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Fee Programs

Opposing User Fees

Letter to the Editor
Outdoor Retailer Magazine, May 2000
www.outdoorbiz.com

Opposing user fees
(In response to the November 1999 issue In My Opinion column.)

AFTER FOUR YEARS OF USER FEES being collected in several hundred sites to repair needed maintenance neglected for year by outrageous budget cutting for public recreation facilities on public lands, overwhelming support to end the fees is coming from all reputable persons and groups involved.

In the last month, the 15,000-member Mountaineers, the nation's largest climbing group, has come out in opposition to extending the user fee program commonly called the Temporary Recreation User Fee Demonstration program.

"There's a feeling of unfairness. The Forest Service subsidizes things like timber, mining and grazing. And they want to charge us to take a walk," says Mountaineers President Ed Henderson.

Additionally, the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) has polled its entire membership from May 1999 to February 2000. The membership opposes the extension of the user fees for several reasons: "It is the federal government's responsibility to fund the basic facilities and management personnel necessary to assure public enjoyment and preservation of public lands. Recreation user fees do present a problem for the nation's poor and middle class. They create barriers to visitation because a disproportionate number of Black, Hispanics, Native Americans and other ethnic groups are poor.

This overview is unanimously supported by the state government of California and the counties that surround the national forests of Southern California where the $5 daily fee has been required for the past four years.

Recreationists are being pushed and pulled together on patches of lush green forests, craftily diverted around brown clear cuts. The message from the Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck to all his employees is, "Show 'em a good face on the outside, but don't let them get too close to the inside," as recreationists are stopped at the new toll gates.

And the fees are not staying at $5 for very long. Now we are seeing $30 annual passes in the Northwest and extra costs for special events both inside and at other national forests.

Mismanagement of appropriating the fees intended for repairs and maintenance has brought Washington State Senator Gorton to say publicly, "Excessive overhead and dubious national initiatives" is where the fees are going. What happens when the forests are too crowded and the fees to enter reach the cost of a ball game? Does your company have a season box of campsites? Will the forests be divided into recreation areas, each with its own rules and activities?

I have watched and been a part of the outdoor community, building the demand for camping and outdoor activities for over 30 years. But the lands we own as "shareholding stewards" are now controlled by a fee program and the Forest Service's marketing plan.

There is only one sure way to stop this from happening; one way to stop the fleecing of the forests. Keep access funded from taxes, and most importantly, keep them free to all citizens as equal shareholding stewards. If we do not respect our national forests and other federal recreational lands as free wild lands and wilderness, there will no longer be any free wild lands and wilderness. There will no longer be a heritage to be protected and passed on.

If the outdoor recreation community heeds the calls of a marketing-driven land management agency like the USDA Forest Service, it will be just as responsible for fleecing our forests and our citizens as the clear cutters of the logging and grazing industry who pay fees to use the public lands for profit.

Numerous voices have spoken and the democratic process of shareholding citizens do not equate their public lands to economic perks of happy meals, videos and tickets to a ball game. The Public Access Coalition was co-founded a year ago by me, Yvon Choumard of Patagonia, Armando Menocal and Sam Davidson of the Access Fund, Ron Nadeau of Grabber International, Casey Sheahan of Kelty, jason Robertson of American Whitewater and Bob Woodward of Snews.

Actions speak louder than words, and the actions of the USDA Forest Service have brought about the responses of their peers, both in and out of public office. Remember, public recreation is not about taking all the conveniences of home with you to the forest. It is primarily about visiting the natural world - a place where you do not remain, do not build structures, and you exit leaving it the way you found it. It was free when we came into the outdoor business and it should always be that way as our heritage to those who will come after us.

Doug Hoschek