Saturday's protests, which occurred inside the tree-lined Millard Canyon, on the scenic Angeles Crest Highway, at the mouth of the magnificent San Gabriel Canyon in Azusa and atop Mount Baldy, signaled a turning point in the growing outcry against the most unpopular tax ever levied in our local forests. Both conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, conservationists and anti-taxationsists have come out against the federal fee program. Now, more than ever, it is time to end it. The Sierra Club gives four reasons for supporting repeal of the fee. It is unfair to charge citizens a fee to observe wildlife, while taxpayer funds are being used to subsidize private logging, grazing and mining.
Fees discriminate against low-income users.
The Angeles' 690,000 acres are used by local residents, including many low-income families who otherwise have no outlet for viewing nature. Don't charge taxpayers fees to step onto federal lands. The real solution is for Congress to allocate budget funds to pay for new bathrooms, trash cans and to maintain trails. It is a slippery slope toward commercialization. A lobbying group, the American Recreation Coalition, which represents big business, not only proposed the fee program but has now been put in charge of evaluating it.