Dear HCN,
The “fee-demo” program
certainly is a demonstration. It clearly demonstrates who controls
Congress. After decades of my (and your) tax dollars supporting
below-cost timber sales, clear-cutting of our national forests,
mining and overgrazing of our public lands for the profit of a few,
now I am supposed to pay a fee to simply walk upon the scattered
lands that are left.
Bureaucrats tell us the fees
are a great deal: “It costs more to go to a movie” … “My health
club costs more,” they say. Well, equating our irreplaceable
natural lands with a movie or any other form of human-contrived
entertainment is insulting. The people pushing the fee-demo program
are treating our public lands like amusement parks. I, for one, am
not amused.
What worries me is the attitude that
this “customer” relationship is fostering toward our wild lands.
I’m afraid that wandering the forests and canyons of our public
lands for peace and spiritual renewal will be degraded to a
Disney-like experience. First you pay for an advance reservation,
then you pay to get in the gate, then pay again for each additional
activity. In fact, this sounds frighteningly like some of our
national parks already.
I wonder what this
teaches young people about the concept of public land. I guess you
can only visit the real world if you can afford to get
in.
Tracey
Wiese
Twisp,
Washington
The writer worked as a seasonal ranger for the National Park Service in 10 national parks.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fees fall flat.
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