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

[Matt]

Protest the Fee Demo Program on Satuday June 15th (that's in two days!!). Please set aside this one Saturday of the summer and let your voice be heard!

[mvs]

Kris and I will be there with bells on! This is the thin edge of the wedge. Corporations and government sympathizers want to productize each of the recreational uses of forest land.

--Michael

[Cpt.Caveman]

Kill Fee Demo!

[jon]

To our friends:

 

The National Day of Action is just 10 days away. Please keep those letters

to the editor coming and please be sure the let Congress know what you think

of fee-demo on the 15th! Thanks much for all your help.

 

Scott

 

For complete information please go to:

http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/2002doa.htm

 

------ begin News Release---------

 

Wild Wilderness

248 NW Wilmington Avenue, Bend, OR 97701

Internet: www.wildwilderness.org

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 5, 2002

Scott Silver, Wild Wilderness 541-385-5261

 

GREAT OUTDOORS SHOWDOWN COMING

AS FOREST FEE ISSUE HEATS UP

 

(Bend, Oregon) -- Opposing sides in the hotly contested issue of

how to fund and manage outdoor recreation prepare for ideological

clashes during this year's Great Outdoor Week, June 10-15th.

Representing the interests of commercial recreation will be the

Washington, DC-based lobbyist group American Recreation Coalition

(ARC). ARC has scheduled meetings and award ceremonies with top

elected and administrative officials. They seek expanded

opportunities for ARC's members to control, and to eventually

profit from, the commercialization of outdoor recreation on the

public lands.

 

Representing the 100-year tradition of free access to America's

public lands will be dozens of citizens groups who are staging

protests and rallies in locations from coast to coast. Organizers

of the event have called June 15th "A National Day of Action to

protest Fee-Demo and to urge Congress to restore funding necessary

to maintain appropriate levels of recreational infrastructure on,

and adequate protection of, America's public lands." Protesters

fear that the growing dependence upon user fees and public-private

partnerships will lead to increased commercialization,

privatization and development of National Forests, parks and

public open spaces. Protesters say, "Recreation user fees are

Un-Democratic, Exclusionary, Discriminatory and just plain

Un-American." Protesters say, "user fees will lead to the

Corporate Takeover of Nature and the Disneyfication of the Wild."

 

Congress enacted Fee-Demo in 1996 at the specific behest of ARC,

an organization which represents highly mechanized, highly

developed, commercial forms of recreation. Fee-Demo is opposed by

California, Oregon, New Hampshire, Colorado and over 240

organizations, nationwide.

 

One of the main Day of Action organizers is Scott Silver,

Executive Director of Wild Wilderness, a Bend, Oregon-based

recreation and conservation organization. Silver along with

activists in California, New Hampshire, Colorado, Washington,

Arizona and elsewhere are hoping that by combining forces,

citizens can have as much influence upon the democratic process as

have the special-interest lobbyists in DC. The US Forest Service

recently identified states where protests will happen as

'hotspots.' They stated in an internal memo - " FS priority should

be to put out 'hotspots.'"

 

According to Silver, "Fee-Demo is fundamentally and irreconcilably

flawed. Recreation user fees have not been well accepted by the

American public and no amount of fine-tuning can make these fees

acceptable. People have the right to walk on public lands and

corporate special interests have no right to take that away,"

Silver said. Protesters are especially concerned that President

Bush has asked Congress to grant permanent recreation fee

authority in the current legislative session and they anticipate

legislation will be introduced during Great Outdoors Week or

shortly thereafter.

 

-- end --

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

National Day of Action information is available at:

http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/2002doa.htm

 

Great Outdoors Week information is available at:

http://www.funoutdoors.com/gowsched2002.html

 

Fee-Demo Opposition list is available at:

http://www.freeourforests.org/opposition.html

 

US Forest Service 'Hotspot' memo is available at:

http://www.sespewild.org/usfsmemo.html

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Scott Silver

Wild Wilderness

248 NW Wilmington Ave.

Bend, OR 97701

 

phone: 541-385-5261

e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org

Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[jon]

The June 15th National Day of Action to End Forest Fees just received another, most welcome and much appreciated, endorsement. This one comes from Richard Behan, author of "Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of Federal Lands", a book I highly recommend.

