Judge limits USFS fees in national forests
By Steve Scauzillo, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service can no longer charge fees to visitors who hike, walk and bike in the undeveloped regions of the Cleveland, Los Padres, Angeles and San Bernardino national forests.
U.S. District Court Judge Terry Hatter Jr. ruled in favor of four hikers who were tired of paying fees to hike in these popular Southern California forests, often called the backyard of Los Angeles.
The ruling is a victory for hikers and opponents of the 17-year-old federal Adventure Pass program.
The Forest Service improperly required all visitors to purchase the $5 daily or $30 annual pass upon entering any portion of these forests, even when they didn’t use developed facilities, according to the ruling.
Now its time to drop wilderness access fees, which have discouraged an entire generation of young people from enjoying America’s wild land heritage. Growing up here in the 70s I can say that most of my young friends had their favorite backcountry hangouts – and we all spent an enormous amount of time up in the mountains. Now, too many young people only enjoy mountain biking and other action sports, and, sadly, don’t understand the value of solitude and peace. Who will defend wild areas in the future if Americans don’t know or don’t appreciate these treasures?
Thats a good question Gus. Its really up to parents, family and friends to share their stories and go take their kids to these areas to let them experience the wild for themselves. My young son is showing interest and we talk all the time about the reason wild places are so special. In our home we talk about wilderness all the time, about why it is so important. I hope my son will be inspired by our enthusiam for wilderness. When we go on road trips we try to include trips to wild places. We often tell people at business when we pass through some of the towns that are nearby that the reason we are there is because of the nearby wilderness. Some towns are so antiwilderness, we tell them our dollars are wilderness dollars. It is important to us to support the people that have shown their respect and happiness that they are lucky enough to have such amazing areas nearby.