years ago i harped about the small permits.
it's just for this one place at this one time, doesn't really apply to most hikers. it's only $ a year, certainly you can afford that. it's helping the forest! I'm just doing my part!
And here we are today and let's see where we are tomorrow. By the time my son is the age I was when I first came out here, he's going to have to apply in a lottery two years in advance just to do a day hike in any national forest, and pay a fee for the liberty of doing so.
the worst part is the monetization. Using cost and arcane delineation/bureaucracy to keep people out in order to 'protect' areas. And then there will be more pushes from powered interests to 'return land to the states' (see Utah), less constituency organized to fight this, then you'll see state protections watered down and things get further monetized/siphon the money into private hands.
And as much as a broken record that I am on it, I'll continue to share understanding the history of monetization/revenue to manage lands:
http://www.georgewright.org/222silver.pdf - this is an extremely worthwhile read.
And to expound upon the above, a huge proponent of FLREA when it was just a 'demo' was ARC. American Recreation Coalition. In 2018 they reformulated themselves as the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (and you can see the wonderful characters in the thumbnail are the people you absolutely know are all about having a free and easy time just getting dirty, backpacking, in the woods, kayaking small rivers, etc).
https://recreationroundtable.org/americ ... oundtable/
ARC was made up of interests like Skidoo, and Coleman and RV manufacturers, you know, the places you really spend money with to go outdoors. There's a reason they call it the outdoor
industry.
And today despite the fantastic green-washing or whatever you want to call it, take a look at their main points today:
https://recreationroundtable.org/
- Foster federal collaboration that enables the outdoor recreation economy to thrive. (Yes, the outdoor economy is most important part of the outdoors)
- Remove barriers that hinder private investment to improve conservation and access for outdoor enthusiasts on public lands and waters. (Please, lets use public land as the vehicle to generate private investment returns)
- Encourage federal agencies to prioritize recreational access and high-quality visitor experiences. (High Quality experiences, such as wifi, concessions, and expensive capital improvements!)
I'm sure I sound like an old crank going off on this. There's no conspiracy, but the molding of public land access has been set into motion for a while now, fees for entering HCRH dovetail right into it.