The short piece by Behan which follows, offers an insightful analysis of how recreation user fees have become one of the greatest threats to public lands. It then puts the Fee-Demo issue into it's rightful context within the bigger picture.

 

If there is anyone out there who still believes Fee-Demo is about paying $5 to keep forest outhouses smelling sweetly, please read on. And for those of you who already know that fee-demo is about nothing less than the Corporate Takeover of Nature and the Disneyfication of the Wild, you will most certainly appreciate reading that which follows...

 

Scott

 

------ begin-------

Fee-Demo and the Economic Taliban

by Richard W. Behan

 

Richard W. Behan is the author of Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of the Federal Lands, published by Island Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55963-848-6. For information about the book, go to www.rockisland.com/~rwbehan/

Fee-Demo is the greatest threat to the federal lands since the breathtaking proposals in the Reagan years to sell off the entire public estate, and there is a direct connection between the two. The architects and many of the current advocates of Fee-Demo are the same people who wanted to privatize the federal lands back then. Fee-Demo is simply the latest (and clever, as we will see) incarnation of the urge to bring an end to public land ownership.

 

The champions of Fee-Demo are part of what might be called an Economic Taliban, a fanatic sect of unbending believers in the superiority of "free markets" to conduct and harmonize the affairs of society. Fee-Demo is best seen as part of a great religious pilgrimage to a time and place where the Holy Market triumphs over Tyrannical Government. Known a bit more formally as "neoliberalism," the rhetoric includes death to the infidel. A spokesman for the Bush White House said, "We want to cut government down until it fits in a bath tub. Then we'll drown it."

 

The Economic Taliban was willed into being, and its own Jihad has come close to success. But I believe we will see, in the fairly near future, the Enron Corporation doing them in.

 

In the 1960's 12 arch-conservative philanthropic foundations undertook a deliberate, thoughtful, well-orchestrated and richly financed campaign to shift public policy sharply to the right. They did so by funding the research, writing, and publicity of "market solutions." They achieved what one political scientist described as a "hegemony of market theology," and in two decades they witnessed an international political spectacle: Michael Mulroney in Canada, Margaret Thatcher in the U.K., and Ronald Reagan in the White House espousing that theology simultaneously. The Economic Taliban was now empowered, and decades of progressive public policy were confronted, jeopardized, attacked, and destroyed. Fee-Demo is a piece of this.

 

One of the initiating foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation, has sent a great deal of money to Bozeman, Montana. There, the Political Economy Research Center ("PERC") and the Foundation for Research in Economics and the Environment ("FREE," a far catchier acronym) have been in the vortex of the federal lands privatization movement. The ideological base for Fee-Demo was developed and campaigned from these sources.

 

One of the associates at PERC, Richard Stroup, was the Director of the Office of Policy Analysis for James Watt's Department of the Interior, in the heyday of privatization proposals. P. Lynn Scarlett, who serves now as Gale Norton's Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget, has been a senior fellow at FREE. And Terry Anderson, the executive director of PERC, advises the Bush Administration on the "charter forest" issue. PERC and FREE are nothing if not well connected.

 

They can't be faulted for lack of candor. Anderson co-authored in 1999 a paper entitled "How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands," published by the Cato Institute. Because the federal lands agencies-the Park Service, Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management-generate less in receipts than they receive in appropriations, they lose money. Therefore the lands should be privatized, to let the markets correct this deficiency. The childlike simplicity of the argument calls more for patience and pity than outrage, but the strategic objective is clear: do away with public land ownership. Donald Leal of PERC is perhaps more patient. He also believes national parks should be put into market settings to make money, but suggests reducing appropriations for the parks gradually, over a ten year period, "until they reach zero." His ideal is a park dedicated totally and explicitly to commerce.

 

The Foundation for Research in Economics and the Environment applies its Olin Foundation money to different purposes. Not policy advocacy, but the dissemination of free market ideology is what FREE does best. It seeks new recruits to the Economic Taliban, but only influential ones, those with leverage. FREE finds many willing and happy volunteers among federal judges. Offering week-long seminars on such topics as "Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis," FREE spreads the neoliberal gospel. The seminars are held at lush resorts near Bozeman, and among the lecturers are Randal O'Toole, the ideological father of Fee-Demo, and P. Lynn Scarlett. The afternoons are open for golf or fishing, until cocktail hour, dinner, and a final dose of market theology from a hand-picked speaker. FREE pays all the expenses for the judges and their wives, and the Olin Foundation pays FREE.

