Now Is Time to Speak Out on Forest Fee

The U. S. Senate is scheduled to vote this week on the Interior Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2001. That bill will have riders to extend or make permanent the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, source of the controversial Adventure Pass.

These programs, which require paying a fee to enter public lands, affect nearly one-third of the land surface of the United States--including about half of Ventura County.

If made permanent, these programs would no longer be merely a demonstration. They would become mandatory, and we can expect the prices will increase.

Not heard of it? That’s no surprise. Putting programs of such huge national consequence on bill riders effectively keeps the decision process out of the public eye. In particular, Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio) has been working hard to promote commercialization of public lands through these low-profile riders.

For those who need to catch up, the Adventure Pass is part of the nationwide fee demonstration test program that began in 1997, treating our public lands as a commodity, to be sold back to the public.

To enter Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County, the Forest Service requires people to purchase a document called the Adventure Pass for $5 a day or $30 per year. This fee is imposed on the public in spite of resolutions against this program passed by the state Assembly, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and the boards of several other Southern California counties.

Does it make you uncomfortable that some 18% of the lower-income, taxpaying public would be economically barred from public lands by these programs, according to an independent study? Does it bother you that some proponents of the fee system happily cross off this 18% of our population as undesirable riffraff, implying that poor people are the only real source of damage to the natural environment?

Such ignorance bothers me a great deal. I was raised to know better. It also bothers me that my government officials are hiding on bill riders decisions that affect more than 630 million acres of public land and all of our citizens, not bringing them honestly before the public for open consideration.

*

It also bothered me initially when many people who complained about the Adventure Pass were unwilling to act responsibly on that complaint by writing Congress or seeking out more facts. In the afterglow of Independence Day celebrations, now is the perfect time to let our senators know how we feel about this program that affects the civil liberty of us all.

We, the people, choose and are responsible for everything our government does, whether we act or not. In fact, those who do not act and remain willfully ignorant are still choosing powerfully.

In 1770, Edmund Burke said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

If you have any concern about fee demo or Adventure Pass programs or the way they are being foisted on the public without a separate vote, now is the time to call U. S. Sens. Barbara Boxer at (202) 224-3553 and Dianne Feinstein at (202) 224-3841 and let them know your thoughts. You can also send e-mail to senator@boxer.senate.gov and senator@feinstein.senate.gov.

Win or lose, it is essential that you count yourself among those who took a stand.