Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Another Forest Service recreation fee bites the dust
Hikers in Arizona will get a break from pesky Forest Service
recreation fees this summer, as a federal judge last week approved a settlement that ensures free access to the trails and backcountry of the Mt. Lemmon Recreation Area, near Tuscon. The court-ordered deal concludes yet another legal battle over public
land fees, but the war is not yet over. In another lawsuit against the
Forest Service, fee opponents are challenging the now widespread practice of allowing private, for-profit concession-holders to charge fees for day-use areas and other public land sites across the country. At Mt. Lemmon, the Forest Service had been charging a general-access
fee for what it called a high-impact recreation area. That didn’t sit
well with some local hikers, who, with the backing of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, challenged the agency in court — and won, leading to the settlement. “Instead of being required to buy a pass to park anywhere within an
18,432-acre area encompassing a whole highway corridor and numerous
trailheads and dispersed camping areas, fees will now be required only
for use of ten developed picnic sites and a visitor/interpretive
center,” Western Slope No-Fee Coalition president Kitty Benzar said via
email. So far, the Forest Service is only making these changes at Mt. Lemmon.
But the agency is also being sued over a similar Adventure Pass in
Southern California, and could face additional lawsuits unless it stops
charging general-access and parking fees, including areas like the
Arapaho National Recreation Area and the Maroon Bells area, both in
Colorado...more
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