 

The Economic Taliban relies on an obsolete, trite, simplistic dichotomy between market solutions and government, or "command and control" solutions. People can be "free" only in markets; they are tyrannized by governments, they argue. That was true, perhaps, at the time of the American Revolution, but much has happened since, notably the rise to economic and political dominance of the modern corporation. Nowhere does corporate power enter the calculus of the market theology, however.

 

Corporate dominance was starkly evident in the Reagan years. The federal lands were stripped of immense public wealth in the form of timber, oil and gas, forage, and water resources by large national or transnational resource-extracting corporations, and almost without exception their plunder was subsidized with public funds. The rampage was in-your-face noisy and visible, and it provoked a rapid expansion in the number and strength of opposing environmental organizations. The Sierra Club never had a better recruiter than James Watt, but the federal lands suffered grave physical damage. The American people at large were left to witness the ecologic and economic ruin of their lands, and left to bear the associated direct and social costs, as well.

 

The federal lands became and remain a net public liability. Largely gone are the commodity-value resources-the timber, forage, water, minerals, oil and gas stripped in the Reagan onslaught. But one resource is left: the recreational and amenity values of the federal lands. And now corporate interests, again national and transnational, and fronted by the American Recreation Coalition, have their eyes on those. Fee-Demo serves them up for the same fate: corporate pillage.

 

The strategy of the Economic Taliban remains unchanged. Public ownership must end, to defer to the pure and soaring majesty of the market. But the tactics have changed since the Reagan years. If overt and boisterous privatization provokes political opposition, try subtlety instead. Cite the chronic under funding of federal recreation programs (all the while cutting taxes to guarantee it). Cite the advantages of public/private cooperation and "partnerships." And then design Fee-Demo to resolve the problem and exploit the opportunity. Then, over a period of 10 years, wind the public funding down to zero and there you have it. The tub-sized government drowns, and the market can reign unchallenged. Clever, very clever.

 

It won't succeed. The ideology of the Economic Taliban-deregulation, privatization, and the glory of free markets-is both naïve and fraudulent. I have written a book making just this case, and it is only one book among many others. The literature critical of the "hegemony of market theology," however, has not been featured on the evening newscasts.

 

But the collapse of the Enron Corporation has, and so have the cascading linkages of corporate greed, corruption, dishonesty, and purchasing of political influence. The disastrous realities of "market solutions" are front page news.

 

When all the Congressional hearings are concluded and the reports filed, when the lawsuits are settled, when the exposé's have been written and the movies produced about the details and dimensions of this economic, political, and social disaster, then we will see two things.

 

We will see how the modern corporation, immortal in time and unlimited in size, has made "free markets" an oxymoron and "democratic politics" a tragic illusion. And we will see how urgently we need to reclaim and rebuild a healthy, vigorous, truly democratic public life.

 

Suppose we could persuade our Congress to let Fee-Demo expire, quietly and humanely. That would be an exemplary beginning.

 

 

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Scott Silver

Wild Wilderness

248 NW Wilmington Ave.

Bend, OR 97701

 

phone: 541-385-5261

e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org

Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

 

June 15, 2002 is National Day of Action to PROTEST FOREST FEES.

For additional information or to share your plans, please contact us.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[jon]

While some within the environmental community weakly cling to their hope

that Fran Mainella was a good choice for the Director of the National Park

Service position, most now accept that Mainella is faithfully doing the

President's and Gale Norton's bidding --- that of commercializing,

privatizing and motorizing America's National Parks.

 

Certainly no one understands that better than the American Recreation

Coalition who, on June 11th, will honor Mainella by bestowing upon her their

Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award. Previous recipients of this coveted

award include such Great Outdoors champions as Senator Frank Murkowski and

George Bush, the elder.

