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* "Fee-demo"
is an affront to every American's civil liberties. Our national
forests are our heritage and our birthright. They are not a commodity.
* We are the OWNERS of
the national forests. We are NOT "customers" who need
to "buy" a walk in the woods from the government.
* Fee-demo was shoved down
the American people's throat without debate by an undemocratic
legislative "rider" at the behest of recreation industry
lobbyists like the Disney Corp and Exxon. ("Fee- demo is
the direct result of our efforts" - top industry lobbyist's
boast, direct quote.)
* Unprofitable public lands
and areas risk being sold off to private entrepeneurs.
* People need a place to
go, relatively free and unfettered from society's pressures.
Our national forests are the last of these places. The rec fee
destroys these ideals.
* Recreation user fees
have a "SIGNIFICANT EXCLUSIONARY IMPACT" on low income
people in NH and VT, according to preliminary results of a major
1999 study funded by the Forest Service. This is UNFAIR and WRONG
and UNACCEPTABLE.
*"Fee demo" is
a completely unfair, regressive tax.
* Supposed "public
acceptance" of forest user fees is coerced by threat of
a fine, and by manipulative and flawed questionaires.
* Fiscal mismanagement
is already rampant in the Forest Service. In some areas of the
US, the agency already squanders huge amounts of revenue on bloated
bureaucracy and uneccessary self- justifying and/or self- serving
projects (Examples: $100,000 toll booth, Molino basin, Arizona.)
* Congress and the Forest
Service cannot justify sticking the public with another fee or
fine for simply enjoying their forests while taxpayer subsidies
(in the hundreds of millions of dollars) continue to support
environmentally destructive grazing, mining and timber industries
in the Western states.
* The Forest Service's's
own literature states that "a person with an annual income
of $40,000 pays less than $.03 per year in taxes to recreate
on Forest Service lands, nationwide." It is stupid, wrong,
and unnecessary to abandon this simple, painless system which
is fair to all and which assures that we retain one of our most
fundamental liberties as citizens.
* Setting up the Forest
Service as entrepeneur able to make profits for themselves off
public land is wrong in principle, and will lead to ever-higher
prices and needless and increasing for-profit development.
"Recreation projects"
will be increasingly upscale and expensive -- out of reach financially
for many Americans.
* Intrusive, threatening
signs plastered all over the Kancamagus Highway are UGLY, UNWELCOMING,
and a BLIGHT UPON THE LANDSCAPE.
* Forest fees are designed
to initiate the privatization, commercialization, and development
of our public lands at the expense of the forests and our freedom.
* The cost of enforcing
these fees, in terms of time, money, and because of the resentment
they cause, is totally disproportionate to any good that could
possibly come from them (which is almost zero to begin with.).
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This view of the Northern Presidentials (WMNF)
is a reward for the hiker. Mountains and forests like these must
be saved as they are for future generations to enjoy. The User
Fee Demonstration Program is just the beginning of an effort
with profits as the driving force. Walking in our public forests
is not a product to be marketed and sold. Our public forests
must remain public for all Americans to enjoy!