The following editorial appeared in the Pasadena Star-News on June 7, 1999.
The U.S. Forest Service claimes it instituted the $5 Adventure Pass to bolster its finances, so why is it waiving the fee on promotional days?
We really are trying to understand the U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Forest Service's "Adventure Pass," a fee hikers must pay to enjoy the Angeles National Forest. So, we won't explore arguments, as we have in past editorials, about the use fee really being nothing more that a blatant case of double taxation. And we won't talk about corporate welfare, the giveaway of millions of tax dollars to logging companies euphemistically listed in the Forest Service budget as "timberlands management." But the U.S. Forest Service's public relations machine wants to talk about the splinter in our eye while ignoring the log in its own.
So, the agency hawks the benefits of the Adventure Pass, which costs unsuspecting forest users $5 a day. Or their cars get ticketed. Those who plan ahead can purchase a yearly pass for $30, as long as they can find a place to buy it. Ever try finding a federal government office open on weekends? According to the U.S. Forest Service's logic, users need to pay for "recovering visitor program costs."
But the Adventure Pass program has come under attack in the past year from angry taxpayers. Some members of Congress have introduced bills to stop it. Even Supervisor Michael Antonovich called for its removal and deemed it a failure. Now, (surprise), the Forest Service has turned its frown upside down and begun waiving the user fee. This past weekend, for National Trails Day and this coming Saturday, which is California State Fishing Day, the fees are waived. The Forest Service did the same thing on Earth Day in April. We can't understand this twisted logic. If agency officials want to capture as much revenue as possible to repair bathrooms and paint signs, why are they waiving the fee on potentially busy days? We thought the Forest Service's Adventure Pass was set up to save a service shortchanged on maintenance repairs and rangers.
Is the Forest Service in need of more revenue — as it says — or not? If it doesn't need the money any more, as these freebie days indicate, maybe it should cancel the Adventure Pass fee altogether. If it needs the revenue, why not have a Skier Day, in which now-exempt skiers have to pay the Adventure Pass?
We have an even better idea. Let's call the next millennium the Century of the Hiker and exempt everybody from the ridiculous Adventure Pass. Let's make the holiday last for 100 years.