 

Pasted below is an announcement from the American Recreation Coalition. It

explains why Ms. Mainella is THEIR CHOICE (-- or should I say; "IS THEIR

ACE IN THE HOLE!" ?). Please pay special attention to the quote from ARC's

President, Derrick Crandall, when he says:

 

"She increased public-private partnerships

in the park system, increased volunteerism,

and began new funding concepts including

Partnership in Parks."

 

(Note, the following bulleted-points are 'officially' recognized as

privatization tools)

 

* Public Private Partnerships

* Volunteerism

* User Fees

 

(For a detailed explanation of how these specific tools are employed see

"Types and Techniques of Privatization" http://www.privatization.org

--- and please understand, ARC-driven legislation will be introduced in the

next few weeks to promote these specific privatization tools!!!

 

So when a wise-use organization that represents the interests of

commercial, motorized, recreation and industrial tourism honors

Ms. Mainella, perhaps it's time for folks in the environmental

community who think Mainella is THEIR CHOICE to think again.

 

If anyone believes Mainella will stand up to ARC or oppose them

over the Yellowstone snowmobile access issue, for example, --

think again. The snowmobilers' battle is being led by Ed Kim,

President of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers

Association, and by former ISMA President, Catherine Ahern. Klim

is an ARC Board member, Ahern is ARC's Vice President and Mainella

is about to accept THEIR Great Outdoors Award. In a world of

"Pay-to-Play", ARC knows that it pays to pay handsomely so that

THEY can play (and profit) without restrictions!!!

 

June 10-14 is ARC's Great Outdoors Week. June 15th is the National

Day of Action to End Forest Fees (and to attempt to halt The

Corporate Takeover of Nature and the Disneyfication of the Wild).

I hope everyone and every organization within the environmental

community will be joining us in denouncing the ARC and in asking

Congress NOT to make the ARC's fee-demo program the permanent law

of the land.

 

Scott

 

PS: Now is the time to get those Letters to the Editor and Op-Eds written.

 

----------- begin quoted ----------------

 

http://www.funoutdoors.com/news/news6_02.html

 

PARKS DIRECTOR FRAN MAINELLA TO RECEIVE

GREAT OUTDOORS AWARD

 

Washington, D.C., May 17, 2002 - Fran P. Mainella, Director of the

National Park Service, will receive the 14th Sheldon Coleman Great

Outdoors Award at a June 11 ceremony in Washington before an

audience of hundreds of national recreation community leaders.

The presentation is a highlight of Great Outdoors Week 2002 (June

10-14), an annual event coordinated by the American Recreation

Coalition (ARC).

 

The Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award - named for the late

conservationist and leader of The Coleman Company, a top

manufacturer of outdoor recreation products - honors an

outstanding American leader whose personal efforts have enhanced

our nation's outdoor resources and the ability of Americans to

enjoy this recreational legacy. The award itself is comprised of

a specially-mounted Steuben Water Bird sculpture. Past winners

include former President George Bush, National Geographic Society

Chairman Gil Grosvenor, U.S. Senators John Breaux (D-LA), Frank

Murkowski (R-AK) and the late John Chafee (R-RI), U.S.

Representatives Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and Ralph Regula (R-OH) and

former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.

 

"We are delighted to recognize Fran Mainella with this award,

acknowledging and honoring the contributions she has made to

recreation in America," said ARC President Derrick Crandall.

"Fran has been a leader in the recreation community for three

decades, working at the local, state and national levels. She is

the 16th Director and the first woman to lead an agency which

protects some of America's favorite sites and hosts nearly 300

million visits annually. Prior to her July 2001 appointment to

this post, she served as Director of the Division of Recreation

and Parks for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection,

where she was responsible for 153 state parks, museums, preserves,

recreation areas, historic sites, geological sites, botanical

gardens, archeological sites, wildlife parks, and trails. She

increased public-private partnerships in the park system,

increased volunteerism, and began new funding concepts including

Partnership in Parks. During her tenure, the Florida park agency

was awarded the prestigious State Parks Gold Medal, recognizing it

as the best state park system in all 50 states," Crandall said.

 

Fran Mainella played an important national leadership role

following the September 11 attacks. She was a prime architect of

the invitation to Americans to enjoy fee-free visits to parks and

other special places during a weekend in November 2001, a weekend

offering hope, healing and unity to the nation. In addition, she

is leading efforts to erase a large backlog in maintenance needs

in our parks and to refocus the National Park Service for its

second century. One of her priorities is closer coordination with

state, local and private park and recreation efforts, making use

of the revitalized Land and Water Conservation Fund.

