An Open Letter to the New, Blue Congress

By Bill Schneider, 11-09-06

s anybody sad about having the election behind us? I doubt it, unless you work for a company selling political advertising.

Now that it’s over, the analyzing phase begins--what happened and why, and of course, what should we do now. You’ve heard a lot of this type of talk already, but here’s one part of it you probably haven’t heard, yet.

We have heard many times that the voters were angry, primarily with the Trillion Dollar War and the fiscal mismanagement following it. I don’t mean to imply that my concerns compare with people dying needlessly in Iraq or issues like Medicare/social security reform, the health care crisis and immigration, but out here on the “outdoor beat,” so to speak, people were just as angry. We’ve been singing the blues for many years, so I have a message for our newly elected congressional leaders.

Part of the “new direction” people want is better management of our public lands and more emphasis in providing quality outdoor recreation for all Americans, not just the rich ones. We own these lands, and we’re proud of them. For us, they aren’t “commodity reserves” for private industry to mine until it's all gone, nor do we want any more roads. In fact, we want fewer roads. We sure don’t want to sell public land or transfer management to private companies, nor do our lands or recreation sites on them need to be “economic sustainable.” We want them open for free or very affordable outdoor recreation. We already pay for this opportunity every April 15.

The Trillion Dollar War hurts us in a million bite-sized ways that don’t make headlines. Agencies like the U.S. Forest Service (FS) and the National Park Service have been forced to place emphasis on fund-raising to keep the doors open. Budgets have been continually trimmed while costs and demands for outdoor recreation skyrocket, forcing agencies to establish and keep raising fees in attempt to replace lost funding, all while we squander a billion dollars a week in the Middle East. Two weeks ago, I wrote about a great example of this problem, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has to sell off the future of the grizzly bear to have enough money to hire a biologist or two and the FS has enough money put trash cans in campgrounds.

With that said, here is an open letter to new, blue Congress:

Dear Congresswoman Pelosi, Senator Reid, et al:

When you take over in January, you will have a full agenda, no doubt, and it will be difficult to move forward as fast as people want, so I suggest shooting a few layups right away to make your fans happy and show us we really have a “new direction.”

For starters, how about having a little chat with President Bush about a new direction over in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior. I hear that Mr. Bush is suddenly interested in a “spirit of bipartisan cooperation,” so how about asking him to do two things to prove to us that he means it--even if you have to put a little pressure on, like helping his appointees or budgets slide through faster. Ask Mr. Bush to call the folks over in the corner offices at the USDA and tell them to stop appealing the court ruling that recently reinstated the Roadless Rule and to immediately spike the Recreation Site Facility Master Plan (RSFMP).

You already know that 90 percent of us want our last roadless lands protected and do not want the secretive RSFMP process to close, “demostrate” (charge fees) or privatize (make somebody else charge fees) our campgrounds, boat launches, picnic areas and other recreation sites. All of this is exactly opposite of what we, the “angry people,” the same people who put you in power, want to see happen on our lands. So, let’s suggest the President quickly change these two things in the spirit of cooperation.

Also, how about immediately introducing a bill to repeal the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA), or Recreation Access Tax or RAT, as we call it ? Or better yet, earmark the repeal to the next omnibus speading bill or supplemental defense budget request that the President can’t veto. That’s how this FLREA was born in the first place, so it seems appropos that we kill it the same way.

The FS is using and abusing FLREA to charge and raise fees throughout our national forests. With those of us who own those forests, FLREA is as popular as a White House staffer at a Taliban convention. To make it worse, the FS is way too aggressive in implimenting it. One judge has already ruled that the agency has overstepped its authority. (By the way, when you’re doing lunch with Mr. Bush, ask him to tell the USDA stop appealing that court decision, or at least make the FS comply with the law.)

If you need more information on FLREA, check out this website.

If the truth was known, the amount of money raised with aggressive fee-charging is small on the scale you use back there in the Beltway budget offices, especially when you deduct the costs of collecting and administering the fee income. Let’s go back to the basic idea. Federal lands should be open and free for outdoor recreation. And giving land-managing agencies the budgets they need to do their jobs.

One more thing. Down the road, no pun intended, how about giving us some permanent protection for our roadless lands? Conservationists have several innovative compromise proposals on the shelf that protect key wild lands while fostering local ecnomic development. Let’s pass a few of them, okay?

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Wild Bill [End of article]