Adventure Pass Foes Predict Protests by Forest Visitors

Fees charged to national forest visitors under a pilot program are paying for better trails, improved service and more rangers, according to federal forestry officials.

But critics call Adventure Pass, the program being tested at Los Padres and three other Southern California national forests, a rip-off that violates the right of free access to public lands.

Forest officials, who acknowledge the program is unpopular, are giving the public a break today, National Public Lands Day: free admission to Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland national forests.

Opponents of Adventure Pass predict people will descend on the forests in droves--not for picnics and hikes, but to protest the program. Demonstrators plan to assemble, in the configuration of a giant dollar sign, on a portion of Angeles National Forest along Interstate 5 near Highway 126 near Valencia.

Though the program is meant to benefit users, it has created a widening split between forest managers and recreational users. Neither side appears fully satisfied.

“I’d give us low marks for communicating the ins and outs of the program,” said Los Padres forest spokeswoman Kathy Good. “It’s frustrating for us and frustrating for them, too.”

Adventure Pass is a two-year program, launched in June 1997, to raise revenue for urban forests grappling with budget cuts and growing usage. Congress in 1996 approved the program, along with other fee-collection programs for public lands, as part of an experiment to shift more of the cost of maintaining public lands from the government to users.

The biggest change in the four forests involves the Adventure Pass, which is a permit that must be purchased by anyone visiting the forests. It applies to hikers, picnickers, mountain bikers, bird watchers or anyone who parks their car and enters the national forests. Cost: $30 for a year, or $5 a day per car. Failure to purchase and display the permit can result in a fine.

The program is particularly appealing to the National Forest Service. Whereas most revenues the agency collects for campground fees and extractive uses, such as mining or grazing, wind up in the federal treasury, individual national forests can keep 80% of the money collected from Adventure Passes. So far, that amounts to $288,376 for Los Padres forest--enough to pay for more portable toilets, graffiti control, dumpsters and vandalism repairs, Good said.

Alasdair Coyne of Keep the Sespe Wild and other detractors of the program believe other users, including mining and logging companies, should pay more. Coyne said money in the federal budget allocated to pork-barrel projects should be pared to help pay for public land management. He said he opposes attempts to privatize forest services, such as trash collection and maintenance, that allow companies to profit from public lands.

“We don’t think user fees are the answer,” Coyne said.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Oxnard) says he supports the concept of user fees, although he said people who live adjacent to the forests should not have to pay.

“I think it’s a bit disingenuous to get in your $500,000 RV and drive several hundred miles across the U.S. and then say you cannot afford to pay $5 a day for you and your family to visit the forest,” Gallegly said.