WALLACE CASE COULD BRING DOWN RECREATION FEE POLICY

Mount Lemmon Trial Coming May 31

By Bill Schneider, 5-19-07

Last summer, the Forest Service (FS) issued Tucson legal secretary Christine Wallace two tickets for the crime of parking on a state highway going through a national forest to go hiking. Unlike most of the 500+ people who get such tickets each year in Arizona, she refused to pay.

The FS took her to court, but surprise, she won. The judge dismissed the tickets, saying the FS had no authority to charge a fee for parking in a national forest to go hiking.

The FS appealed, and no surprise, the agency won. The next judge up the line sent the case back to the original judge for a trial. Now, finally, we’ll see who really wins--and what the future of the FS aggressive fee-charging policy might be.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Pyle will hear the so-called Wallace Case (officially United States vs. Christine Wallace) on May 31 in Tucson. Wallace is once again charged with parking and hiking in the Coronado National Forest without paying the $5 access fee.

The FS says that by declaring Mt Lemmon a High Impact Recreation Area (HIRA) the agency can charge anyone who does anything within the HIRA, including activities specifically prohibited by law from fees such as parking, accessing undeveloped backcountry, and primitive camping. But Wallace says the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) prohibits fees for parking and hiking into undeveloped backcountry, whether the parking and hiking occur within a HIRA or not.

“The FLREA does not authorize HIRAs,” says Robert Funkhouser of the Western Slope No Fee Coalition. “They (HIRAs) are defined only in agency policy. HIRAs are being widely used to sidestep the FLREA’s prohibition on fees for backcountry access, parking, primitive camping, and passing through public lands without using facilities.”

“Since Mt Lemmon’s fee program is very similar to other fee programs (Mt Evans, American Fork Canyon, Mirror Lake Highway, Sandia Byway, etc),” Funkhouser notes, “they (the FS) knew that to let (the Wallace Case) stand would kill some of their biggest cash cows.”

Stay tuned to NewWest.net for the decision and its ramifications.

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