For the week of Sept 25 - Oct 1, 2002

Time to scrap forest fee demo program

Guest opinion by SCOTT PHILLIPS

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Momentum is building to terminate the grossly undemocratic U.S. Forest fee demo program. Scott Silver, leader of national opposition to fee demo, obtained access to internal survey forms from 2,240 Forest Service employees in Region 6 (Oregon and Washington). On the Deschutes National Forest, in particular, there were some "don’t know" and "neutral" votes but, employees still weighed in roughly 2-1 in opposition. Opposition was slightly less pronounced on other forests.

The opposing Forest Service employees were uniquely concerned that fee demo is giving the Forest Service a black eye, that the Forest Service is losing credibility, and that their handling of fee-demo is engendering ill will toward the agency. Here are a few direct quotes.

"The program will continue to be immensely unpopular and cause civil disobedience …"

"It should be scrapped and Congress pressed to properly fund recreation!"

"People see it as a ploy to get money, creating a negative image of the Forest Service."

"Forests are not Disneyland and people should not be charged for Recreation."

On Sept. 16, a class action lawsuit was filed in southern California. The plaintiffs are asking the court to require the Forest Service to immediately stop the fee program. A big issue here is that low-income persons and minorities are financially discriminated against. Fees are exclusionary and discriminatory.

I was fortunate recently to be included on a private Middle Fork rafting trip. $5/person/day is the price of admission. In 2001, our party of 10 on a seven-day float coughed up $350 in cash at the put-in. No cash—no float! The Salmon-Challis NF is generating half a million dollars per year in river fees. Quite a cash cow! My question is: Whose Wild and Scenic River is it anyway? Didn’t it originally belong to us, the citizens?

It is my contention that it costs the Sawtooth NF at least 50 cents in bureaucratic overhead for every dollar collected. Nationally, fee-demo monies were allegedly siphoned off for forest fire fighting this summer, with promise of repayment. Forest Service accounting methods are archaic. The ill-will that fees generate among forest users must end. No business, public or private, can afford such highly negative customer relationships and expect to be successful! The small amount collected in fees is not worth one hundredth of the damage to customer relations.

Fee demo has the potential to get exponentially worse.

It is heavily lobbied in Congress by powerful recreational product and resort industry companies. If fee-demo were to be permanently authorized, it would permit federal land managers to forge unholy "partnerships" with private corporations in the development of commercial recreation ventures on public lands on a giant scale. Fee demo is the thin edge of the wedge. The butt end of the wedge will be horrific.

It is clearly the moral imperative of Congress to adequately fund recreation and wilderness programs. We have spent $80 billion on fighting terror and national security since Sept. 11. It’s time to spend just a few billion on the public lands.

Contact Sawtooth Forest Supervisor Ruth Monahan at 737-3200, and ask that she respond to majority opinion and work proactively to get fees eliminated. Contact your Congressman. Make your voice heard. Axing fees will be a win-win for all concerned. Recreation users can then reclaim their absolute right to take a hike in their woods unregulated and unfettered. Personal freedom is what the public lands are all about. We must keep it that way.

Scott Phillips, of Hailey, is a retired U.S. Forest Service employee.

 

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