 

Director Mainella has played a central role in many recreation

organizations during her career including services as President of

the National Association of State Park Directors, President of the

National Recreation and Park Association, and Secretary of Florida

A & M University's Landscape Design Advisory Council. She was a

member of the Florida Tourism Commission, the statewide

Eco-Tourism/Heritage Tourism Committee, and the National

Association of State Recreation Liaison Officers. Ms. Mainella

has received numerous prestigious awards: the 2000 Harold D. Meyer

Professional Award, the highest award given by the National

Recreation and Park Association Southern Regional Council, and the

1999 Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of

State Park Directors; the 1998 Pugsley Medal, the highest

professional honor given by the American Academy of Park and

Recreation Administration; and the 1998 William Penn Mott, Jr.

Award for Excellence presented by the National Society for Park

Resources.

 

Great Outdoors Week is an annual event made possible by the

support of more than 30 recreation companies and associations.

The event builds national awareness and appreciation of the

importance of recreation as a social and economic force in the

U.S. Great Outdoors Week 2002 events range from the designation

of new national scenic byways by Transportation Secretary Norman

Mineta, a Centennial Celebration of the Legacy of Teddy Roosevelt,

a Capitol Hill awards presentation for outstanding recreational

trails projects, a showcase of outdoor recreation initiatives and

a day of fun and adventure on and along the Anacostia River for

more than 100 DC youths through WOW-Wonderful Outdoor World. In

addition, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to hold a

hearing on enhancing visitor services on the public lands and the

head of the USA Freedom Corps, the new volunteerism initiative of

President Bush, will celebrate a long and expanding tradition of

volunteerism on public lands. The Great Outdoors Award

presentation will take place within Arlington National Cemetery at

the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.

 

-30-

#6-02

(May 17, 2002)

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Scott Silver

Wild Wilderness

248 NW Wilmington Ave.

Bend, OR 97701

 

phone: 541-385-5261

e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org

Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

 

June 15, 2002 is National Day of Action to PROTEST FOREST FEES.

For additional information or to share your plans, please contact us.

Day of Action weblink: http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/2002doa.htm

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[jon]

The following article from the current edition of High Country News lays out

the legislative situation of the Recreation Fee Demonstration quite well.

 

Basically we have the USFS desperate to make fees permanent--- hoping that

so doing will magically blunt the growing opposition to this controversial

program. We have the special-interest proponents of fee-demo desperately

trying to use their two favorite champions Reps. Jim Hansen and Joe Skeen

one more time before these villains retire (remember, fee-demo is Hansen's

baby). And finally we have a variety of folks all saying that in the six

years since fee-demo was first authorized, the USFS still hasn't a clue how

to make this program work.

 

MOST IMPORTANTLY, we have a clear challenge.

 

If we do not want recreation user fees to become the permanent law of the

land, it is up to us to ensure that it does not become the permanent law of

the land. No one is going to stop this legislation for us!!!

 

Please join us on June 15th to protest fee-demo and to urge Congress to

restore adequate funding to maintain appropriate levels of recreational

infrastructure on, and provide adequate protection of, America's public

lands.

 

Details for 30 scheduled protests can be found on the web at:

www.wildwilderness.org/docs/2002doa.htm

 

Scott

 

-------- begin quoted --------

 

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=11275

WESTERN ROUNDUP, June 10, 2002

 

Permanent user fees in the pipeline

by Hal Clifford

 

Agencies struggle toward a unified public-lands pass

 

After a clamorous seven-year test, the Bush administration wants to expand

and make permanent the federal government's program of charging user fees

for recreation on public lands. Prodded by Congress, officials at the U.S.

Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Fish

and Wildlife Service are scrambling to draft legislation for a single,

nationwide recreation pass for all U.S. public lands. The new system would

replace the Recreation Fee Demonstration, or "fee demo," program first

created by Congress in 1996 and extended twice by rider, now until 2004

(HCN, 2/14/00: Land of the fee).

