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Fee-for-all: We're paying more to play in Utah's forests, parklands

IF OUR ELECTIVE OFFICIAL SPENT OUR TAX DOLLARS FOR THE GOOD OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN AMERICA, INSTEAD OF GIVING OUR MONEY TO HALLIBURTONS' RAT HOLES, THIS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING...

A $75 yearly state pass is a bargain. Hopefully some people will stay away from the parks if they do not like to pay. The parks are to crowded now.

It's better to have people who visit pay more than everyone including those who don't visit pay more.
Very libertarian to pay for what you use.
Will reduce congestion as well, just like toll roads.
Since we care about the parks, we should pay more - they're expensive to maintain security for etc. (rangers, police, etc).

If the American people had had a spine, and stood up for their rights, fees to enter Mirror Lake and AF Canyon would not be collected. Having yelled long and loud for years to everyone I know about how the Forest Service is charging fees that Congress specifically has declared they may not, it about time some newspaper reported on this travesty.

National Parks entrance fees are scheduled to almost all double in the next three years, and after that they will be tied to inflation, only they will never decrease, only increase when inflation rises.

Americans are too ignorant, and too wimped out to even care that the forests are being closed, under the Forest Service claim that they cannot afford to keep them open, as if it costs money for the forest to exist. In five years, all that land will be open again, under private corporate control, with rather large fees, and controlled "areas of enjoyment" One such company already in negotiations, is known as Disney corporation.

Its too late. Like so many other bad choices, Americans have dedicated their time to moaning about the left or the right, complaining 24/7 about the war, and crying long and loud that the government is not giving them enough free stuff, so that now, its like some big shock, that that same government, is taking away our land as well.

Too bad Americans. You asked for this, no learn to deal with the consequences of living in a socialist country, intstead of a free republic. Game over

It might not be so bad if there we could really seel improvement, or even maintenance being done. Wasatch Mountain State Park has seen very little improvement, for example. The roads through the campground are deteriorating and some of the picnic table beside the campgrounds are unusable. The campoing slots themselves are too small for present day vehicles. They worked when I had a tent trailer, but they are not good with thirty foot trailers, RV's, or 5th Wheels.

Fish Lake National Forest campgrounds are little changed from fifty years ago. Even some of the "doubles" are not big enough.

It is not only a matter of price. If you look at the parks in our ajoining states you will find quite a difference in quality. While we have fantastic things to see, the quality of our picnic and camping areas are abismal and are not looking to improve. In other words, the part the state doesn't need to improve, the scenery, is fine but the part the state should be maintaining seems to be forgotten.

I go to Lake Powell every year and the fees continue to go up with no improvements. You pay to get into the park and you pay to camp in the park but still no improvements. We go to Stanton Creek it is primitive camping but still if you are paying that much to be there there needs to be plenty of facilities. (ie: bathrooms, good roads, & etc.)

Obscene is the only word for the fees now being asked. Taxes are already paid to support these facilities. The state is already running an enormous surplus.

We once enjoyed the ranger talks up Millcreek Canyon for FREE many years back. Our children looked forward to these anxiously. They did away with these wonderful and informative talks, and instead, replaced them with a "ranger" whose only job was to collect fees. The canyon was converted to a profit center.

Our property taxes have increased at the rate or 41% per year, each year, for the past 12 years. NOW, fees are escalating out of sight also. Too much is too much. Anyone who can sit passively and find anything good in these fee increases better know the past better.

Such horrid fees slam the door in the face of the poor and middle class, leaving these parks open only to the rich and wealthy.

I commend Boise, for example. We visited their Albertson's Park and another associated park all alive with wildlife. It had no fences, was open, FREE, and was a shining jewel for the area. You felt nature with every breath because there was no fence to hold "all ohers out" and make you feel like a prisoner that had no public rights.

For example, if the Liberty Park Aviary were made free, that would improve that facility 1,000% Our past visits noticed a terrible decline in numbers visiting this aviary.

I think its great, I hope they keep jacking up the prices too, far as I am concerned, once anyplace gets "park" status it is ruined, therefore I dont visit any of the Federal,State or Local "Zoo's"

John has the right to stay home and not use the state parks, with thier picnic tables and bowerys and clean beaches and garbage pickup.

A family of 5 will drop $50 to go to a 2 hour movie, but $10 for a full day use of a park is outrageous?

