5/25-01 IMC post People required to buy passes to visit public lands by SCOTT MORRELL

  Heads up folks! We are losing a basic civil liberty. We are no longer free to walk on our public lands without purchasing a federal permit. This freedom has been stripped away by the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo). This unpopular "temporary" program requires citizens to buy a Northwest Forest Pass, costing $5 per day or $30 per year to walk on most National Forest trails in the Northwest. If you don't buy the permit, you will be ticketed. Ignoring the ticket nets a $55 fine. Fees are reasonable for improved sites such as campgrounds, snow parks, and boat ramps. Fee Demo goes too far. It imposes fees to access vast tracts of undeveloped nature — our own heritage and birthright. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have been directed to implement Fee Demo. They justify the fees by claiming revenues have not kept pace with maintenance costs. They neglect to mention that Congress inflicted an artificial maintenance crisis by slashing recreation budgets. Congress authorized Fee Demo at the behest of the American Recreation Coalition (ARC), a lobby group that includes the American Petroleum Institute, Outdoor Resorts of America, Exxon, and Walt Disney Company, to name a few. ARC's members seek profitable "partnerships" with the USFS and BLM. to operate toll booths, kiosks, and build concessions such as resorts, convention centers, and theme parks. Fee Demo is the tip of an iceberg. Fee Demo is testing public reaction to paying user fees for the "privilege" of accessing our previously free public lands nationwide. It is the first step of a larger effort to promote "pay-to-play" commercialization of public land recreation. The program is temporary, but will become permanent if it can be "demonstrated" that the public will swallow these fees. Think about it. We are being forced to pay five bucks a day to hike, bird-watch, fish, ride horses, take photographs, swim, backpack, or simply sightsee. We are forced to pay this fee as Congress boasts a budget surplus. Have your income taxes decreased? Were you represented in this new form of double taxation? Fee Demo is being test-marketed in different regions. The Southern California "Adventure Pass" costs $5 per day. It must be displayed on any vehicle, parked on any road, for any amount of time, anywhere inside the boundaries of the Los Padres, San Bernardino, Angeles and Cleveland National Forests. Failure to comply nets a $100 fine. Will Oregonians purchase such permits merely to drive in our own forests? This is our future if we accept Fee Demo. Once made permanent, larger areas will be restricted, fees will increase, and Americans will lose a basic liberty. The permit has already increased from $3 to $5 since last year. USFS and BLM personnel are the unenviable enforcers of Fee Demo, many of whom are dismayed by this affront to our civil liberties. Others, however, are zealous boosters. My most recent letter to the Rogue River National Forest was answered three months later. Upon making my opposition to Fee Demo clear, I was informed that my letter would be forwarded to USFS law enforcement. The message is clear. This is no "Demonstration Program." My right as an American citizen to voice my opinion was answered with a threat: Pay up or stay out of the forest! To their credit, the USFS and BLM are fighting for their survival in an era of declining resource extraction. The real blame lies with ARC and Congress. In 1996 Fee Demo slipped through the House and Senate without debate, on a "rider" attached to an Interior Appropriations bill. Originally set to expire in 1999, it was extended through 2001 by the same covert method. It will become permanent unless we speak out. Consider these quotes: "The Forest Service is the 'Proctor & Gamble' of outdoor recreation." — Mike Dombeck, USFS Chief "Have we fully explored our gold mine of recreation opportunities in this country and managed it as if it were consumer product brands?" — Francis Pandolfi, former USFS Chief Operating Officer There you have it. Americans no longer own their public lands. We are considered "customers" and nature is the "product." Don't let this happen! Rogue Valley residents are organizing to oppose Fee Demo. A National Day of Protest is slated for June 10. Please join us!  

To learn more, visit www.wildwilderness.org