A Pasadena man named Robert Bartsch decided to take a hike in the San Bernardino National Forest last year. He also decided that, as a citizen, he owns the forest, so it should be a free hike.
Enter the rangers. For seven years, the San Bernardino, Angeles, Cleveland and Los Padres national forests have been experimenting with a controversial fee program called Adventure Pass, and Bartsch was defying it.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday March 23, 2004 Home Edition Outdoors Part F Page 3 Features Desk 2 inches; 73 words Type of Material: Correction
Forest fees -- A March 16 Outdoors article on the Adventure Pass program in Southern California national forests didn't clearly specify the fees: Adult recreational users are expected to pay $5 per motorized vehicle per day, or $30 per year, typically leaving their pass visible through the window of their car or truck. In addition, forest visits are free to those who buy or hold Golden Eagle, Golden Age or Golden Access passports.
The Adventure Pass, Bartsch said, is a "totally corrupt un-American test program that was fostered by corporate America to benefit corporate America."
Federal officials, of course, see it differently.
The Adventure Pass program is one among scores of fee programs being tested by federal agencies that manage public lands for recreation.
In the Southern California forest version, all hikers, bikers and other recreational users of the forests are expected to pay fees -- for adults, $5 per day or $30 per year. Some 80% of the revenue goes to local improvements, from trail-building to bathroom repairs.
Federal officials say user fees have become vital to cover the cost of managing recreation areas. It's more sensible for users to pay fees, they reason, than to assess taxpayers who may never visit.
Though the experiment remains a temporary measure, Congress has already extended it several times, and has authorized the program through the end of 2005.
In coming months, Congress could vote to make some or all of these fee programs permanent or let them die, and there's plenty of skirmishing afoot in Washington right now.
But in the meantime, hikers, bikers and snowball-fighters face the fees, and dissidents and rangers face some delicate legal footwork.
In Southern California, "25 million people surround the forests. The impacts are incredible," said Tom Spencer, project manager for the U.S. Forest Service fee program in this region. The passes are sold at 450 Forest Service offices, centers and sporting goods and other retail stores.
But many frequent forest users, including Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness in Bend, Ore., have called for a boycott of the fees. Silver argues that "this trail fee program is only a first step. More regressive, costly and pro-motorized-use programs will follow this demonstration program."
The Sierra Club has come out against the program, joining a mixed alliance that includes left-leaning environmentalists and right-leaning small-government advocates, including Bartsch.
