A public oversight hearing on ONLY Forest Service Fee Demo will be
held by the House Forests & Forest Health subcommittee on Wed.
9/17/03. (Details will follow very shortly on how to listen in live
to the hearing, at 2 pm EST, on your computer.)

This is only the third public hearing held on Fee Demo by a
subcommittee of the House Resources Committee since the program began
in 1996!

We must deluge the subcommittee (chair, Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Western
Colorado) with protest faxes, while the public record is open for
comments on National Forest Fee Demo, between now and midnight on
Friday 9/26/03.

WHERE TO SEND YOUR FAX -
The House Forests & Forest Health subcommittee's fax number
is (202) 225-0521. Please fax by the end of 9/26/03. If it's busy,
please try evenings or on the weekend. If you really can't get
through, call the subcommittee at (202) 225-0691.

WHAT TO SAY -
1) Ask that Forest Service Fee Demo be allowed to sunset on 9.30.04
(as it is currently scheduled to do).

2) Comment that it is a bad idea to allow the Forest Service to
raise their own funds without Congressional oversight (as with Fee
Demo), given the Forest Service's serious lack of financial
accountability - as evidenced by the General Accounting Office's 2003
Report, GAO 03-503. [The Forest Service's continuing lack of
financial accountability is a fast-growing concern shared by many
Senators and Representatives.]

3) Say what you think of the Administration's proposal, just
announced by the Dept. of the Interior at a Senate hearing on 9.9.03,
to move to a $100 per person, universal, multi-agency recreation fee.
This will remove the connection that Fee Demo architects have
promised us since 1996 - that the visitor's fee dollars would be
spent where the visit took place - thus turning recreation fees into
a new nationwide tax for all visitors to public lands.

4) Add any of your own concerns.



SAMPLE LETTER (Please use your own words and please fax before
midnight on 9/26/03.)

Congressman Scott McInnis,
Chair, Subcommittee on Forests & Forest Health,
1337 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington DC 20515.

COMMENTS FOR THE PUBLIC RECORD, OVERSIGHT HEARING ON THE FOREST
SERVICE'S RECREATIONAL FEE DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM, HOUSE FORESTS &
FOREST HEALTH SUBCOMMITTEE, 9.17.03.

Dear Chairman McInnis,

Please allow the US Forest Service's Recreational Fee Demonstration
Program to sunset on 9.30.04.

Forest fees have met with public opposition across the nation, since
they began in 1996.

While I am happy to pay a modest fee for basic facilities, like car
campgrounds and boat launches, I believe that fees for access to
undeveloped public lands are a very bad idea.

I do not wish to see increased development at Forest Service
facilities to allow the agency to charge more fees. I do not trust
the US Forest Service, with its poor record of financial
accountability as evidenced by the GAO Report 03-503, to be allowed
to raise its own funds, recreation fees, with no Congressional
oversight.

I am very mush opposed to the Administration's recent proposal to
turn Fee Demo into a nationwide, multi-agency recreation fee of up to
$100 per person. This is nothing but a new tax.

Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
[Please include your name and address.]

------------------END OF SAMPLE LETTER-----------


Please note that the leadership of the relevant House subcommittees
is much more supportive of permanent forest fees than their
counterparts in the Senate. It is enormously important to generate
as many faxes as you can by 9/26/03.
We thank you once again for your continuing help and support.

Yours,
Alasdair Coyne
Conservation Director,
Keep Sespe Wild,

(805) 921-0618
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