Forest Service User Fees

"Would You Like Fries With Your Adventure Pass?" or

Selling You Your National Forest

The Latest News

Oregon Legislature Formally Opposes Fee Demo

Editors note: The following is the complete resolution as introduced in the Oregon State Legislature. It received final approval there in the State Senate on May 2, 2001. This is a stunning blow to the federal government's attempt to try to continue to charge you to take a walk in your forests. At telemarktips.com we hope this is only the beginning of a wave of opposition by state elected officials across the country. Get involved, read the material on this site, visit the websites we have provided links to and write your local legislators as well a your hometown newspapers to let people know that something can be done to stop the fed's version of the oldest con in the world: selling you what you already own!

71st OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2001 Regular Session

NOTE: Matter within { + braces and plus signs + } in an amended section is new. Matter within { - braces and minus signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within { + braces and plus signs + } .LC 2855

House Joint Memorial 15

Sponsored by Representative KNOPP; Representatives BROWN, BUTLER, CLOSE, DOYLE, HILL, KROPF, KRUSE, MORGAN, G SMITH, T SMITH, STARR, C WALKER, WESTLUND, WILSON, WITT


SUMMARY

The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's brief statement of the essential features of the measure as introduced.

Urges Congress to abolish Northwest Forest Pass portion of Recreational Fee Demonstration Program.

JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States and the Senate and theHouse of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled: We, your memorialists, the Seventy-first Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas in 1996, Congress passed the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1996 that included a rider creating the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program; and Whereas the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program requires citizens of Oregon to pay a fee for a Northwest Forest Pass to
park in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, the Deschutes National Forest, the Fremont National Forest, the Malheur National Forest, the Mt. Hood National Forest, the Ochoco
National Forest, the Rogue River National Forest, the Siskiyou National Forest, the Siuslaw National Forest, the Umatilla National Forest, the Umpqua National Forest, the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest, the Willamette National Forest and the Winema National Forest; and Whereas citizens of Oregon already pay federal income taxes that should adequately fund the operation and maintenance of national forests; and Whereas the citizens of Oregon should not be required to pay a fee for a Northwest Forest Pass to augment the budget of the United States Forest Service in light of congressional cuts of that same budget; and Whereas the fee constitutes a regressive tax that bears no
relation to the actual costs of recreation, including hiking, wildlife observation or picnicking; and Whereas fees associated with the Northwest Forest Pass deny limited-income citizens access to public lands and inhibit volunteerism and stewardship of public lands; and Whereas fees are even required to gain access to areas that are unimproved and undeveloped; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
(1) The Congress of the United States is respectfully urged to
abolish the Northwest Forest Pass portion of the Recreational Fee
Demonstration Program and permit the citizens of Oregon to enjoy
the national forests in the state without payment of a fee.
(2) A copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President of
the United States, the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of
the House of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon
Congressional Delegation.

Why We Oppose Forest User Fees

In the Telemark Talk Forum, as well as other discussion boards, there has been much debate over the Fee Demonstration Programs being conducted around the country in our National Forests. Many have weighed in with their feelings and opinions yet a lot of folks are still very apathetic in regards to this issue. I suspect that some of this may be due to the fact that much of the debate has been clouded by personal opinion, many of us have been left to wonder just what the goals of these Fee Demo programs are and exactly what the agenda of the United States Forest Service is.

The answers to these questions have been made more clear by the U.S.F.S's recently released draft "The Recreation Agenda", Version 8c, June 2000. The document describes their "Vision" for the future of the Forest Service and their goals in managing the recreational resources that fall under the Service's control.

