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No More Nw Forest Pass!


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March 29, 2004 The Associated Press

Forest Service drops 385 sites from controversial fee program

Associated Press

 

EUGENE, Ore. - Hikers, birders, and picnickers will no longer have to buy a Northwest Forest Pass to visit 385 sites in Oregon and Washington, starting May 1.

 

The U.S. Forest Service will drop that many trailheads and other areas from the fee program, reducing the total number of day-use sites that require a fee payment to 679 in the two states.

 

No-fee sites in the two states will rise to 1,681.

 

The revision - one of the biggest changes since the agency began imposing the fees six years ago - is part of a new policy to make the fees more consistent nationwide, and to mainly have fees at sites with more amenities, such as restrooms, picnic tables and fire rings.

 

Agency officials say the changes have nothing to do with the bitter complaints about the fees from Oregon and Washington residents. In the past two years, the Forest Service has issued hundreds of tickets to residents for failure to display the passes.

 

Some residents have spent months fighting the citations.

 

As part of the latest change, forest officials added a few pay sites after the review showed they should be charging fees in places that they weren't, including some locations in the Umpqua and Siuslaw National Forests.

 

Although scaling back the region's fee sites is bound to be popular with the public, it will leave forests with fewer dollars that directly benefit those recreation areas, said Laurie Thorpe, an assistant recreation fee director at the agency's regional headquarters in Portland.

 

"Most of them will be scrambling to look for other funding sources," she said. "Our appropriated sources are just not adequate, so we'll be looking for partners, grants, that sort of thing. But over time, our backlog of maintenance grows."

 

In some cases, trails dropped from the pass program may not be maintained at all.

 

"We just won't have the funds to do it," Thorpe said.

 

If you are interested, you could contact:

USDA Forest Service - Pacific Northwest Region

PO Box 3623, 333 SW First Avenue

Portland, Oregon 97208-3623 USA

(503) 808-2468

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/

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I really don't mind buying a Forest Pass and kicking in for the maintenance of the trails I use if the funds really go for the maintenance of the trails. That's a pretty big caveat when dealing with a bureaucracy like the NFS, I guess. Besides, it helps clear the trails up of those pesky penniless hippies. :D

 

Even with the NFS pass, the NPS pass, and a voluntary membership in the Washington Trails Association membership, hiking is still one of the cheapest things I do for fun.

 

I mean, it was $25 for a movie, pop, and popcorn for the wife and I last Friday, and that was only 95 minutes long! :D

Edited by Bull Moose
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I really don't mind buying a Forest Pass and kicking in for the maintenance of the trails I use if the funds really go for the maintenance of the trails. That's a pretty big caveat when dealing with a bureaucracy like the NFS, I guess. Besides, it helps clear the trails up of those pesky penniless hippies. :D

 

Even with the NFS pass, the NPS pass, and a voluntary membership in the Washington Trails Association membership, hiking is still one of the cheapest things I do for fun.

 

I mean, it was $25 for a movie, pop, and popcorn for the wife and I last Friday, and that was only 95 minutes long! :D

good point. I had no problems paying for the trail pass. Only 25 bucks. cheap. Wish state parks was that cheap for the annual.

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Well, I minded paying, didn't pay. Now I guess I don't have to pay for what I wasn't paying for. They spent a lot of money enforcing something that wasn't enforcable, at least it wasn't enforced to any degree down here.

I always regarded it as more of an honor system thing. I never sweated it if we forgot to hang it up, since I assumed the trailhead would never be checked.

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The whole thing is kind of silly, because the type of people that use the forest are the type of people who don't have a problem parking 200 yards from the designated forest pass area to avoid having to pay.

 

I actually tried to buy a forest pass twice. Once in the Prospect area and once in the Applegate area. Both times I stopped at the Ranger Station and told them where I was going, and both times they told me I didn't need a pass there.

 

I think it is similar to buying a membership to Geocaching.com. You don't REALLY need to do it, but it is commendable to support your passions.

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I'm one of those old fuddy duddies that believes anything the government does with my money will be a bad thing. Jeremy at the very worst will buy a six pack with my money.

Well, it's like I said, I'd happily pay triple for that pass if they can show that the money is going to trail/trailhead maintenance and not swallowed up in some administrator's salary or pet spotted owl project.

