EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Ten, Number Four May/June 2001 CALL TO ACTION: OPPOSE PRIVATIZATION OF NATIONAL PARKS How do you market a sunrise? According to the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1964, the Forest Service can charge fees only for the use of boat launching facilities and campgrounds that offer certain amenities such as camp sites, toilet facilities, drinking water and refuse disposal. However, in 1997, under pressure from the American Recreation Coalition (ARC), made up of corporations making such products as personal watercraft and recreational vehicles, Congress directed the Forest Service and three other federal land management agencies to test the collection, retention, and reinvestment of new entrance and user fees for recreation at a variety of sites across the country, including 25 lakes - the Recreation Fee Demonstration program. The Forest Service hired a consultant (for $25,000) to market the fee-demo program, since the American public was not buying into it. People made it clear to the USFS that they are the owners of public lands and not customers. The marketing team struggled with such questions as "Should a walk in the woods be thought of as a product and marketed to customers by a government agency trying to maximize its return on investment?" Before Fee-Demo, the recreation industry had extremely limited ability to profit directly from the development of our public lands. The tradition of free public access to public lands stood in the way of business. Now the fee-demo program has been extended until September 2001. If permanent fee collection authority is approved by Congress, then our public lands will come to be managed in accordance with free-market doctrine. With public/private ventures, private capital is used to construct privately owned facilities in camp grounds, marinas and nature trails, stores and visitor centers. The Forest Service can provide land and infrastructure. Non-economic values and environmental concerns will be secondary to revenue generation, and recreation will become one more extractive industry. In March Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA) introduced a Bill to Terminate the Participation of the Forest Service in the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program, HR 1139. Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) introduced a similar bill (HR 908) "to terminate the participation of the Forest Service in the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program and to offset the revenues lost by such termination by prohibiting the use of appropriated funds to finance engineering support for sales of timber from National Forest Lands." There is still time to write. From Wild Wilderness Scott Silver, Executive Director 248 NW Wilmington Ave. Bend OR 97701 541/385-5261 www.wildwilderness.org <ssilver@wildwilderness.org> Home     Table of Contents