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Fee Programs

Editorial, Montgomery County PA

For nature lovers, the US has turned into the land of the fee

Gimone and Larry Hall
Getting Green

We were belatedly planting our flower garden when Joe Action showed up, grabbed a trowel and a pink petunia and pitched in.

"Where are you off to now, Joe?" I asked.

"Disneyland," he said.

"A vacation, finally?" Larry asked.

"I'm going to Disneyland to fight a parking ticket," Joe said firmly.

"You got a parking ticket at Disneyland?" I asked.

"Of course not," Joe said. He chose another flower.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Calendula, a cousin of the marigold," Larry supplied. "How can you fight a parking ticket by going to Disneyland? Isn't that a lot of fuss anyway?"

"Well," said Joe, "I got a hiking ticket, too."

"A hiking ticket?" I parroted.

"Ha!" said Joe. "I bet you didn't know there was such a thing! But stuff like that has been going on ever since Congress passed the Recreation Fee Demonstration Project as a rider without discussion in 1996. That was when the land of the free began to become the land of the fee. So, there I was all set to climb Mount Shasta, except that now it costs $15 to get on the trail and another $5 to park."

"Gee," Larry said, "those lands belong to all of us."

"The RFDP is supposed to show that people won't object to fees," Joe said, plunking in another petunia. "I'm going to Disneyland to show that we do. Disney has been a big supporter of the fees. It even helped design the California Adventure Pass. If you are charging big bucks for recreation, why should you want anyone to recreate free?"

"So," said Larry dangerously "if you don't have cash for the flume ride, you shouldn't be able to float down a real river or even watch a sunset free?"

"It's coming," Joe said. "The RFDP is being supported by corporate recreation interests: private campgrounds, jet-ski manufacturers, resorts. What they want is to get to take over. The American Recreation Coalition would like to see the national forests run like a business. For example, its president, Derrick Crandell, suggests that in 10 years, the Forest Service won't have any campgrounds anymore. They'll be private. And the ones too small to be profitable will be consolidated in great big ones."

"No more quiet little campgrounds?" I moaned.

"Nope," said Joe. 'And that wouldn't be all. Big splashy places with ski slopes and stuff would be more profitable and get all the money. The little places where you go to see - oh, say, lady-slippers - wouldn't get funding. So that's why Free Our Forests and Wild Wilderness are staging a day of action across the country June 10. Environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, are against the fees, and so are lots of local governments."

"But isn't it just a test project?" I queried.

"The Forest Service wants to make it permanent, and a bill may soon be introduced in the House," Joe said. "Did you know you can't even drive on some roads through national forests without paying a fee?"

"Like a toll road?" I asked.

"Yep," said Joe. "Or if you consider you are going into a national forest, not for recreation, but for spiritual reasons, you get charged, to. But people have made court cases about that and won."

"So, you make a big deal of how you were going to pray. Or something?" Larry asked.

"The courts have said you can't be charged then," Joe said.

"If you hike the trail and pray; which counts?" I asked.

"Stupid, huh?" Joe said.

"Is the problem that we don't have enough money to pay for keeping up the national forests?" I asked.

"Hardly" said Joe. "Reps. Mary Bono and Lois Capps have introduced a bill that would end the of the fee RFDP. The Forest Access Immediate Relief bill would fund the national forests by reallocating some of the money the Forest Service spends on building new roads for logging companies."

Joe popped another petunia into the ground, and was off for Disneyland.

"You suppose he'll protest by riding the roller coaster?" Larry asked.

Ask your representative to cosponsor and support FAIR, HR 786, or protest to

U.S. Forest Service Chief Michael Dombeck
14th Street and Independence Avenue SW Washington, D.C. 20250.

Larry and Gimone Hall, who publish an environmental newsletter; write this column for The Intelligencer and The Record. Write: P0. Box 485, Ottsville, PA 18942.