You're no longer a citizen of this country, but a customer! (Recreation fees on Public Lands)

Yesterday Christine Wallace had to pay $100 for a hike she took on Mt. Lemmon in September 2005. She was found guilty of one of two misdemeanor charges, the other being dropped by the United States just before trial. She prevailed at her original court appearance but lost this one in front of a somewhat poor judge who wouldn't allow any evidence questioning the disingenuous way the law was implemented, which happens to be OK with her as she and her pro bono lawyer are taking the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

First it was Fee Demo, which was only supposed to "test your willingness to pay" and now it's FLREA (Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act), which was attached to an appropriations bill so as to slip through without the appropriate review. But even so the wording did not allow enough leeway for the Forest Service and they starting making up new ways to charge people for their own land. One way is what they call a HIRA (High Impact Recreation Area), which is what Mt. Lemmon is considered. The problem is that that the FLREA doesn't authorize HIRA's and in fact doesn't even mention them. In fact the law has many restrictions on where a fee can be implemented:

"As passed by Congress, H.R. 3283 would limit the recreation fee authorization on the land management agencies. No fees may be charged for the following: solely for parking, picnicking, horseback riding through, general access, dispersed areas with low or no investments, for persons passing through an area, camping at undeveloped sites, overlooks, public roads or highways, private roads, hunting or fishing, and official business. Additionally, no entrance fees will be charged for any recreational activities on BLM, USFS, or BOR lands. This is a significant change from the original language. The language included by the Resources Committee is much more restrictive and specific on where fees can and cannot be charged." --from Western Slope No Fee Coalition website

If you read through this text it becomes quickly apparent the Forest Service is going way beyond their authority by charging fees on places like Mt. Lemmon.

There are bigger issues with Public Land fees. At first thought the fees sound like they could be an innocent way to get more funding for recreation enhancements. But there is far more going on with the fee program.

Nature on US Public Land is being turned into a commodity and the public into customers. Much of the recreation related literature put out by the Forest Service now names people as customers and not taxpaying Americans who actually own the land. FLREA has two primary purposes... to get the public used to paying for recreation on Public Lands and to get a foot in the door for private enterprise on Public Land. Many sites are already run by private companies and Forest Service literature is full of justifications and reasons for increasing public/private partnerships.

If Chris Wallace wins her case it could potentially help roll back public land fees, at least a little. They will continue to find new ways to implement these new fees until the public simply refuses to participate.