The following editorial appeared in the Denver Post on April 8, 2002.
Monday, April 8, 2001 - The U.S. Forest Service's payment scheme at Mt. Evans underscores why Congress must overhaul or end the recreational fee program.
When proposed in 1996, the notion of charging visitors $6 a day to use the Mt. Evans area didn't seem outlandish, so many people, including this newspaper, originally supported it. However, that support has withered because of the heavy-handed greed with which the Forest Service implemented the nationwide program.
Recently, U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Colorado Republican, spoke out against the fees. Campbell says when people remove natural resources from federal land, such as timber, they should pay a reasonable price for that commodity, but people who are just sight-seeing or recreating shouldn't be charged.
The national pilot program, which included Mt. Evans, was supposed to help the Forest Service maintain a few heavily used areas, and was in addition to fees for camping or picnicking.
But the Forest Service made the recreational fees into de facto entrance charges at over 100 forests nationwide. Instead of lasting just two years, the fees have endured six years and are effective until at least 2004. The Forest Service wants to make the fees permanent and impose the charges wherever it wants. The program is badly Balkanized, so passes purchased in one forest district aren't good anywhere else.
Mt. Evans could serve as a poster child for why Congress should scuttle or retool the fees.
There, the Forest Service positioned toll booths so anyone driving Colorado Highway 5, or trying to reach the city of Denver's mountain parks, must pay the federal charge. Moreover, the Forest Service gives part of its fee income to Denver's parks department.
None of these things are allowed under federal law, says the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, a citizens' group opposed to the program. This week, the coalition will challenge the Mt. Evans fees before the Colorado Transportation Commission, which oversees state highways.
It's part of rising opposition to the fees nationwide. In Colorado, the Hinsdale, San Juan and San Miguel county commissioners have gone on record opposing the fees, while in California the state assembly passed a resolution opposing the program.
Congress ought to listen.