The following editorial appeared in the Pasadena Star-News on March 23, 1999.
We call on our congressional representatives to support the Forest Tax Relief Act, which would end the fees we pay to visit our national forests.
We support the Forest Tax Relief Act, now gaining authors and sponsors in the U.S. Congress. This one would end the forest visitation fees. In the Angeles National Forest, the Adventure Pass was supposed to be a temporary program to make up for lost maintenance funding. With lawmakers ballyhooing surpluses, the time is ripe to end what amounts to double taxing us for hiking in the forest that forms our area's northern borders.
The most used forest recreation area in the national system, the Angeles has long been known as an "urban forest," as it lies close to densely populated Los Angeles County and draws upwards of 30 million visitors annually. The heaviest use is during the summer as families take to the heights to catch a cooling breeze or beat the summer swelter in the eastern fork of the San Gabriel River that flows through Follows Camp above Azusa Canyon. In winter, skiers and other snow enthusiasts jam Angeles Crest Highway, making their way to ski resorts in the forest high country on the western spine.
We agree that the fees of $5 daily or $30 annual passes are nominal. But even those low fees can price the working poor out of areas that their taxes go to support. That's just not fair.
Reps. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, and Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, think the same and have authored legislation that would rescind the forest fees, which have garnered close to $4 million since their introduction in May 1997. Despite more than $400,000 taken in by the Angeles National Forest during the first year alone, the Forest Service still needs volunteer help with maintenance there.
Forest officials said last year that most of the local Adventure Pass revenue for facility repairs, campground improvements, picnic tables, graffiti removal, trails and longer visitor center hours.
The Adventure Pass is essentially a parking, or stopping, fee. Driving through the forest is free. But if hikers plan on doing the sensible thing, starting their treks from strategic trailheads and parking at lots there, they will have to pay an additional fee to private parking concession operators. What the Adventure Pass amounts to, then, is an access gee to the forest floor. Folks shouldn't have to pay $10 or more just to walk through woodland that rightfully belongs to all.
That's why HR-786 by these California congresswomen has attracted co-sponsors from across the nation. We'd like to see all our representatives sign on to terminate the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program for the Forest Service. Come on Reps. David Dreier, Gary Miller, Grace Napolitano, James Rogan, and Ed Royce: We need your help to return the forests to we who bought and continue to pay for them — taxpayers.