Tell Congress to end forest fees

[jon]

ACTION ALERT -- March 30, 2001

The House Interior Appropriations subcommittee is accepting written

testimony, deadline Monday, April 16th, on matters pertaining to

America's public lands and their funding. We need lots of letters to

this subcommittee, mailed by Thursday, April 12th, to demonstrate the

growing controversy over the Recreation Fee Demo program and the fees

it authorizes for our use of our own public lands.

BACKGROUND

This subcommittee has, in a nutshell, created and extended Fee Demo so

far - but, due to Republican term limits for subcommittee chairs in

the House of Representatives, Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), the

architect of Fee Demo, is no longer its chairman.

The new chairman, Rep. Joe Skeen (R-New Mexico), does not have the

same public lands agenda as his predecessor Ralph Regula. It's

therefore vitally important to let Joe Skeen know how unpopular Fee

Demo is with the American people - and to ask for increased recreation

funding for the US Forest Service, so National Forest trails and

campgrounds can be adequately maintained without user fees.

If we demonstrate to Joe Skeen that Fee Demo won't be made permanent

without considerable effort, he may well back off from it!

 

THE ALERT

PLEASE WRITE NOW TO STOP FOREST FEES!

(MAIL BY APRIL 12th)

The House Interior Appropriations subcommittee in Washington DC is

accepting public comments on topics such as the Recreation Fee Demo

program, which authorized National Forest access and user fees. This

subcommittee has been the main backer of Fee Demo, but its new

chairman, Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM), needs to hear your views. It's our

best chance this Spring, to oppose forest fees. Please respond at

once!

The instructions below must be followed closely for your letter to be

part of the record.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Please write a brief letter on 8.5 x 11 paper, and

submit 5 unfolded copies (i.e. in a big envelope) to the address below

- and mail them by Thursday, April 12th.

SEND THEM TO:

Congressman Joe Skeen,

House Interior Appropriations subcommittee,

B-308, Rayburn, Washington DC 20515.

WHAT TO SAY:

** Write your name and address clearly at the top of the page.

** Please state your opposition to forest fees.

** Ask the subcommittee to increase Forest Service recreation

budgets by $50 million, to maintain our National Forest trails &

campgrounds without visitor fees.

** Ask that your letter or card be part of the record for Public

Witness Testimony on April 16th.

 

PLEASE NOTE!

The Interior Appropriations subcommittee will only accept letters on

8.5 x 11 paper, unfolded, with 5 copies of each.

Please forward this e-mail to others who will write. This is the year

to end Fee Demo. We know we still have other letter writing alerts

ahead, and we thank you for your assistance, past, present and future,

with the campaign against forest fees.

Gratefully yours,

Alasdair Coyne,

Conservation Director, KSWC

(805) 921-0618

 

[vegetablebelay]

Ok, I mailed mine. This looks like a simple and efficient way to make your voice heard by someone with his finger on the button. At least it should be more effective than just getting each other riled up!

I stole some of your ideas Smoker, and some of yours too Forrest.

Vegetablebelay

[vegetablebelay]

Ok, well...Thursday the 12th is the last day to send in your comment - that's tomorrow. Just wanted to keep the topic on top of the pops for one more day...

A humble Vegetablebelay

[jon]

I just finished mine, going in the mail tomorrow. We desperately need more money to manage our lands, but fee demo is not the answer.

[Ade]

Me too, went in the post just now! There's still time to write today.

Ade

[Gerg]

Unfortunately, I don't know if comments submitted via email will be acceptable, but here is Representative Skeen's web page. It will allow you to write him an email if you are unable to send snail mail to him today.

http://hillsource.house.gov/skeen/Contact.asp

-gerg

[forrest_m]

Here's the text of the letter I sent off today. (I think it's useful to see other people's letters on this issue, cause I've found it's really hard to touch on all the important issues in a short) I tried to pitch it for a republican committee, note the emphasis on fiscal responsibility!

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the Forest Service “Demonstration Fee Program,” and to voice support for a significant increase in Forest Service (USFS) recreation budgets. Please include this letter in the record for Public Witness Testimony on April 16, 2001.

The current fee program is misguided, both in the details of its current implementation and in the underlying idea that one cannot use public lands – in any form – without paying some sort of fee. I believe that there is a place for user fees: I have purchased “Sno-park” passes annually for ten years and I regularly pay the fee to use Forest Service campgrounds. However, the most basic right to walk on public lands should be available to all citizens free of charge.