 

"The Forest Service feels that we have tested enough," says Teri Cleeland,

Forest Service national fee program leader in Washington, D.C. "We've

learned a lot, and it's time for the American people to learn what a

permanent program would look like."

 

But even as the agencies move rapidly toward a unified pass proposal,

officials admit they're far from a workable plan. That gives opponents, both

in and out of Congress, some hope that they can stymie the effort, despite

its momentum.

 

"If the Forest Service is going to make (fees) work," says Bob Dale of

Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, "they're going to have to

do it with a lot more thought and care than what's gone into the fee demo

program."

 

Circling the wagons

Between 1997 and 2001, the agencies collected $600 million in fees. Last

year, fee demo grossed $126.2 million for the Park Service; $35.3 million

for the Forest Service; $7.6 million for the BLM; and $3.7 million for the

Fish and Wildlife Service. The agencies are required to spend 80 percent of

fee revenues, minus administrative costs, at the place where they were

collected, rather than send the money to Washington.

 

Opponents of fee demo long have argued that the program is a form of double

taxation, since federal tax dollars already support management of the public

lands. Supporters point to a maintenance backlog of $4.9 billion at the Park

Service and $800 million at the Forest Service, and the absence of

sufficient congressional funding as a reason the public should pay to play.

 

That line of reasoning resonates with the Bush administration, which this

spring created the Recreation Fee Leadership Council to draft legislation

that would make the user-fee program permanent. The council, made up of 16

top-level federal officials representing the four lands agencies and the

Bureau of Reclamation, is co-chaired by Mark Rey, undersecretary of the

Department of Agriculture, and Lynn Scarlett, assistant secretary of the

Department of Interior.

 

No firm decisions have been made, but the council is working from a draft

"blueprint" produced in April by Forest Service Deputy Chief Tom L.

Thompson. The blueprint says the government would not charge for "general

access" to national forests; driving or walking through; parking at scenic

overlooks and pullouts; and dispersed camping or other low-impact

recreation.

 

The agencies would, however, charge for parking at trailheads; entrance to

visitors' centers; use of trailhead, boating and swimming facilities;

national recreation areas; national monuments; and visits to

"concentrated-use areas" where heavy traffic takes a toll on the

environment.

 

The pass program under consideration includes annual national, regional,

statewide and single-forest passes, along with single-use fees. Officials

working on the new program say they don't know yet how much the passes will

cost. Golden Eagle passes currently cost $65.

 

"What we would really like to do nationally is have a national parks and

public lands pass," says Lee Larson, senior outdoor recreation specialist

for permits and fees at the national BLM office, "not just the Forest

Service and Park Service, but for everyone (together)."

 

But, adds Larson, "It's not a public lands pass in the sense of getting on

public lands. It's only for areas where there's services."

 

Even if they buy the new passes, visitors may pay extra charges - as they do

now - to use developed camp sites and boat launches. Last November, the

General Accounting Office criticized federal agencies for their "overlapping

and inconsistent" implementation of user fees; observed that managers had

not been given clear direction on what they were supposed to accomplish with

the fee demo program; and concluded that despite years of testing, the

agencies still have not proven "what types of fees and fee collection

practices work best."

 

It's also far from clear how much money the proposed permanent fee program

might generate, or how that money would be split up. Cleeland says the

Forest Service has hired the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to make

that calculation but has been unable to come up with a number because "the

questions we ask of our data are not the same questions that Pricewaterhouse

would have asked."

 

Revenue for passes that are valid at more than one locale would be divided

up using a formula based both on creating incentives to sell passes, and

getting the money to roughly correspond with the level of use. That formula,

however, has yet to be devised.

 

"One pass with one simple fee would be a lot better, but that's not what

we're getting," says Jason Robertson, access director for American

Whitewater. "What we're getting is one fee for parking and access, but then

they're talking about this raft of whole other fees for such activities as

camping and boating.

 

"The whole purpose of the fee program is being lost in this discussion.

We're moving from fees for mitigation toward fees for fees' sake, fees for

revenue collection."

 

Race against the clock

Concerns like Robertson's have moderated somewhat the stance of longtime

user fee champion Rep. Scott McInnis, a Colorado Republican who chairs the

House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. In a Jan. 25 letter to

Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, McInnis reiterated his support for fees,

but cautioned that money needs to be spent on the ground and the program

subject to reauthorization by Congress every five years.

