Protest fees
American Recreation Coalition president Derrick Crandall
says the fact that Sawtooth National Recreation Area users don’t like the fees
they’re being forced to pay is the fault of local forest officials. He says the
forest folks didn’t communicate well.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Forest officials explained the forest was being loved to death and that
fees are necessary because the federal government just can’t afford to do the job.
Recreation has to pay its way, they said.
Unlike timber and mining, of course.
After all, Congress and the Forest Service had to swear off the big
money they had spent subsidizing roads, timber cuts and mines for nearly a century. They
couldn’t be expected to fork over to clear trails and install log bridges to make it
easier for legions of Vibram soles to tromp around the landscape.
Forest officials outlined how fees would be collected and spent. They
outlined how fee fugitives would be apprehended.
Yet users rejected fees and didn’t pay them because they are
unfair, unwarranted and poorly conceived. Payments increased only when the Forest Service
began to play the heavy--issuing tickets with fines to people without passes.
Saturday is a national day of protest. Sign a petition or write a
letter to a congressman or senator. Tell them how you feel about the fees. Tell them to
quit believing their own PR and Crandall’s silly excuses, and to start listening.
