Closing the National Forests

[Stewards]

Written by The Source Editorial Board     
Sunday, 01 July 2007 
(From: The Source Weekly)

Bend Oregon - If you head out to your favorite campground in one of Oregon’s National Forests this summer, you may well discover it’s no longer there.

For the past two years the U.S. Forest Service has been engaged in a process called Recreation Site Facility Master Planning (RSFMP). The bureaucratic rationale is complicated, but it all boils down to this: Each of the more than 16,000 National Forest recreation sites in the country – more than 2,600 of them in Oregon and Washington – has to demonstrate that it can pay for itself or it will be closed.

Oregon National Forests were among the first in the country to begin the RSFMP process, and the tangible results are now starting to appear. For example, the Curry Coastal Pilot reported on Saturday that the Rogue-Siskyou National Forest has closed 24 campgrounds and three picnic sites. Can the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests be far behind?

Not only are facilities being closed, but drastic budget cuts, including a 46% cut in funding for maintenance over the past two years, are forcing National Forests to reduce or eliminate services – such as providing toilets – at those that aren’t.

The National Forest shutdown is being justified by the need to pour money into President Bush’s “Healthy Forests Initiative,” which aims to make forests healthy by cutting down the trees. Philosophically, it dovetails perfectly with the administration’s broad aim of starving all government services – or at least those that benefit average Americans rather than big corporations and their major stockholders.

Critics, such as Scott Silver of Bend-based Wild Wilderness, see an even deeper and darker motive: They believe the funding cuts and the RSFMP process are steps toward the “Disneyfication” of recreation facilities on federal lands – turning them into money-making enterprises, or maybe even handing them over to private corporations to operate as concessions.

Even if you don’t buy that sinister theory, it’s not hard to see why the present policy is short-sighted and destructive. Closing facilities, making them prohibitively expensive or making them difficult or impossible to enjoy because of a lack of basic amenities shuts off access to the only recreation many working people can afford. It also has a negative impact on communities near National Forests whose economies depend largely or partly on the dollars that visitors to those forests spend.

It’s ironic that an administration that likes to attack “environmental elitists” for wanting to “lock up” public lands has turned out to be the biggest locker-upper of such lands in American history.

When the U.S. Forest Service was founded more than a hundred years ago during the Theodore Roosevelt administration, its first chief, Gifford Pinchot, summed up its job as "to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run." The administration’s approach seems designed to provide the greatest number of dollars to a handful of people in the short run.

It’s a lousy way to run our National Forests – but it’s an excellent way to earn THE BOOT.

 

[koh0001]

That's pretty sad!!!

[UncleRico]

This is just one more form of double taxation without representation.

Public lands and parks are suppose to be supported and paid for by taxes collected by the Federal government. Yet the federal government has seen it fit to evolve into spending all the tax money on unncessary wars and other bone headed expenses (read as the Hurricane Katrina trailers sitting unused).

So now, you will pay for the public parks with your tax money first, then pay for them again when and if you decide to actuall use them.

The government is on the fast track to ruining America.

[jetski dawg]

amen

[pinkfloyd]

Can the Ocala be far  behind

[lisa]

The war is necessary, the tax dollars collected for Forestry are not going there. The dems are in office now, complain to them...

  Anyway, not to hijack this thread about the war....Biologists are running Forestry now, biologist and bunny huggers. Those of us who actually use the forest need to earn more money for our kids and our hobbies than Forestry pays, so those without kids or hobbies become Forest Managers. (unless their spouse has lots of income...then they can "play" at being what ever they want...)

  Without a united front, with an association that will stand firm for its goals, and not promote "rallies" that are just mudding events, this will continue to happen and will take over Florida's National Forests. It all falls in line with the The Wildlands Project idea. Ignore that, and you are destined to lose.

[Raptor 660]

Without a united front, with an association that will stand firm for its goals, and not promote "rallies" that are just mudding events, this will continue to happen and will take over Florida's National Forests.

Man here we go again, why does every post these people make, pick on a newly formed association and a rally. The reason the forests are getting closed in Oregon are a little more complex than holding a rally at L-Cross. If you really think that, you may have some serious issues.

STOP CLOUDING THE REAL PROBLEMS.

[Chuck_Norris]

It is sad to say but the Forrestry service is missing out on a huge revenue generator, check  out the article in the latest Dirt Wheels

What  a better way to close a great ATV Rally Weekend than to have the New Issue of Dirt Wheels waiting for you what you when you arrive.  There is a great article on page 18. The artical describes additional trails that were added to the Hatfield and McCoys trail system. The Part I found interesting is(Look at these numbers) that they added 55 miles of trails resulting in 146 new jobs, $7.2 million in  impact to local businesses and a $600,000 in Tax Revenue. With numbers like that being generated it is amazing to me that Florida is missing this revenue generator by allowing the closure of our riding areas

Houston Valley in Ringold Ga. charges a $5.00 fee per rider per day to use their trail system. Their trail system is neatly maintained and adequately staffed for $5.00 per rider

[Paul_S]

The war is necessary, the tax dollars collected for Forestry are not going there. The dems are in office now, complain to them...

  Anyway, not to hijack this thread about the war....Biologists are running Forestry now, biologist and bunny huggers. Those of us who actually use the forest need to earn more money for our kids and our hobbies than Forestry pays, so those without kids or hobbies become Forest Managers. (unless their spouse has lots of income...then they can "play" at being what ever they want...)

  Without a united front, with an association that will stand firm for its goals, and not promote "rallies" that are just mudding events, this will continue to happen and will take over Florida's National Forests. It all falls in line with the The Wildlands Project idea. Ignore that, and you are destined to lose.

I agree, let's make sure we all head over to the association and join. The association is representing over 1,500 riders now. Good idea Lisa. 

www.floridaatvassociation.com

We were talking to the Tallahassee Trail Riders this past weekend about us having a united front with the dirtbikers too. ATV's are always going to be our main focus, but if a issue affects both groups, much better to go in with a stronger hand.

[Inyourdraft2000]

Lisa, you know you actually started to impress me until you felt the need to throw in Rallies that only promote mudding events.....
You are not happy unless you are making rediculous comments and further more make it so that no one would want to work w/ you.
You were not at the Rally and the best you know about it is from pictures and people who did not go, so instead of bumping your gums and making such a stupid comment why not do a little homework and learn how to speak.
The things that you do speak well on I thank you for that knowlege, be nice and play nice goes a lot further.

[lisa]

 Oh darn, and I was so wanting to impress Inyourdraft.....

  When I was at the Blue Ribbon Panel meeting Chuck, one of the USFWS guys leaned over and whispered in the ear of the Nature Conservancy guy that he wished the private land owners would realize how much money could be made with OHV and ORV crowd so that "they" (meaning OHVs and ORVs) would stay off "our" (meaning Forestry's) land. They know how much money can be made, Forestry doesn't want us there.

 

[UncleRico]

The war is necessary, the tax dollars collected for Forestry are not going there.

nec·es·sar·y–adjective 1. being essential, indispensable, or requisite.

I don't think necessary means what you think it means. It's not a democractic or republican thing, nor a complaint.

At $275 million per day, it's a huge waste of tax payer funds and future tax payer funds.

To stay on topic. It sucks that the government (republicans and democrats) can't control spending so that we can reap the benefits of our tax dollars here at home in the form of recreational areas.