Good news! We now have the chance to restore basic free access to undeveloped areas for hiking, visitor centers, parking, restrooms, water, picnicking, scenic drives and overlooks, and Wilderness, with the recently introduced Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act, S.2438. New fees to access our own public lands began over 10 years ago, with the Fee Demo Program. Public outrage followed, as did resolutions opposing such fees by the State of Colorado and 12 western counties.

Unless we act now, our National Forests, BLM, and BuRec lands will see more and higher fees - forever. In Colorado and the Southwest, fees are now required for access to remote, undeveloped areas, such as Gunnison Gorge and Cedar Mesa, Utah. Arizona is the “land of the fee.” Colorado’s Indian Peaks Wilderness fees rose from $0, to $5 to $12. So much for McInnis’s analogy comparing fees to the price of a pack of gum! Oregon, New Hampshire, Washington and California now have parking fees for entire forests.

All public lands were once free to all U.S. citizens as part of their birthright and heritage. Now, access fees place a double financial burden on us with taxes and fees, affecting tourists, locals, local economies, and limiting or barring access to those with lower incomes.

Where will it stop? Will more popular areas have higher and higher fees, excluding more people? At the other end, areas that can’t pay their own way with fees now face closure, possibly sale. Meanwhile less federal money is getting to the ground, and we could see areas developed just to bring in more fees. The present fee bill is being illegally interpreted and contains severe criminal penalties for not paying.

If you love our public lands the way they are, please contact Senator Wayne Allard and ask him to co-sponsor S.2438. Thank Ken Salazar for co-sponsoring this bi-partisan bill. For more information, contact wsnfc@hotmail.com.

JAN HOLT
Durango

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 2:13 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.