Sierra Club Executive Director, Carl Pope, says: "This summer as Americans head out to public lands to fish, hunt, camp and hike, they should not have to pay to play."

For Immediate Release: June 14, 2002
Contact: Annie Strickler, (202) 675-2384

Sierra Club Supports Keeping Public Lands Open to All Americans

Washington, D.C. -- As Americans head outdoors this weekend to enjoy one of the first summer weekends, Sierra Club members and environmentalists nationwide will voice opposition to the unpopular and unfair Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, or "fee-demo." This Saturday is the National Day of Action to protest the fee-demo program that charges recreational user fees for using public lands that are already supported by federal tax dollars.

"This summer as Americans head out to public lands to fish, hunt, camp and hike, they should not have to pay to play," said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "The American people already own these lands. We pay taxes every April 15th to support federal management of these public lands."

"Fee-demo is a socially and environmentally unsound program that taxes Americans for exploring and enjoying their special places," said Pope. "It does not make economic or environmental sense to charge fees for low-impact recreational activities while subsidizing extractive industries that waste American taxes and wreak havoc on the environment. Why should we tax the American people but foot the bill for big corporations?"

Rather than appropriate sufficient funding for public land protection and management, Congress consistently chooses to subsidize extractive industrial uses of our lands like mining, grazing and logging. The General Accounting Office (GAO), in trying to assess the amount of taxpayer money lost on the commerical logging program, found the Forest Service's accounting to be "totally unreliable." Between 1992-1997, the GAO estimates that the USFS lost $2 billion in taxpayer money on commercial logging in our National Forests.

The fee-demo program, first created by Congress in 1996 and extended twice by rider, is indicative of a trend toward the commercialization and motorization of recreation on public lands. The administration has moved to make this controversial program permanent while many Americans are working to end fee-demo. Fee-demo charges entry fees for hiking, fishing and other low-impact recreational activities in National Forests and other public lands, discouraging many Americans from exploring their birthright and creating barriers for low-income Americans to enjoy public lands.

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