They are driving people away from the National Forests in droves. According to a US Forest Service report on forest visitation for the period 2001-2008, forest visits to nearly all National Forests declined. In the northwest, visits dropped by 37% and in the northeast, by 42%. Other National Forest regions dropped by 5 to 16%. The only region with a increase in visitors was Arizona and New Mexico, with a gain of 3%. The average change in visitation over the entire National Forest system was -16%. And this happened during a period of steady population increase and a good economy.
While there are many factors at work here, including a general loss of interest in the outdoors among young people more absorbed in electronic entertainment, it surely can't be a coincidence that National Forest visits have been dropping during the same period that access fees were introduced.
If this trend continues, the fee program will fail because no one will be buying passes. Then we'll have to go back to old-fashioned public funding of the national lands by the taxpayers- the same taxpayers who benefit from all the resources provided by the National Forests- water for cities, clean air, wood, wildlife, minerals, and recreation.
For more information on the federal fee program, go to the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition Web site.
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