Activists Opposing Adventure Pass Tell Forest Service to Take a Hike

With summer just around the corner and hikers heading for the hills, activists are stepping up efforts to derail the U.S. Forest Service Adventure Pxass Program.

Sporting a T-shirt that said “ADVENTURE PA$$? NEVER!” a speaker told more than 100 people gathered in Ojai on Monday that the user fee program is just the first step toward the “Disneyfication of the American wilderness.”

“The Adventure Pass is a scam . . . of unparalleled proportions,” Jeff Pine of the Ojai group Free Our Forests told the crowd at Chaparral School. “Regardless of what the Forest Service says, the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program--also known as the Adventure Pass--has nothing to do with the stewardship of our land.”

The Adventure Pass program requires people to pay a $5 fee each time they visit a forest, or buy a $30 annual pass. It was approved by Congress in 1996 to raise money for the Forest Service.

In Southern California, the pass is required in San Bernardino, Angeles, Cleveland and Los Padres national forests.

The pilot program began last June and is set to end in September 1999.

Contending that the program is promoted by companies that sell RVs and recreational equipment, Pine and Alasdair Coyne of Keep the Sespe Wild urged the crowd to boycott the pass, write their congressional representatives voicing their outrage and increase pressure on local vendors to stop selling the passes.

No representative from the U.S. Forest Service attended the meeting. But recreation Officer Rich Tobin of Los Padres National Forest said cuts in the forest service budget forced the agency to find another way to generate money to fix facilities, haul trash, clean bathrooms and pay rangers.

Before the pass was instituted, Tobin said, for every $1 collected in campground and day use fees, Congress allocated $8. Federal lawmakers felt it important to have users pay a greater share of the cost. The program so far has taken in $1.7 million in Southern California.

Pine said six of seven vendors in Ojai and five in the Santa Ynez Valley area have stopped selling the passes.

Two weeks ago Great Pacific Ironworks in Ventura announced it would no longer sell the passes.

“We did not want to support the whole concept of the Adventure Pass,” manager Allan Crumbaker said.

He said the public already pays taxes to have that land maintained and should not have to pay additional fees to use it.

“By backing out of the program, we could help this program fail,” he said. “We felt the program was wrong.”

Pine said two vendors in Ojai had already stopped selling the passes before the anti-fee campaign began. Others soon followed.

A.J. Khan, who owns Pat’s Liquor and Miramonte Liquor in Ojai, said after he sells out his current batch of passes he will not offer more.

“We didn’t think it was worthwhile annoying our customers,” he said. “People did object, people I would be interested in as customers.”

Al Buczkowski, owner of Oak View Shell, says he will continue to sell the passes even though protesters show up Saturday mornings to thwart his sales.

“It’s getting pretty loud,” he said. “They are getting people to honk their horns. They are really disrupting traffic. It’s not hurting business, but a lot of people support their views.”

Tobin said vendors could stop selling the passes for a variety of reasons. Some think it is too much trouble to explain the process to every customer.

But he said there will always be enough vendors to make the passes readily available.

Southern California has more than 350 vendors, of which about 80 sell passes for Los Padres National Forest.

More than 50 ranger stations also sell the passes.

Tobin said three vendors in the Ojai area have notified pass headquarters to say they “felt the influence of the boycott” and elected not to sell any more passes. He acknowledged there might be others like Khan, who won’t buy any more once their supply runs out.

“Overall, throughout Southern California, there are scores of vendors,” he said. “If a few leave, I don’t see that as a cause for alarm.”

Tobin said rangers in the Ojai Valley area have yet to issue any of the $100 citations to forest users who did not buy passes.

Those without passes are currently given a “notice of noncompliance,” which is essentially a fix-it ticket.

The program has struck an angry chord among many of those who use the forest lands.

As the speakers delivered their message Monday in Ojai, the audience grunted assent as though at a church revival meeting.

“It went from seat belts to motorcycle helmets to the Adventure Pass,” said Ojai resident Mark Mahnken after the meeting. “The next thing they are going to do is charge for the beach.”

Lee Cannaday, who runs in the national forest three to four times a week, said he refuses to get a pass.

When he parks his car at the edge of forest lands, he puts a sign on the visor in his car where the Adventure Pass is supposed to be hung.

It reads, “I am a free man not subject to the Forest Service Pass System.”

Added Nancy Williams of Ojai, “I think it’s terrible. They are taking away the one thing that is still free to our valley. We used to be able to fish and swim. Now we have to pay to park and walk.”