The finances of the USFS are widely recognized as being in bad shape. The agency is under great pressure to become less wasteful – and to do so in a visible way. However, rather than undertake serious reform in its finances – such as the hundreds of millions of dollars the USFS has lost and continues to lose on timber sales – they have instead focused on such minor income streams such as Recreational Use Fees to try to demonstrate to Congress that they are cleaning up their act. Since it is the only action they are taking, they are eager to show that it is a success, even if this means stifling public outcry through deceptive statements and outright untruths.

The Forest Service’s conduct has been disingenuous at best. In dealing with Congress, the USFS has used revenues from the fee demo program as evidence that they are saving money by passing costs directly to the user. But in their marketing campaign to attract public support for the program, the USFS claims that fees will result in increased funding for maintenance and construction of trails and parking facilities. The truth is closer to the former. Money from the fee program goes into the General Fund, and no overall increase in recreation funds has materialized since the initiation of the program. Yet the USFS knows that they must prevent a public outcry if the “demonstration” program is to be considered a success. Thus signs claiming that “fees pay for this trail” continue to appear at trailheads throughout the country.

Particularly grievous is the process by which the fee demo program was introduced: USFS literature claims that the “demonstration” in “fee demonstration program” is to determine the level of public support for the concept of direct user fees. The existence of a hefty fine for non-payment of the fee makes this data highly suspect. Nevertheless, the USFS continues to use these statistics as “evidence” of widespread public acceptance of the program.

Please defend the rights of all Americans to make the simplest uses of public lands without additional fees. We already own these lands, and the maintenance of basic access to them is a legitimate priority for government spending; in fact, such spending is essential to the goal of good stewardship.

Sincerely,

 

Forrest L. Murphy

 

[Tod]

Let's keep this post hot...

Today is supposedly the last day to get the letter to Congress in time. Demo Fees need to go away...

Here's my letter I sent out yesterday:

Congressman Joe Skeen

House Intererior Appropriations Subcommittee,

B-308, Rayburn, Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Joe Skeen,

I am writing to you to voice my strong opposition to the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo) that is currently charged in order to access public lands. I am also writing to you to voice my strong opposition of making this program a permanent fee. There are many reasons why I oppose the Fee Demo, most importantly I feel that it strips me and others of our basic right as a citizen to freely enjoy our beautiful publics in their natural state. In detail I oppose the Fee Demo for the following reason (but not limited to):

-Our public lands are our heritage and our birthright. We own these lands. They are not a recreational commodity.

-We already support the public lands agencies and our public lands through our federal taxes. Furthermore, hunters, fishermen and others pay licensing fees on top of access fees and taxes. This new fee amounts to nothing more than double - or even triple - taxation.

-Fee Demo sets a precedent of “classism” where only those who can afford to recreate will be able to do so. Those who can't afford it will be barred from their own public lands.

-The act of paying fundamentally alters the way one relates to the outdoors. People won't feel the responsibility of being on their own land. Rather, they will feel like they are visiting Disneyland where someone else is being paid to clean up after them.

-Fee Demo has nothing to do with the stewardship of public lands. It is, in fact, the beginning of an attempt by corporate America to privatize and commercialize our public lands.

-Businesses that sell passes are selling-off our freedoms. These vendors make a profit from the loss of one of our basic rights as American citizens: our right to access our public lands.

-The Forest Service is basing the success of its fee projects on compliance. A $50.00 non-comliance fine is nothing less than extortion!

-The Forest Service cannot justify sticking the public with a fee or a fine while it continues to lose millions of dollars a year due to its own mismanagement.

-Making the public pay a fee to use its own public lands, while at the same time providing federal subsidies for timber, cattle, and mining interests on public lands, is not only illogical, but immoral.

As a citizen of the United States and a frequent user of our precious public lands, it is alarming to me that many of our public lands continue to be sold, leased and managed to the point of destruction and are unusable except by government and commercial interests that value the land to make a profit. All the while this is happening, user fees are being assessed on the remaining land that people consider free and wild. This is a very frustrating, disgusting, and immoral mismanagement of our public lands.

I request of you and the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to drop the use of Recreational Fees on public lands. I also request that we look into the real reason why our public lands are under funded; the corporate interests that use our lands for commercial use are under charged or not charged at all for both government services on public lands and the actual use of public lands. This in itself is embarrassment and complete mismanagement of our public lands. If changing the ways the government manages our public lands does not lead to better fiscal management then I request we increase the public lands recreation budgets in order to maintain our public lands without visitor fees.

Lastly, I ask that my letter be part of the record for Public Witness Testimony on April 16th. I assure you, I am of a large majority within the United States that share both my views and of the need to drop the use of Recreational Fees. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Tod Bloxham