 

Nonetheless, McInnis is still clearly among user fees' staunchest advocates.

Speaking in Montrose, Colo., on May 4, McInnis said that fee demo may come

to an end, but added, "We need to tax those users. We need those fees."

 

Josh Penry, staff director of the McInnis-led forests subcommittee, says

legislation to create a national fee program is likely to be introduced this

year. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., has already introduced legislation to make

the fee program permanent for the National Park Service and to permit that

agency to share revenues with state - although not federal - agencies on a

reciprocal basis if they honor each other's passes.

 

The administration is racing to take advantage of the support of House

Resources Committee Jim Hansen, R-Utah, and House Appropriations Committee

chair Joe Skeen, R-N.M., both of whom are retiring this fall.

 

But whether permanent fee legislation will move through Congress in this

session is questionable, given that the House will recess in fewer than

three months, and representatives are increasingly focused on the fall

campaign.

 

Meanwhile, fee opponents are making their voices heard. On May 8, the

Colorado State Legislature passed a resolution asking Congress to fully fund

the federal lands agencies rather than charge for recreation. The Oregon,

California and New Hampshire Legislatures have passed similar resolutions.

Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R, pushed by anti-fee Off-Road

Vehicle organizations, has also announced his opposition to fees.

 

For its part, the Forest Service plans to start revising its fee program

this summer to create more consistency between forests and to identify all

sites where fees can and should be charged, says Cleeland. But, she adds,

"The devil is in the details."

 

Hal Clifford contributes regularly to High Country News and Writers on the

Range from Telluride, Colorado.

 

YOU CAN CONTACT ...

 

Jason Robertson, American Whitewater, 301/589-9453;

 

Teri Cleeland, U.S. Forest Service, 202/205-1169,

www.fs.fed.us/recreation/fee_demo/fee_intro.shtml;

 

Lee Larson, BLM, 202/452-5168;

 

Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., 202/225-4761.

Copyright © 2002 HCN and Hal Clifford

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Scott Silver

Wild Wilderness

248 NW Wilmington Ave.

Bend, OR 97701

 

phone: 541-385-5261

e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org

Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is

distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in

receiving this information for research and educational purposes.

[jon]

The second, of several recreation-fee and recreation-infrastructure pieces

of legislation was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday of this week. The

bill can be read at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:S2607:

 

It should some as NO SURPRISE that this legislation was introduced during

the American Recreation Coalition's "Great Outdoors Week"

(www.funoutdoors.com). I only wish I or some member of the general public

could have been inside the meetings ARC must have had with the sponsor of

this legislation, Senator Bingaman (D-NM).

 

This bill appears to be on an extreme fast tract. A Senate hearing has

already been set for next week, (June 19, 2002 at 9:30 AM)

http://energy.senate.gov/cfdocs/e_witnesslist.cfm?id=288

 

Needless to say ... this is "crunch time" for everyone who has been working

so hard to end forest fees!!

 

With the national Day of Action to end forest fees coming up on Saturday, I

wish to say "Good Luck" and offer a sincere "THANK YOU" to everyone who will

be participating. Thirty Demonstrations are scheduled in nine States, thanks

to the help and efforts of so many of you copied on this message.

 

When we all shout in unison on Saturday it will be our voice that is heard

above the voice of the recreation special-interests for whom the Recreation

Fee Demonstration Program has been created. Day of Action details can be

viewed at:

http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/2002doa.htm

 

Scott

 

PS... The first bill in the current series of recreation-fee-related bills

applies only to the National Parks. That bill can be read at:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:S2473 and it was introduced by

Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY).

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Scott Silver

Wild Wilderness

248 NW Wilmington Ave.

Bend, OR 97701

 

phone: 541-385-5261

e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org

Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

 

June 15, 2002 is National Day of Action to PROTEST FOREST FEES.

For additional information contact us or see:

http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/2002doa.htm

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[jon]

Pasted below is the Native Forest Council's news release for the National

Day of Action to End Forest Fees. It, like so many of the news releases

activists have been writing, does a fantastic job of explaining why we will

be protesting on Saturday.

