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Show . THE ZEPHYR/JUNE-JULY 2004 of a $100 fine, a move that the WSNFC is appealing. = resolutions opposing the program. Hundreds disobedience to it is rampant. of organized groups oppose Fee Demo, and civil The land management agencies want these extreme measures because compliance with Fee Demo has been dismal. In Southern California alone, over 250,000 Notices of Non Compliance or citations have been issued. The program has not won over the hearts and minds of the public so the agencies are pushing for a Big Stick approach. If a $100 fine has been insufficient to deter the public from using their public lands, a $5,000 fine most likely will. HR 3283 would make criminals out of taxpayers. Meanwhile, over in the Senate, another bill, $1107, is inching forward. It would let the Park Service retain the entrance fees they have been collecting for years instead of sending them to the Treasury, but would allow Fee Demo to expire in the Forest Service, BLM, and Fish and Wildlife Service. Most people in the anti-fee movement can live with this because of the long history the NPS has of collecting entrance fees and the higher level of infrastructure expected ina National Park. The public knows full well the difference between the National Parks and the lands and waters managed by the Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and the Forest Service. To start with they know that the National Parks is where the tollbooths are. The National Parks is where it can cost up to $50 to enter with your families. ; The agencies, however, insist that the public needs and wants ever-increasing facilities and services, even on the vast tracts of undeveloped land under Forest Service, BLM, and Fish and Wildlife management. They are lobbying hard for a national pass and all the other provisions of the House bill to be amended into S 1107. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed Senator Craig Thomas’s bill, S. 1107, in February. It calls for permanent fee authority in the National Parks only. Senate Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman Larry Craig (R-ID), at a hearing on Fee Demo on April 21st, made it clear that he would not support the idea of access fees for any agencies except the National Parks. Other members of the Subcommittee shared this view. The legislative hearings regarding HR 3283 in the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands on May 6th were not so positive. While there is strong opposition to the Fee Demo Program in the House Resources Committee on both sides of the aisle, there is a chance that this bill might move to a Committee vote. Chairman Pombo has indicated that he would like to see something move this year. What he is calling for at this time is unclear. But, one thing is certain: those of us that believe in public ownership of public lands have much to do to ensure that our voices are heard in Washington. The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition has urged those in Congress to recognize the distinct differences between the National Parks and the land managed by the other agencies. We have urged them to choose the financially responsible course, to maintain what we already own first, to stop this “Spiral of Government Growth,” and to uphold Public Ownership of Public Lands. We ask you to contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to oppose HR 3283 and to end Fee Demo. Eight years into a failed program, Americans are speaking out and beginning to be heard. Congress must restore adequate appropriations for public lands management from existing tax dollars. We must say no to heavy-handed, heritage-robbing and discriminatory public land user fees. Oh, and that $5 fee to drive into Yankee Boy Basin that got me started on this issue? In 2003, the Ouray County Commissioners, tired of being the poster child for Fee Demo, pressured the Forest Service into lifting it. A group of local citizens now organizes a volunteer effort each summer to provide stewardship. For a few thousand dollars in voluntary, tax-deductible donations they accomplish what the Forest Service needed $40,000 and a phalanx of law enforcement rangers to do. Yankee Boy Basin is once again in public hands, and free. We need your help. Please contact us at: THE WESTERN SLOPE NO-FEE COALITION PO BOX 403 NORWOOD, CO 81423 970.259.4616 wsnfc@hotmail.com The fundamental dilemma is, does the American public demand that all 640 million acres of public land be managed as if they were National Parks? Is the public really demanding that the land management agencies spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to build capital infrastructure to “enhance” what God has already given us? If we allow the agencies to charge a fee or require a permit to enter these lands then we have given ownership of the lands to the agencies and taken it away from the people. Access to these public lands would become a privilege you pay for and no longer a right, and the agencies would be given a perverse incentive to build more and bigger facilities so they can charge ever-higher fees. ‘It’s already happening all over the West: i Se se Mame: eee Pe, a BS Oe ra “ * es Support egreen Moab ac you support your hatha well-beitg.. The. Moab‘ Tree Planting Partnership (MTPP) ig-a joint fort nT Ss, a The public and the local land managers would be better served by taking a course that | emphasizes the use of our limited resources to maintain what we already have first. The incentive to “build it and they will pay” is clearly not in the public’s best interests. Nor can we as a nation afford to maintain that level of capital infrastructure. It becomes a vicious circle: The more the government develops its public lands - the more maintenance is required - the more fees are imposed - the fewer number of people who can enjoy these special places. And in this circle, we lose access to our natural areas. : Company and Moonflower Market to support the planting; maintenance and i ab pratt tres in our community, Recenty, MTPP provided the vision and The BLM at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is building three new visitor centers. One alone costs over $10 million. At the same time Monument managers want to start charging for backcountry use and car camping because they do not have the funds to deal with those uses. an e Atthe Maroon Bells in Pitkin County, Colorado, the Forest Service has built a toilet for $1.6 million but has to charge a fee because they say they don’t have the funds for toilet paper. e In Ouray, Colorado, the Forest Service threatened to close the world-class jeeping and hiking area of Yankee Boy Basin unless Fee Demo was applied, citing lack of funds for toilet maintenance. But the following year the Forest Service spent over $650,000 to expand a concessionaire-run campground across the highway. e The BLM’s Cedar Mesa area, a vast swath of canyons and plateaus west of Blanding in southeastern Utah, charges a fee for all hiking, whether day hikes ($2 per person per day) or overnight backpacking ($8 per person per trip). These fees for the most popular places are causing an increase in use at lesser-known spots, which start to become hammered as visitors search farther and farther afield for areas that are still free. As those spots in turn show the impacts of increased use, the fee area is enlarged to include them, causing people to search out still more remote areas, in an endless game that damages the very resource the fees were supposed to protect. Opposition to Fee Demo has been overwhelming and widespread. From New Hampshire to California, from Idaho to Arizona, Americans from all walks of life and all political persuasions are raising their voices against this program. Resolutions of opposition have been sent to Congress by the state legislatures of Colorado, Oregon, California, and New Hampshire. Thirteen counties in western Colorado alone, as well as counties, cities, and towns across the nation have passed a PAGE]5 iy. > financialassistance for the transfer of trees from the Balad Orchard to The ‘ Youth arden Project. An onging donation to support MTPP's future projects : ide with gach purchase of Synergy’ organi and 1008 natural wil f° supplant Moog Na thet - atag rs pecialliscount price. * Moontlower Harkst Be, -e Ya ...Justa bunch of local folks ® dedicated to supporting the Moab: community in many good ways. » | The Synorgy Company www. thesynergycompany. com 259-5366 |
