Dear HCN,
I’m afraid we are missing
the boat when it comes to the issue of user fees on our parks and
public lands. Many who support the idea would have us believe it’s
primarily an economic issue. While that is true in part, it is also
an issue which raises profound moral questions. Our freedoms as a
people are under assault on all fronts as never before. Many of our
elected officials are bought and sold by obscene amounts of money
that the average citizen can barely comprehend. Politics and money
have never been more closely wedded. Is it any wonder, then, that
our representatives are now applying a cash-register mentality to
our public lands?
User fees are undemocratic,
discriminatory and fraught with undesirable consequences. What is
the difference between public land fees and fees at the door of
your public library? I do not buy the argument that user fees will
give the American public a greater voice in how our lands are
managed. That argument only confirms that in the long run our lands
are for sale to the highest bidder. Our society has long given lip
service to the “crown jewels’ of our landscape. If they truly are
that in fact, then why are they funded as though they don’t really
matter?
User fees will limit access and lead to
the further regimentation of society. If we as a society are so
poor that we cannot provide that most basic of human (and very
American) freedoms – unhindered access to move about in our open
spaces without paying tolls – then our faltering democracy is that
much closer to extinction.
I believe that
somewhere out on the Great American Desert a writer is rolling over
in his grave at the thought of wilderness tollbooths. I can hear
his words echoing: “It is my fear that if we allow the freedom of
the hills and the last of the wilderness to be taken from us, then
the very idea of freedom may die with it.” – Edward
Abbey
Tom
Ricketts
Paonia,
Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Freedom is what’s at stake.
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