 

I'd like to offer thanks to Tim Hermach and indeed to everyone for their

fantastic efforts in spreading the word and making this Day of Action a

reality.

 

Based upon the enormous number of media calls I've received and from the

feedback I am receiving from activists all across the country, I can promise

you that this Day of Action is going to send a message that is so loud and

is so clear that EVEN Congress will hear it. That message will say that We

The People of this country oppose Forest Fees and oppose the privatization

and commercialization of recreational opportunities on our public lands.

 

Thanks to everyone. Have a great day of action!

 

Scott

 

-------- begin quoted -------

 

http://www.forestcouncil.org/act/feedemopr.php#text

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Tim Hermach

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: www.forestcouncil.org

 

Protests Against Fee Demo Scheduled Across the Nation

"Just say no to forest fees." That's the message citizens across the U.S.

will be sending to the Forest Service on June 15. Opponents of Recreation

Fee Demonstration, or "Fee Demo," have organized 26 protests in nine

different states, including a mock coffin-nailing in New Hampshire,

simulated "sidewalk demonstration fees" in San Francisco and a toilet paper

drive in Arizona (to offset one expense supposedly covered by fees). The

National Day of Action will coincide with Great Outdoor Week, an event

organized by the industry group behind the government program that charges

citizens additional fees for visiting public lands.

 

"This is Enron accounting and double taxation," says Tim Hermach, president

of Native Forest Council, one group fighting Fee Demo. "Our taxes already

pay for so-called public lands management. All they're managing to do is

help industry trash precious national assets at a net loss. Subsidies for

national forest logging topped a billion dollars last year. Why should we

have to pay to camp, hike or fish on lands that our forefathers set aside

for the American people?"

 

The brainchild of the American Recreation Coalition (ARC), an industry

lobbying group, Fee Demo started in 1996, with a rider tacked on to an

appropriations bill. Fee Demo was introduced as a three-year experiment, but

has been extended through 2004 by two additional riders. The

latest extension is scheduled to expire at the end of the 2004 fiscal year.

Today, fees are charged at 365 sites on national parks, forests and BLM

lands, generating an estimated $2-3 million annually. Visitors who refuse to

pay can be fined up to $100.

 

As Americans discover their public lands aren't as public as they used to

be, opposition is growing-and creating some unlikely bedfellows. At least

175 organizations have come out against Fee Demo and, as fees are enforced

more rigorously, hunters and fishermen are joining hikers and

conservationists to oppose forest fees. Bipartisan federal legislation to

terminate the plan was introduced in 1999, but failed. At least four state

governments have passed legislation to formally oppose Fee Demo.

 

Lawmakers in Washington are planning to take the "demo" out of Fee Demo,

making the program permanent. That makes this summer a crucial time for

opponents to make their voices heard and publicize the problems with the fee

program. According to environmentalists, federal agencies already receive

taxpayer dollars to manage public lands, but use most of it instead to

subsidize mining, logging, grazing and drilling. Fees also make public lands

off limits to low-income families and promote destructive activities, such

as off-road vehicle use.

 

Most importantly, say opponents, Fee Demo represents a sea change in the

federal agencies entrusted with public lands. "It's the Disneyfication of

our natural treasures," says Hermach. "These agencies want new sources of

revenue, and the fee program is just the ticket. This time, they're in bed

with wreckreaction (sic) corporations, instead of big timber. New industry.

Same destruction. Same perverse incentives. Same liquidation of our national

heritage at a net loss to the American taxpayer. Stop subsidizing the

industries that trash public lands, and you'll save billions - that's a lot

of picnic tables and toilet paper. A mere fraction of the tax dollars they'd

save would cover any fee revenue. And it would save what's left of our

mountains, forests, rivers and streams."

 

-END-

 

Tim Hermach

Executive Director

Native Forest Council

PO Box 2190

Eugene, OR 97402

541.688.2600

fax 305.768.0115 or 541.461.2156

 

web page: http://www.forestcouncil.org

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Scott Silver

Wild Wilderness

248 NW Wilmington Ave.

Bend, OR 97701

 

phone: 541-385-5261

e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org

Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

 

June 15, 2002 is National Day of Action to PROTEST FOREST FEES.

For additional information contact us or see:

http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/2002doa.htm

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^