Dear HCN,
Your story about setting
user fees on public lands presented the irony of duplicitous
standards. For years the environmental movement has been harping at
industries to pay for their use of the land; now, when
recreationists are asked to pay for their own abuse of the land
(any use is abuse, by definition), they fall back on the same
arguments extractive users have pushed for
decades.
Everyone wants a free lunch. Anyone I
know who has a $1,000 mountain bike and enough time to play in the
hills can afford a nominal user fee. As for large families being
impacted more heavily, I say don’t have so many kids. Quit whining;
no resource should be free – not for you, me or the mining
companies.
Brandon
Lever
Cascade,
Idaho
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Quit whining.
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