The Agenda outlines the plan to convert the U.S.F.S from a public-service land management agency to a full blown commercial business entity. In an effort to sustain itself, in the face of dwindling revenue derived from the sale of our national resources (timber, grazing land, etc), and a congress that attempts to control the size of these bloated federal bureaucracies by limiting funding, the Forest Service intends to become partners with profit motivated corporations who seek to develop business opportunities on our public recreational lands. Some key quotes:

  • "... the Forest Service will... rely on strong relationships with the recreation industry, travel and tourism providers...
  • "We will improve business relationships with contractors and permit holders by making it easier for them to do business on the national forest."
  • "We will train Forest Service personnel in business parameters such as marketing research, profit and loss... and expand training of staff in market analysis .."
  • "The Forest Service will join commercial ventures, non-governmental organizations, trade associations, state organizations and educational institutions in forming viable and sustainable nature-based tourism industries"
  • "..new legal authorities may be needed to reach long-term resource management and financially sustaining programs."

From the "Actions" section of the document:

As many of you know, this commercialization of our National Forests is a direct result of intense lobbying by the American Recreation Coalition (ARC). In an article , from way back in '97, available on the Wild Wilderness website, former Forest Service Chief of Staff ( and ARC leader) Francis Pandolfi, explains this new paradigm: "The Forest Service needs brand managers, and they will manage their brands the way you manage your brands and Proctor & Gamble manages its brands." The article continues: "Because as a government agency the Forest Service is subject to laws private businesses are spared, Pandolfi envisions growing partnerships with such companies as L.L. Bean and Coleman, and with such trade groups as the National Ski Areas Association to provide 'a conduit to do business in ways we cannot'."

When Mr. Pandolfi held the position of right hand man and gate keeper to Forest Service Chief Michael Dombeck, he was once quoted as asking "Have we fully explored our gold mine of recreation opportunities and managed it as if it were consumer product brands? Selling a product is very different than giving it away."

 

As you can see from the above comments, these ideas of partnering with corporations to market and re-sell, to you, your own national recreational resources (as outlined in the just released "Recreation Agenda") have been around for quite sometime and the Fee Demonstration programs are just one important component. There is a much larger plan at work here to sustain (a word used over and over in the "Agenda") the Forest Service and it's mammoth bureaucracy. As the mother's milk that has been the timber revenue dries up, the intent is to replace it with your recreation dollars in the form of still more taxes and the "Disneyfication" of our National Forests.

Question: Is the U.S. federal government so strapped for cash that it must raise money by selling back to its citizens what is already their's? The answer is most assuredly no. Until recently, given the same rate of increase in government spending and the same rate of increase in tax revenue (under the current tax structure) over the next 10 years, the best estimates have put the projected federal budget surplus at about three-quarters of a trillion dollars. But now President Clinton has announced that, according to the latest analysis, over this ten year period the surplus is expected to be one trillion dollars bigger than previously anticipated. This is in addition to another two trillion to be generated by Social Security and left in the Social Security System. This means that the feds are expecting a non-social security surplus, over the next ten years, of about one and three-quarters trillion dollars.

While congress debates what to do with this huge projected revenue surplus, the U.S.F.S is planning this commercialization of our National Forests, contending in the "Recreation Agenda", that this must be done to pay for a"backlog of maintenance" totaling a mere "$813 million dollars".

As telemark and backcountry skiers who pursue our sport to a large extent on our National Forest land, we have a responsibility to follow these issues and get involved. I know that some of you support the fee demonstration programs, others oppose them and some of you just have not paid much attention. I urge you to read the above "Recreation Agenda" to learn more about what you either support or oppose and to get involved. Nothing less than the way we recreate on our public lands and the legacy we will leave our children is at stake.

Here are some links to help you get involved:

Sign and or circulate this petition from the Wild Wilderness website:

Petition

To contact your Senators and demand that they work towards getting the fee demonstration programs cancelled and that they restore adequate funding to public recreational lands:

http://www.senate.gov/

To find out who your Representative in congress is and contact this person to request more funding for the national forests and an end to the user fees:

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

To contact memebers of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee (with oversight of the USDA and USFS):

http://www.senate.gov/~agriculture/

To write your local newspapers and voice your oppositition to the fee demo programs and the proposed commercialization of our national forests, go here to find their contact info:

http://emedia1.mediainfo.com/emedia/USimagemap.htm

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