Gotta Pay Before You Hike

Off Pavement wrote:
Since everyone seems good with additional fees for use of public lands, I wonder how you will feel when you have to pay to stop at an overlook that has a public pit toilet or picnic table. These are also considered improved properties, and for those uninformed, there has been a fight going on for years about "fee demo" (fee demonstration) areas especially in the west. In Colorado, the USFS charged a fee to drive up a state highway... the Longs Peak Road. If you "promised" not to stop along the road for a picture or at the information kiosk, they would let you pass without paying the $5 fee, BUT YOU HAD TO TELL THEM YOU WOULD NOT STOP, THEY DIDN'T ASK!! In Federal court, this fee area was found to be illegal. The exact same thing happened in Arizona near Phoenix I believe it was where the USFS started charging a fee for an established road to park alongside a public highway.

This isn't something new, just a new way to get around the existing laws!

Pay to play is coming I'm afraid, and I'd be willing to bet that the fees collected won't be used for the purpose we think they should...they certainly aren't now. Already our national parks have deferred maintenance and they charge a fee. Since they can't do what they already need to do, what makes anyone think they will be able to administer additional funding/responsibilities properly.

Additionally, our government seems unable to enforce basic already legislated fees (think of the Cliven Bundy fiasco in Nevada early this year). So if they can't collect grazing fees from someone obviously using the lands for profit, how do you suppose they will enforce fees in other areas? The way they do it now is hire a contractor to do the work for them. Of course these folks have no enforcement powers, but if you ever run into one, you might feel differently.

Our public lands are slowly being regulated away from us in my opinion and I feel the almost certain eventual widespread application of fees from this proposed legislation (expected to be added to another bill to ensure passage) is just another cog in the seemingly never ending privatization of our commons.

I wouldn't be terribly happy but then there is a world of difference with fees designed to offset the costs of rescuing folks from themselves and a fee designed to just be a revenue stream.

the sort of fee you describe now exists along the 'airport road' in Sedona, AZ and on the road to summerhaven on mt. lemmon in Tucson. if you stop along the way at one of the turnouts you'd better have a tag on your windshield or risk a ticket. I understand the need to maintain roads and infrastructure but as with red light cameras in our area a lot of these fees are just designed to raise general revenue.