They tried to charge me ten to park in a dirt parking lot in a National Forest in Oregon. I didn't pay and I haven't returned.

We should look at the conservative point of view. We have the Internet. Everyone knows about Ebay. We should let the free market work. There are so many spots to camp or deer hunting licenses. Let people bid on them. If camping is important to you on Labor day weekend, you can get that spot. You bid for it.

The same with hunting. Bid for tags.

How sad! What happened to freedom to enjoy our natural resources. Does this mean that only the rich can enjoy them? What really irritates me is to find that reservations to camp are made at a national company. They aren't even employees of the Parks system. They wouldn't contract to do that if it wasn't a highly profitable operation. Some how if our taxes are paying for upkeep, perhaps we need to let the fees be fees the average person can pay.
I think an audit of the finances of the National and States park system should be done.

I'm confused at John's logic. Somehow he decries private corporations then turns it around to say it's the socialist's fault. But his conspiracy theory about Disney buying the parks just makes me think he's off his meds.

I agree that these parks are treasures that every American should have the right to enjoy, but I also see fees as a necessary evil to maintain these magnificent places. What if there were a fee discount program for low income families? Doesn't California already do this, or am I just pulling that out of my nose?

It is frustrating to see the prices go up. I acknowledge the need to maintain parks, and try to do what I can to keep them down (cleaning my own trash, as well as the trash of others... etc) really wish we could find other ways to do it. As a lower-income family, we don't "drop $50 to go to a 2 hour movie", and there are a lot of things that my family misses out on because of increasing prices. We have enjoyed being able to run up the canyon for hikes or primitive camping. I now live by a canyon with free areas so we can do this, but I remember back when AF canyon started charging that we stopped going as often as we had done previously.

In traveling from Oklahoma to SLC, and wanting to detour up through St.George to visit my Grandma on the way, we followed our map, and the shortest route took us through Zions National Park. We were charged an outrageous $25. Just because we needed to drive on the road to make it through to St.George. We were not there to camp or hike, with our little children in the car, we wanted to take the faster route. This was such a kick in the face, and a total waste of our cash.

The private corporations buying the land is not a conspiracy theory, but it does show how stupid some people are, that they will label anything they don't understand.

As for paying for tables and clean beaches? What about people who use the land, to hike the back country, and spend an hour sitting on the bank of a cool stream on a hot day. Going about dissin people because for some reason, you figure $50 for a movie is anything close to using the outdoors, ignores the fact that WE OWN the land, and we pay to go to the movies, because someone else owns the theatre.

The ignorance of the citizen is frightening.

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=78663

Time for people to kiss their country goodbye. You all sat on your butts and watched it go away because you had Walmarts, cell phones, and HDTV. Soon, you will pay the price for that attitude. Gen-X? Ha. You gave it away.

Comments about someone being off their meds, belong in usenet, not on a forum like this. Grow up.

Highway 150, the "Mirror Lake Highway" is a state owned and maintained road paid for through taxes on motor fuels. All of the picnic and camping sites along the highway are managed by the National Forrest Service and a fee is collected each day you use them. So what is this $3.00, soon to be $6.00 really used for?

You need a class in advanced conservative studies. If you opened up bidding in Utah for elk permits there are wealthy people who would pay $2500. Let the inviable hand of free market work its miracles. Utah would get a better class of hunter. These guys will tip more, stop at nice restaurants and rent luxury cabin. This gives employment to locals. Cabin's need their beds made. Toilets must be cleaned. A raising tide raises all boats.

The same is true for Zion. Charging more attacks more successful people.

Quit whine about prices. Go get a better job!

When I was little, Millcreek Canyon was starting to go downhill. I remember seeing a ton of garbage everytime we went. As it changed to a fee area, I noticed things beginning to change.(Fees are a necessary evil sometimes too keep some people away and to improve things overall.)
(I am not wealthy, I don't go to movies ever! It costs too much!- In answer to the arguement listed above) Charging $20 or more is outrageous. Why do we continue to raise fees for everything?
Case in point, when I was in high school you could go night skiing for under $10. Now it is only a rich man's sport. I spoke to a ski instructor in park city a few years back, when my children got to participate in a free lesson. The ski instructor told me he rarely met Utah natives on the slopes. *It's because it is too darn expensive for most of us.
If we start making fees too much for the average family to afford, Utah natives will be unable to enjoy our own backyard.

I guess, but if everyone would clean up after theirself and maybe someone else the fees would not be in neccesary