HikeArizona.COM

A few weeks ago I posted a notice, actually an vehement objection, to the $6.00 per night camping fee that went into effect on March 1st for the Saguaro National Park and the Rincon Mountains Wilderness Area. I encouraged my fellow members to voice their opinions about this prohibitive fee. The email address of the park superintendent is as follows: sarahcraighead@nps.gov. Even though you may not hike in these mountains or spend any nights there, your voices will be heard and may in fact make a difference. Otherwise, overnight fees, trailhead fees, etc. will continue to spread like a disease to other areas across the state.

My guess is, despite harsh replies and negative attitudes (I know, I know, Im guilty too) I think that we all probably feel about the same. Clearly the FS needs money to maintain the forests from all the trash strewing hikers (obviously not HAZ members ). The fact is more people are entering our forests who may or may not know how to handle themselves out there. This includes those who throw trash, vandalize, or otherwise denegrate the quality of our forests, as well as those who need to be rescuded after their (mis)adventures. These people are the ones driving up our forest costs. I would imagine that all of you who have taken the time to respond to this are probably not those at fault. It is important, more now than ever, to make sure we are leaving the wilderness in better condition than when we got there. The best way to make a difference is not emails, phone calls or letters; moreoften than not these are received by blind eyes (or ears). The solution is action. We need to make sure we are lessening the impact of ourselves AND others. If there is no need to maintain the trails, there will be no need for fees right? In order to facilitate this I proppose the following:

If you pack it in, pack it out.
If you didn't pack it in pack it out anyway.
Educate fellow hikers, friends and HAZ members about proper wilderness conduct.
If your on a trail, please stay on the trail.
If your traveling off-trail, please tread lightly.
Never, ever, make a permanent mark on anything (plants, rocks, especially historic sites or ruins)
Encourage other hikers to do what they love, but to take pains not to ruin it for everyone by littering or destroying vegetation.

Letters, emails and phone calls don't hurt (and as you may be able to tell from the length of my posts, I have sent my fair share of letters) but these are not the end-all solution. We, as the users of the wilderness lands need to band together to take care of our forests. Whats that they say? If you need something done right, do it yourself. So lets make sure when were out there were doing it ourselves, so we don't have to pay someone else to do it. I, for now, will continue shunning fee sites and hike when and (within reason) where I will.

May I jump in here? Salaries are not the issue here nor the reason I brought it up initially. Simply stated...stop nickel and diming us, and double dipping into our pockets. I'm willing to pay my fair share, (aren't my taxes enough?) but over $100 per year is not only extreme but prohibitive. And what portion this is of my annual salary is irrelevent.

If you are living on that much then your home is paid for and probably your car too.

I live on a great big bunch of money compared to what everyone here is talking about and I still hate and resent the fees. I don't plan to live with it if I can help it. The whole thing stinks. See the letter I sent out in the General section topic something like what are we paying for. Write to your representatives and to the president. It is free and easy to do it by e-mail. See the letter I sent (did not write) for specifics about the name of the bill. Do it now

wow, this is the most emotion i have seen in this format yet...i guess money will do that.
here's how i feel. while i agree that paying money to enjoy "public" lands goes contrary to everything my "nature creed" adheres to. perhaps we need to look at the facts.
clearly, there needs to be some sort of discount for longterm, multiple overnight camping/backpacking. to pay $18 for three days is ridiculous, and as someone else previously mentioned, these are not the types of people that we want to keep out of the forest.
i have an annual pass from the parks board, and that gets me in free to almost every park, but i'm not sure if that covers camping expenses. i will have to look into that.
the real issue is this: as hikers and campers, we are enjoying a pristine area that a majority of the general population does not enjoy, or at least does not choose to allocate the necessary resources and funds to protect and expand our trail/camping network. and i'm sorry, but this forum is a rarity and all hikers are not "stewards of the land."
i do not understand how i can pay so much damn money in taxes and that Game and Fish and Parks Board are not better served by this money. but, i blame the legislature and poor priorities of the state for this mess, not the parks board and rangers enforcing these fees. do you really think that this is their end goal, to jack up prices so much that no one will be able to enjoy the land, or that only a select few will be able? of course not, they are just adjusting to budget forcasts and the dire straits of a budget that shrinks every budget cycle.
does anyone realize that this state is 1 billion dollars in the can? that's a lot of money. at the point, it doesn't matter if your decimal point if 4, 5, even 3 points to the right.
remember when a few parks shut down last summer because of a lack of money? well, things aren't getting better and that extra money has to come from somewhere. in addition to a shrinking budget, rangers have to deal with increasing use of sites by hikers/campers. this means extra trash, extra restrooms, extra trail maintenance and extra rangers.
they are even talking about doing away with the state tourism board...tough times in the state financially have forced others to take steps to ensure that the nature we enjoy so much is responsibly maintained and protected.
blame the problem, not people trying to find a solution.

You all have posted up great thoughts. Very well stated. Very well thought out. Most excellent.
Will it make a difference? Nope. Sorry. Fees and more fees are a "done deal." Bummer.
We hate 'em as much as the next guy or gal. They "inhale!" Does our opinion matter? No.

The Bush Administration has made it clear it is "all for" Fee Demo and Fee Demo's cousins.
Hey, they are fighting a war, pressing for huge changes in tax laws, affirmative action, etc.
How high on the radar screen right now does "Fee Demo" rank? Uh, probably like, nowhere!

That's one of the many inequities about this whole deal. The only people who understand are those with no political power, no political leverage. You can email and snail mail until the cows come home. It won't do you any good. Bigger Issues command more attention. Fact of life!

This whole Fee Demo Deal is already "lost in the shuffle." Compared to an $80-BILLION dollar "supplemental appropriations bill" to pay for the first installment on the Irag War, "Fee Demo" is nothing. Like, TOTALLY nothing. Do the math.

Also, bear in mind, the Forest Service is getting "punished" by the appropriations process. Congress failed to refund all of last year's enormous fire fighting costs. Smokey has had to carry over a $300-million deficit! The USFS Chief recently told Congress he was worried that deficit might run up over ONE BILLION dollars this year. (That's a thousand million dollars!)

Soooo.....various Forests have various weirdo Fee Demo program, few, if any, of which make any sense whatsoever. However, at least they are trying to "pay their way" in the pol-speak of the Bush Administration. Sounds like "good business" if you of that ilk. How would you expect the Bush Administration to rebuke "Fee Demo" in this economic and militaristic environment? How?

Sorry, folks, it ain't gonna happen. Fee Demo is here to stay. Personally we HATE it! But, as we have noted elsewhere repeatedly, we WILL pay our fees because we have no interest whatsoever in spending even one nano-minute trying to protest a "Lost Cause," A "Done Deal."

Hey, we got better things to do--like--HIKE ON!

It's a terribly unfair equation that penalizes the least likely offenders. We understand.
But, whatever. It's life. Deal with it. Move on. And more importantly, HIKE ON!

J&S