Recreationists hate fees for all the right reasons
(HCN, 1/19/04: A moment of truth for user fees). Fees will
inexorably lead down the slippery slope to privatization and
commercialization of our public lands. Fees are undemocratic,
exclusionary, a regressive double tax and flat-out wrong.
The Forest Service fee program takes in approximately $37 million a
year (gross) and the BLM $6 million. Remember, from gross you must
subtract what it costs to administer fees. It costs the Sawtooth
National Forest in Idaho 75 cents for salaries, signs, gas for the
pickups that check trailheads, paperwork, “warning notices,” etc.,
to collect $1 in fees.
The solution to chronic
underfunding of recreation infrastructure, national monument
management, and Forest Service recreation management is for
Congress to step up to the plate and redeem its crystal-clear
responsibility to adequately fund the public lands. On Jan. 22,
Congress sent to the president a $328.5 billion spending bill. Sen.
John McCain, R-Ariz., estimates there was $11 billion in pure pork
in the bill. $165 billion has already been spent in Iraq. There
must be a meager few billion spent on recreation on public lands.
Scott Phillips
Hailey, Idaho
The writer is a retired Forest Service professional in outdoor recreation management.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Abolish user fees.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
