OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE WESTERN SLOPE NO FEE COALITION WEB SITE:
THE FS stands to make a ton of money off of this new fee scam with next to no investment.
The Pike-San Isabel National Forest is proposing to charge daily and overnight general access fees at South Colony Basin in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. South Colony is the main route for climbers hoping to summit four of Colorado's fabled "fourteeners." About 80% of visitors to South Colony are there to climb one or more of the peaks, so this amounts to a "Fourteeners Fee." If it succeeds, there will soon be access fees to many more - maybe all - of Colorado's 53 peaks above 14,000 feet.
Climbing these peaks is a very popular activity. Because South Colony Basin offers access to four of them it gets a lot of visitors - as many as 4,500 per season. It's unquestionably true that such high visitation in a fragile alpine environment results in resource impacts and damage.
However it's also unquestionably true that the people who use the area have stepped up to the plate to restore and protect it. There have been at least 40,000 volunteer hours and $1 million in mostly non-federal money invested in South Colony Basin. The Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Colorado Outward Bound, the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, and other educational and environmental service organizations have contributed funding and labor. Thanks to them, the summit trails have been rebuilt, trailhead facilities and the access road have been improved, and long-term recreational impacts have been repaired.
In addition, Forest managers have taken sensible steps to protect the area and mitigate human impacts. They have banned campfires, limited camping to designated sites, moved the trailhead downhill 2.5 miles, and this summer will be implementing a voluntary program of packing out human waste in "WAG Bags." These are all reasonable restrictions and most climbers will be willing to comply with them.
By proposing to charge daily and overnight general access fees, however, the Forest has gone a step too far. This is an attempt to reduce visitation by sorting people into those who will pay and those who won't. It is an affront to the American tradition of public lands where everyone has access and is welcome.
Pike-San Isabel managers have stated that installing a system of limited permits to control visitation should be a "last resort." We disagree. Such systems, so long as the rules for getting a permit are fair and equal, are a reasonable way to ensure that visitation does not exceed the carrying capacity of the land. If the measures already taken to mitigate human impacts don't prevent unacceptable resource damage, then a system of limited, but free, permits should be used.
This is a complicated issue, and one on which reasonable people can disagree. The fee cannot go forward unless the Forest can show the Colorado Recreation Resource Advisory Committee that it has general public support. So no matter whether you support or oppose this fee proposal, it's important to officially comment on it. Comments can be submitted at least through this summer.
The above (highlighted in red) is verified by
THIS DOCUMENT obtained by WSNF and available as a
docx document, a type of file lots of folk's computers conveniently cannot open.
According to WSNF, in an email from the FS, a plan to spend $275 a day (admittedly an estimate by the FS) to have someone patrolling the area for compliance is the expenditure/investment the FS has in mind.
If this cash cow passes, all of Colorado's 14ers, and perhaps other popular Colorado mountains will cost YOU money to climb, that previously those before climbed for free.
What's in YOUR wallet?