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Posted by Buck (67.159.128.21) on 13:29:21 08/16/25
In Reply to: American wild places posted by Francoise Musgrove
You do realize for many many decades, until the 90's, all national park fees went straight to the general US Treasury and not to the parks? Hence it was just another tax without calling it a tax. Benefited no park. Do you realize only about 25% of lands managed by the National Park Service have fees? Do you realize that the most visited national park in the United States, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, does not have an entrance fee? And only a $5 parking fee if you decide to park? How is that possible?
Campgrounds used to be free and then had very minimal costs, for like, ever. Then they realized people will pay high taxes AND high fees and ran with it. A gatekeeper to keep out the less-able.
I consider your wonderful family a gift, but I also consider most all families as gifts, even those who struggle to pay gas, entrance fees, and campground fees and often just can't do it.
I'm 62 now so I can pay a one-time, lifetime fee of just $80 and visit national parks and most all federal lands, BLM, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, etc., but I still feel for those who really struggle in a big way to visit our public lands where there are fees. There was a time in my life where the $5 entrance fee to Yosemite was quite difficult, as I was temping during the winter and taking summers off to backpack with my two dogs. Yosemite let you in for free if you were driving through, from Tioga Pass to the main entrance, they'd give you a few hours to do so because it's the only road passing through the Sierra for many many miles in either direction. Then they got rid of that too. Why? They like the $$. They like the $$ a lot. How does the gov't get away from taxation without representation? Just call the tax a fee and boom, their good.
Desolation Wilderness, which I grew up backpacking, it was like my backyard, now charges $5 per person per night to BACKPACK. No infrastructure, no facilities, but it's all control. And you have to give them your itinerary. It's not just a permit system to protect it from being overrun at certain trailheads, but a revenue generator and a control thing. If you go backpacking, you're out in the wilds, but not there. You have to pay them and you have to tell them where you're going, although there's no limits, they don't restrict other than the trailhead entry, but they still want to know where you plan on staying. That goes against the freedom and code of wilderness adventure. The core of what it is... to follow streams, ridges, lake basins, stay where you want, when you want.
Liberals used to be the anti-establishment, the 'no fees for everything you do' crowd, no signs (remember that song Signs in the 70;s?), don't control me, don't tread on me, don't monetize everything, keep gov't and money and citizens from telling me what to do. Now liberals are the big-gov, big-fees, gov-control (remember Biden and Covid, and Gavin and Covid, can't do this, can't do that, can't go here or there, they freakin' shut down our national forests and state forests for cryin' out loud, due to Covid? C'mon, libs!).
Most of our national parks controlled lands are free, funded properly through taxes how they're supposed to, except where they want to control access, charge high fees and keep the poor from experiencing their own public lands. I'm the 'hippie' in this discussion. You're the gov't bureaucrat.
A SPARK on the Loon Page, this is awesome!
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