The following statement was made by the ARC's President, Derrick Crandall, to a Congressional Hearing on 2/26/98. This is an example of how the ARC will continue "helping" your government spend tax dollars on forest fee program development. It is a perfect demonstration of how private (mainly corporate) interests are taking on the job of managing National Forests. Furthermore, the ARC has taken forest management one step further by including the private-sector concept of marketing.
Note that the "Enterprise Forest" is the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program region where the Adventure Pass has been implemented.
[Emphasis added.]
"We are proud to say the American Recreation Coalition and the Recreation Roundtable - a related group of recreation-industry CEO's - have invested heavily in staff and member time in helping the federal agencies covered by the fee demonstration program with project-level and national support and advice on sound fee programs.
We have arranged for top marketing and communications executives from Disney, REI and other companies to work with the Enterprise Forest fee team in the design and implementation of that project; we have assisted more than a dozen additional Forest Service fee sites with specific communications efforts, enabling them to reach the general public and likely visitors with fee program information prior to arrival."