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Forest Service drops some fees Change goes into effect today By PAUL FATTIG The Forest Service has dropped by about 40 percent the number of trailheads and boat launches requiring a Northwest Forest Pass in the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests. The change, which goes into effect today, was the result of public input as well as an effort to improve efficiency, said Jack Williams, supervisor of both forests. "Our goal is to charge fees only at sites where it's evident to users that fee dollars are required to provide and maintain quality recreational experiences," Williams said in a prepared statement. The announcement was good news to Medford resident Scott Morrell, a leader of the group Free Our Forests - Rogue Valley. FOF opposes the fees. "That's a step in the right direction," Morrell said. "But I believe that any access to the back country should remain free of charge to citizens who already pay taxes for that access." Authorized by Congress as the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program in 1996, a Northwest Forest Pass costs $5 a day or $30 annually for parking places at trailheads or boat launches. The program has been extended by Congress. But it also has drawn protests. State legislatures in Oregon, California and New Hampshire have come out against the fees. The Jackson and Josephine county commissioners have adopted resolutions opposing the fees. Agency officials say they assessed input as well as the characteristics of individual sites, including use, improvements, maintenance costs and history. Following a lengthy evaluation, they left 35 fee sites on the Rogue River and 40 on the Siskiyou forest. The list of Rogue River forest fee sites can be found at www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue, while the Siskiyou Web site containing the lists is www.fs.fed.us/r6/siskiyou. "The public told us there were some things important to them," said Mary Marrs, spokeswoman for the forests. "One was that fee dollars were being applied in a way they could see it." But Morrell, a Southern Oregon University employee, is concerned that the program overall is unfair. "Right now, it's still temporary," he said. "The fear is that it will become permanent, making it more expensive to go on public lands and limiting our access even more." He believes the fee program is being backed by corporations wanting access to public lands. "Ultimately, corporations want to build and operate more profit-making operations on public lands," he said, warning that will lead to those lands being eventually controlled by big business. For additional information about the Northwest Forest Pass program, check out www.fs.fed.us/r6/feedemo. Information on Free Our Forests, the group opposed to the fee program, is available at www.freeourforests.org. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.