Can't See the Forest
By Bill Benson |
The Fee Demonstration Program has been around since 1996 as a test to see if we as citizens will pay for something we once got for free. Public land managers have convinced us we have a stewardship crisis and fees or taxes imposed upon forest visitors are the only way to take care of our land. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The pay-to-play concept is the brainchild of Derrick Crandall and the American Recreation Coalition. ARC is a lobbying group in Washington D.C., which represents RV manufacturers, resort developers and others who seek to extract profit directly from public land. ARC convinced Congress to cut taxpayer funding to public land management agencies such as the Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and others. This artificially induced “funding crisis” created an open door for these agencies to begin charging us to access our own land. Once we are used to paying, then ARC companies like Disney will come to the rescue and privatize our land at a profit.
For many years we have been asked to pay to enter our National Parks believing those fees were used to preserve and protect our natural resources. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fees paid to enter National Parks have for years gone into the general budget of the federal government; the same place our tax money goes. From this pool of money, Congress allocates funds to various governmental agencies including a small portion to the National Park Service.
One only has to drive the roads in Yellowstone National Park to see how little was given back to take care of the place. The big con game in fee demo is a portion of the money actually stays where it is collected; currently 80 percent. At this rate it will take 200 years to even catch up on the maintenance backlog, let alone take care of anything else that breaks.
Fees are not the answer. Congress needs to step up to the plate and do their job allocating our tax money to take care of our land. Every time a governmental entity duplicates a job, the bureaucracy and inefficiency increases. The Internal Revenue Service needs no help collecting money from the Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management or the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Citizens all over the mountains are coming together to fight the Fee Demo Project, and we need your help. Contact members of Congress and let them know taxpayer dollars should fund public lands and public lands management. The IRS does not need any help from the Forest Service or the National Park Service in collecting taxes. Unless the nightmare of privatization of public lands by companies like Disney appeals to you, get involved! Tell your friends, spread the word. Join us for some peaceful protests at places like Mount Evans, Vail Pass or Yankee Boy Basin.
For more information on the web, go to www.freeourforests.org or www.wildwilderness.org.
You can also contact the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition or the Rocky Mountain Coalition for Public Lands.
(Editor’s note: Mr. Benson is with the Rocky Mountain Coalition for Public Lands)
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