Land of the Free — Or The Fee?

BY SUNNY SORENSEN
BAY CHAPTER OUTINGS LEADER

Used to be you could hoist a pack onto your back, strap crampons to your boots, grab an ice axe and climb California’s Mt. Shasta — for free. But not anymore; now you’ve got to stop and pay a $5 parking fee and an additional $15 climbing fee before making your summit bid.

The fees have been in place in this and other national forests since 1996, when Congress launched its Recreation Fee Demonstration (or “fee demo”) program to see if people would pay to use federal lands already supported by their taxes. The program was supposed to be temporary, expiring after 30 months, but a rider last year extended it to September 2001.

The Sierra Club supports National Park Service entry fees and fees for special services, such as campgrounds and other developed facilities, but opposes other user fees for public lands. The Club fears that this program could skew the priorities of public land use, encouraging costly high-tech recreation at the expense of traditional outdoor activities

“There’s strong evidence that recreational interests that generate the most income — like mechanized-lift skiing, off- road-vehicle use, resort development and power boating — would take precedence over lower impact activities like hiking, camping, backcountry skiing, nature study and educational outings,” said Melanie Griffin, the Club’s public lands program director. “This trend toward commercialization and motorization of our public lands is one of the major problems with recreational user fees.”

For instance, she said, the government would reap more profit from a downhill ski area located in a national forest, than if the same place were left alone to be en- joyed by cross-country skiers.

In addition, people long accustomed to free access to public lands object to purchasing a pass for the “freedom” to step on a trail, steep in hot springs or watch an alpine sunset.

There’s a good chance that a rider will be introduced in Congress this summer to extend the fee demo program again, or even make it permanent. To stop this move, California Reps. Lois Capps (D-CA) and Mary Bono (R-CA) have introduced a measure to eliminate the fee program, the Forest Tax Relief Act, H.R. 786. And opponents of the program are planning a demonstration day on Aug. 14.

TO TAKE ACTION: Urge your representative to co-sponsor H.R. 786, the Forest Tax Relief Bill, and to work for restoration of public funding for appropriate non-motorized public lands recreation. Write: House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.

Also, on Aug. 14, he part of a national day of action, “Wild and Free in the 21st Century. Call your representative and senators at the capitol switchboard, (202)224-3121, and Vice President Al Gore at (202)456-2326, to emphasize the need to keep our public lands free and wild.