homepage.

Additional information can be obtained by contacting: