hate the fee Demo?

[dusty_boots]

tired of paying to access your own backyard? tired of seeing forest economics, industry subsidies and social inequity that stipulates only those w/ cash can access our national forests? then DO SOMETHING about it!!! come out to the rally opposing Fee Demo this June 15th. Get educated, get involved and help save YOUR public lands!

Press Release to follow:

 

LOCAL HIKERS PLAN USER FEE PROTEST 11-1 PM JUNE

15TH AT INTERSECTION OF YALE AVENUE N AND JOHN

STREET [near REI]

 

For the past 100 years, our nation's public lands have been managed so as to maximize the commodity value that could be extracted from them. Today, a major shift in federal land management policy is being developed and implemented. Instead of extracting commodities from nature, nature itself is being converted into a commodity to be repackaged, marketed and sold in the form of value-added recreation products.

 

As part of a nationwide protest against recreational user-fees, local hikers, fishermen, picnickers and other outdoor lovers will be protesting and conducting a "teach-in" in Seattle at the corner of Yale Avenue N and John Street [near the REI] on Saturday June 15th from 11-1 PM. The group plans on disseminating information and answering questions about the US Forest Service Recreation Fee Demonstration Program [Fee Demo].

 

"Fee-Demo, is un-democratic, exclusionary, discriminatory and some would say, just plain un-American," said Seattle-area protest organizer David Dittrich. "It violates this nation's long held tradition of free access to our public lands. These lands are part of our birthright and should be managed by congressional appropriation, not by user fees," he said.

 

Turning nature into a commodity underlies the Fee-Demo project authorized on a three year trial basis in 1996 by Congress. "There are over 200 groups and organizations involved in the nationwide Fee-Demo protest and what it represents," said Dittrich.

 

"We're concerned the Forest Service can't account for the money they spend," Dittrich said. "They admit that only 45% of the fees collected actually go to trailside improvements."

 

According to Dittrich, "The purpose of the protest is to educate the public and communicate to Congress that Fee-Demo is extremely unpopular and is not the way to fund recreation on public lands." The event is part of a nationwide protest on June 15th, "To raise citizen's awareness that public lands and being taken over by private interests who want to limit access by imposing user fees and recreation fees," said Dittrich.

 

Noted area hikers and outdoor enthusiasts Harvey Manning and Lowell Skoog have added their names to a growing list of people protesting Fee-demo. A history of the USFS fee demonstration project is available from Scott Silver by calling 541.385.5261 or point your browser to www.wildwilderness.org

[vegetablebelay]

Are we gonna loot REI? I think this thing should be held down in Olympia at the Capital or out in the mountains someplace like Snow Ck Trailhead.

[dusty_boots]

I think they chose REI because of the constituency of their clientelle... those people are the folks they want to address. besides, easier to get press in front of good old REI. anyway, the capital bldg is too focused on the middle east and security issues.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Shit I might cancel some damn climbing to protest this shit Then I am off to falcon terror afterwards

[Greg_W]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dusty boots:

I think they chose REI because of the constituency of their clientelle... those people are the folks they want to address. besides, easier to get press in front of good old REI. anyway, the capital bldg is too focused on the middle east and security issues.

---

Plus, it is common knowledge that the Seattle PD Management will let protesters get away with just about anything! March on I-5!!!

 

(This is in no way a slam against the officers on the street; it's not their fault they get reigned in by the Man.)

 

Greg

[Dru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Greg W:

quote:

---

Originally posted by dusty boots:

I think they chose REI because of the constituency of their clientelle... those people are the folks they want to address. besides, easier to get press in front of good old REI. anyway, the capital bldg is too focused on the middle east and security issues.

---

Plus, it is common knowledge that the Seattle PD Management will let protesters get away with just about anything! March on I-5!!!

 

(This is in no way a slam against the officers on the street; it's not their fault they get reigned in by the Man.)

 

Greg

---

What if the al-Qaeda decided to organze an assault on REI and disguised it as an anti Fee Deom rally? You had better all be prepared for Pepper Spray and truncheon-in-the-kidneys.

[mtnnut]

The REI location is the office of the Forest Service Information Center. You know, that desk off on the side next to the books and maps department?

 

By having that office there, REI unwittingly puts themselves in a position of having protests staged nearby. Probably something nobody thought about at the time the store was built. But there wasn't as much to protest about back then either.

 

[ 06-05-2002, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: mtnnut ]

[dusty_boots]

hi all,

just wanted to bring this back to the lime-light... pass the word and tell your friends! don't let The Man sell off our backcountry like they're trying to do w/ our city parks!! come on out and be heard.

[Dennis_Harmon]

Dusty Boots, Good issue but I think it's a little too late, lad. There is hardly anything that anyone can do beyond this point. Basically it's a matter of demographics and both Malthus and Darwin are going to be found to have been right... (and not Rush Limbaugh.) But, yes, get out there and bust some stuff up, maybe even hurt somebody if they're bad, that's probably what I'd have done if I was your age again. Dennis