The following editorial appeared in the Pasadena Star News on August 15, 1999.
Critics of the Adventure Pass are correct: paying to see public forests is double taxation and a prelude to corporate takeover of our national heritage.
"THE Adventure Pass (fee) is a failure and should be abolished." That sums up our position as well on the forest user's fee — an unfair, discriminatory, backward, unlawful act of double taxation on the American people. Scores of conservationists, including members of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, led one of the largest protests against the $5-per-day fee charged for visiting the nearby Angeles National Forest, as well as the Los Padres, Cleveland and San Bernardino forests. Only the above statement doesn't come from those environmental groups or the protestsers but from conservative Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich.
Saturday's protests, which occurred inside the tree-lined Millard Canyon, on the scenic Angeles Crest Highway, at the mouth of the magnificent San Gabriel Canyon in Azusa and atop Mount Baldy, signaled a turning point in the growing outcry against the most unpopular tax ever levied in our local forests. Both conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, conservationists and anti-taxationsists have come out against the federal fee program. Now, more than ever, it is time to end it.
After taking a wait-and-see attitude, the 50,000-strong Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club used yesterday's demonstration to signal its strong opposition. We are pleased that they have joined the growing number of groups and organizations asking for the repeal of the fee, which includes this newspaper, Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, the state legislature, the entire Board of Supervisors and many grass-roots groups.
The Sierra Club gives four reasons for supporting repeal of the fee.
1. It is unfair to charge citizens a fee to observe wildlife, while taxpayer funds are being used to subsidize private logging, grazing and mining.
2. Fees discriminate against low-income users. The Angeles' 690,000 acres are used by local residents, including many low-income families who otherwise have no outlet for viewing nature.
3. Don't charge taxpayers fees to step onto federal lands. The real solution is for Congress to allocate budget funds to pay for new bathrooms, trash cans and to maintain trails.
4. It is a slippery slope toward commercialization. A lobbying group, the American Recreation Coalition, which represents big business, not only proposed the fee program but has now been put in charge of evaluating it.
When are our public representatives going to learn that in a place with 16 million people linked shoulder-to-shoulder by houses and concrete, residents place a high value on land with nothing on it?
Our residents need a place to sit near a stream, camp, fish and hike. In stressful times like today, relaxing in a mountain setting is key to good mental health.
Unfortunately, the Republican Congress has chipped away at the appropriations needed to run our vast, rugged, western lands. Until the California delegation faces this problem, the situation will remain unchanged or get worse.
Congress should repeal this fee program and restore adequate funding to manage our national forests. They can start by cutting corporate wilfare to logging companies and use this subsidy — money paid by American taxpayers — to properly care for our forests.