The Arizona NoFee Coalition is working throughout the state to pass city and county resolutions urging congress to Restore the Funding, Stop the Scam. You can help make this happen in your area. For more information on how to get involved in your area, call us at 928-213-9507 or email us at information@aznofee.org

Look around you. The awe inspiring public landscapes of the United States are facing a silent killer. The Recreation Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo) is transforming our shared natural heritage into a "king's domain," one available only to those who have an admission ticket.

Fee Demo allows our public land agencies (the Forest Service, Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service) to charge greater "user" fees in more places than ever before. One third the continental United States could soon be off limits to those without the appropriate papers.

Across the entire country, our natural heritage is being overtly transformed from a public good, managed for us by public agencies through our tax dollars, into a product we must purchase the right to enjoy. An unsanctioned tax is being placed upon our public lands, and our right to enjoy these shared spaces in a responsible and spontaneous manner is increasingly in jeopardy.

The Recreation Fee Demonstration Program was created by a congressional rider attached to the annual legislation to release funds for the Department of the Interior and related agencies (such as the Forest Service). It was originally intended to expire in 1999. However, it has been extended three times already - again through riders - and is currently set to expire in 2004. Congressional riders do not require full and independent debate by our elected representatives.

The program has been promoted as a way to generate extra funds for public land agencies to handle maintenace needs. After six years, the program has failed to make a dent in any budget requirements, has harmed relationships between the public and public land offiicials, swollen an already mismanaged bureaucracy and has highlighted growing economic inequality in public land use and access.

This website is designed to educate folks about the Forest Service's Fee Demo program, encourage resistance, and aid those who are already working to overturn this anti-democratic trend in public lands management. The information page highlights reasons to oppose the program, and the section on tickets is designed to help those who have recieved a ticket from the Forest Service for alleged failure to comply with the program. The alert section highlights ways that you can get involved in the struggle to return our public lands to the public and the contact us section introduces us and tells you how to get in touch should you have any questions. The your voice page is an open invitation to think about how to best promote a truly democratic and sustainable relationship with out natural heritage.

"The making of gardens and parks goes on with civilization all over the world, and they increase both in size and number as their value is recognized....Nevertheless.... they have always been subject to attack by despoiling gain-seekers and mischief-makers of every degree from Satan to Senators, eagerly trying to make everything immediately and selfishly commercial.
---John Muir, Naturalist-- (1838-1914)

You can search our site here.

Date........ Jul 24 2008

Visitors since June 2002... 27448

Please send technical questions or comments about this site to the WebMaster

| Alerts | Background | Contact us | Encounters | Donate |
Home | Information | Latest News | Merchandise | Supporters |
Newsletter | Tickets | | Make Your Voice Heard | | What People are Saying |