Activists to stump Saturday for repeal of forest-use fee

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Activists to stump Saturday for repeal of forest-use fee

Forest Service cites maintenance costs

Friday, June 9, 2000

By KRISTIN DIZON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

At the Snow Lake trailhead near Snoqualmie Pass tomorrow, the Rev. Jeffrey Barker of Seattle will continue his crusade against forest fees by leafletting hikers in the parking lot.

Barker often passes out literature there, but tomorrow he is part of a National Day of Action to protest the 3-year-old federal "Recreation Fee Demonstration Program."

In the Methow Valley town of Twisp, Isabelle Spohn and Richard Tingelstad will lead a parade and deliver 16,000 anti-fee petition signatures to the local Forest Service office.

Last year, 50 people in the town of 900 joined the couple, who founded their group, Free The Forests, in 1997.

Tingelstad said rural towns are deeply affected but there seems to be indifference in the Seattle area.

"What if they suddenly had to start paying fees to go to parks and Seattle Center?" Tingelstad asked. "What's wrong with society when I can walk through a city freely but I have to pay to walk through the forest?"

The fee program is a congressionally authorized effort by four federal public-land management agencies to collect money for recreation.

More than $176 million in fees was collected last year by the National Park Service, Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management. That's nearly double the amount they collected before the program's 1997 start.

Most of the money was used for repairs and improvements at fee-collection sites. Previously, revenues went to the U.S. Treasury. The four agencies have a multibillion-dollar backlog of maintenance, infrastructure and development needs.

Last year, for the first National Day of Action, more than 30 protests were held in nine states. The event is timed to precede Great Outdoors Week 2000, an annual Washington, D.C., meeting of recreation companies, associations and lobbyists on industry trends and issues.

More than 150 groups oppose the fees, including the 600,000-member Sierra Club, which has urged its chapters to join or host protests.

Much of the ire is aimed at the Forest Service because its 192 million acres record the most visits -- 900 million in 1999. Prior to the fee demonstration, basic access and trailhead parking were generally free in national forests.

Last year, small protests were held in several of the 19 national forests in Oregon and Washington.

"They were all very peaceful and polite. Everybody has a right to express their opinion," said Rex Holloway, a spokesman for the regional Forest Service office.

Last year, $5.1 million in fees was collected in Washington and Oregon. The Northwest Forest Pass, which debuted last month, consolidates trailhead fees at $5 daily or $30 annually at 15 fee project sites in Washington and Oregon.

Barker, the protesting pastor of Columbia Lakewood Community Church, says the fees have a disproportionate effect on low-income people.

His main message, however, is that communing with God in the forests shouldn't cost money.

"These hills belong to God and as children of God we have an inalienable right to walk on them without intrusion," he said.

So far he has ignored a dozen notices to pay the $5 daily fee, but he has yet to receive an official citation. Barker said he's willing to test the fee in court.

"I'm encouraging the U.S. attorney to come and arrest me and lock me up," he said.

P-I Reporter Kristin Dizon can be reached at 206-448-8118 or

kristindizon@seattle-pi.com