Mount Evans Illegal Fee Program

klaitu2 you are mistaken. While there are pockets of private land in Yankee Boy Basin, the fee there was for use of the county road and the adjoining National Forest.
The Forest Service is under USDA and the Park Service is under Interior. National Parks and National Forests are not the same things.

Comparing this situation and that of Yankee Boy Basin is dissimilar, as Yankee Boy is privately owned land, the owners of which have a right to do whatever they want with it.

The fees go to the USDA obviously, as explained on their website. If you feel the Park Service is not providing what they say they are, that is an entirely different matter than the government not disclosing where the fees go.

I agree, access should be free. Just make the correct argument about it.

"earth rapers"??? really? You think anyone is going to take you seriously when you go off with terms like "earth rapers"? What happens, at least in this case, is that someone starts reading your post and then says, "hmmm, earth rapers...what a loon" ...and stops reading your post.

The real culprit here is the Obama administration. He's bailing out the likes of AIG and GM, while NOT funding the Forest Service. I swear, some people could blame the common cold on the Bush adminstration. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't a good president, but for the love of Pete, Obama needs to start taking some responsibility for what is HAPPENING NOW. "Meet the new boss....same as the old boss..."

While I agree with you, I think the whole "...while large corporations..." talk turns off people. Ever watch "Team America, World Police"? There was a funny part in it, which made fun of someone talking like that..."and the big corporations, well, they're all corporationy, and bad..." If you have a gripe about corporations, name names, don't just throw out a "all big corporations are evil" statement.

What people don't understand is that the fees allow the government to reduce general funding. Also, the overhead cost for collecting the fees can result in most of the fees going to the costs of collecting the fees. If you want a play for use, then make ONLY those who have children to pay for schools. The Adventure Pass program was supposed to have an overheard of 20% and 80% was to go to the areas, but the last I heard, the overhead was over 80%. You are being charged to use your own land.

Sorry guy. you're completely missing the point and why it matters. Fees invariably increase, ...sure a few bucks ,...big deal,...the fee rafting my first Grand Canyon in 1981 trip was $25. in 2007 the fee was over $1,800 !!! If you understand the 'original intent' of these public lands you'll understand the land was set aside by Congress for all future generations,...not just the pay to play crowd. By charging fees it undermines the original intent and essentially stealing the ownership legacy.

Either way you look at it, the enemy is not the Forest Service, it is not their fault that the Federal Government doesn't fund them sufficiently. If proper funding existed, the fee program would not.