Dave Thies, President
Columbia Gorge Audubon Society
P.O. Box 1 393
White Salmon, WA 98672
February 2, 1999

Regional Forester
333 SW. First Ave.
Portland, OR 97201

Dear Sir.

The Board of Directors of the Columbia Gorge Audubon Society wishes to register our opposition to the US Forest Service decision to "test charge" the public for use of trails on public land.

Of all the uses of public land, the hiking of trails - when properly controlled — has the least impact on the land when compared to other uses such as extractive uses, commercial uses or motorized uses. It seems inconsistent and unfair to us to charge the public trail fees to simply walk through public land, when the most damaging extractive users are granted tax payer subsidies to enter and abuse those public lands.

We have heard — and request that you confirm or deny - that large corporations and special interest groups support "pay for use" of trails on public land. Our concern is that these groups are advocating pay for use as a first step toward privatizing and/or converting large areas of public land for private enterprise industrial grade recreational use. This is a trail that we sincerely doubt most of the public wants to go down.

We believe it is unfortunate and unwise that the US Forest Service is not being up front with the public about how the special interest groups and corporations supporting pay for use stand to benefit financially from this proposal. We request that the US Forest Service disclose to the public just how trail fees begin to open the door for a much wider and more intensive commercial/concessionaire use of our public land. It is our opinion that the conversion of public land to commercial recreational use has the potential to damage the natural aspects of public land every bit as much as have the extractive uses of that land.

We have seen how concessionaires become entrenched on public land - as they are on Mt. Hood for instance — and how they consistently advocate for the over use and conversion of prime animal and bird habitat to benefit their profit margin. We have seen how profits depend on volume of use and high intensity use inevitably does serious damage to the land. We do not believe the public interest would be served by turning Nature into a theme park or opening large areas of public land to commercial motorized use.

While we believe in free public access to trails, we also recognize that they must be built and maintained, and that this costs money. We are on record as supporting a retail tax on outdoor gear and recreational equipment that would pay for necessary improvements to public land. We are convinced that this retail tax approach is fair, would be simpler to collect, and would be much less damaging to public land in the long run than would the trail fee system you are now testing. Trail fees breed resentment, they are often impossible to pay when proper denominations are unavailable, and the hiker is too often forced to decide whether or not to leave without taking a planned hike, or be treated as a criminal.

As someone who played a key role in establishing the Burdoin Mountain Special Management Area in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, I can tell you that I resent being required to pay to walk in this area now that portions of it have come into public ownership. This certainly is not the thanks that I hoped for.

We would request that you make our reasoning for opposition to trail fees known whenever public opinion is solicited on the issue of charging the public for trail use, or when public officials discuss this issue in preparation for establishing policy.

We would also appreciate your thoughtful reply — and those of everyone receiving a copy of this letter — to the issues and opinions we have raised here.

Sincerely,

s/ signature

Dave Thies, President
Columbia Gorge Audubon Society

CC: The Director of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, the Senators and Representatives of the United States Congress, and media outlets.