User fee signs mutilated
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Vandalism is not the most effective form of protest, Sawtooth
National Forest User Fee Demonstration Program coordinator Mary Ritz said during a Monday
interview at Adams Gulch Trailhead, where two fee demo signs lay axed to the ground.
But it doesand didraise eyebrows.
Over the weekend fee demo signs all over the Sawtooth National
Recreation Area (SNRA) and Ketchum Ranger District were chopped down with an ax or
hatchet. Even a chainsaw appeared to be used on a sign.
The cost in materials and labor to replace the signs will be between
$1,300 and $1,700, Sawtooth National Forest supervisor Bill LeVere said.
Signs at the SNRAs Williams Creek, Titus Lake, Prairie Creek and
the North Fork trailheads were chopped at their four-by-four-inch posts. Ketchum Ranger
District trailhead signs, including Adams Gulch, Baker Lake, Norton Lake and two
signs at Hyndman were also vandalized.
At the Hyndman trailhead, one sign was sawed in half, presumably with a
chainsaw, and another was completely gone, uprooted from the ground.
In all, eight trailheads were vandalized, apparently in an effort to
protest user fees, Ritz said.
In addition to the trailhead vandalism, the vinyl signs hung at the
SNRA and Ketchum Ranger District offices were attacked. The SNRAs sign was slashed
in half and the Ketchum Ranger Districts was stolen about a week ago.
"Whether you like the program or not, this isnt the way to
protest it," Ritz said. "Were just doing what congress tells us to.
Its a waste of money. Its not making the program go away."
Ritz said the crime has been turned over to the Sawtooth National
Forest law enforcement officer. However, she said, there is so far no evidence to go on.
According to a statement issued by Sawtooth National Forest spokesman
Ed Waldapfel, all of the signs except for Hyndman trailhead signs will be reused.
Ritz said she would begin re-posting the signs yesterday, a task that
would take her two to three days. In the meantime, she said, users will not be required to
carry user passes at affected trailheads.
LeVere said he isnt sure how officials will fund the signs
replacement. He said sign replacement and re-posting could be funded by channeling user
fee proceeds garnered thus far.
Sawtooth National Forest officials revamped the user fee program on May
14 to a trailhead-only pass instead of a general-use pass.
Ritz said that since that time, about 1,700 notices of non-compliance
have been issued to those parking at trailheads who havent had user passes displayed
in the windshields of their cars. A notice of non-compliance is not a citation. It warns a
person that he or she will be cited if they dont purchase a user pass within a set
amount of time.
Of those who have received notices, Ritz said, 80 to 85 percent have
purchased passes afterward.
Ritz said the Ketchum Ranger District and SNRA are averaging about
50-percent compliance this summer compared with 25 percent two years ago and 30 percent
last year.
She said there are five or six people who have been issued notices of
non-compliance who indicated they would not buy user passes and would gladly face a judge
on the matter.
Ritz said the first scheduled legal hearings will be in November in
Boise.