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Wouldn't it be nice if they took those drunk driving guys doing weekends and had them doing trail maintenance?  :o

Now THAT'S good.....

I'd second that. I'd love to see those guys humping gear up a mountainside. It might make them think twice about getting behind the wheel toasted again.

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So....here's a question for all of you. If I were to purchase every kind of parks' pass there is in Washington (maybe in Oregon too), what would I have? I guess that what I'm asking is just how many different types of park passes are there?

You'd have the NW Forest pass, good for WA and OR, the National Parks pass, good nationally, the WA state park pass, and you might want to throw in the Dept. Fish and Wildlife parking pass (it comes free with hunting and fishing licenses or costs something like $10) for stream and wildlife area access. I did that last year, and I think it was $115 not including hunting license. I think I'll drop the WA State Parks pass this year.

 

They have a new pass that covers the NW Forest Pass, National Parks Pass, and select WA and OR state parks. I'm not buying that until all the state parks are on board.

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It seems that the gov't is always coming up with a new way to collect money from me. This is just one more way. They come in, pave the parking lot and put up new $30K toilets. That is what we are paying for. A couple of summers ago, after having backpacked 25 miles, I discovered that the last 5 miles were strewn with windfalls. On the Pacific Crest trail!

 

I have learned to avoid the pay trails. It has taken me to some very interesting and beautiful out of the way places. Apparantly, crowds don't like to get too far from crowded areas. Perhaps, by the time the gov't discovers these little places and paves their parking lots, I'll be dead or too old to hike. :o

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They come in, pave the parking lot and put up new $30K toilets.  That is what we are paying for.

Those $30k (seems a bit high) toilets are sometimes the difference in whether I can talk my wife into hiking instead of making me do yard work, so I won't complain about them. :lol:

Edited by Bull Moose
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They have a new pass that covers the NW Forest Pass, National Parks Pass, and select WA and OR state parks. I'm not buying that until all the state parks are on board.

Except for the state park part, the Golden Eagle endorsement to the Nat'l Parks Pass pretty much acts like the NW forest pass (unless there's something new a brewing...) Total is $50 + $15. We picked up the endorsement down at Yaquina Head Lighthouse on our trip last weekend.

 

Here's a tangent question: The literature we got says the endorsement is good for a year from purchase, as is the Nat'l Parks pass. Our Nat'l Parks Pass expires in July 2004, but we just bought the endorsement in April 2004, so IT should be good until April 2005, even though the Nat'l Parks pass it is affixed to expires first. Does anyone know what kind of hassle I should expect for such a transgression?? Maybe I should swing by the ranger station in REI this weekend...

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Wouldn't it be nice if they took those drunk driving guys doing weekends and had them doing trail maintenance? :(

I love this. Can I specifically request that "trail maintenance" be narrowed specifically to "serious reduction in amount of poison oak"? A dandy case of poison oak obtained from having to do trail maintenance would be a really fabulous reminder not to drive drunk. Although I can state from experience that you can't drink enough to stop itching.

I love this!

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I love this. Can I specifically request that "trail maintenance" be narrowed specifically to "serious reduction in amount of poison oak"? A dandy case of poison oak obtained from having to do trail maintenance would be a really fabulous reminder not to drive drunk. Although I can state from experience that you can't drink enough to stop itching.

I love this!

Oh darn, the boys forgot their gloves too. :(

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Now that they have dropped a bunch of sites, the chances of actually having the dang thing when I need it are dropping because if I MIGHT not need it, why bother? I bought a pass last year and ended up needing it twice. Next year, forgetaboutit! Now if I could volunteer labor, and get credit, I would do it anyway - as in participate in a CITO event, get a pass. Cary a pole or some gravel 2 miles up a trail - get a pass. Somehow, I'd feel less ripped off donating $100 worth of my labor to the park project of my choice, than if I got suckled for $25 to feed the friggin' parking meter!

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Now that they have dropped a bunch of sites, the chances of actually having the dang thing when I need it are dropping because if I MIGHT not need it, why bother? I bought a pass last year and ended up needing it twice. Next year, forgetaboutit! Now if I could volunteer labor, and get credit, I would do it anyway - as in participate in a CITO event, get a pass. Cary a pole or some gravel 2 miles up a trail - get a pass. Somehow, I'd feel less ripped off donating $100 worth of my labor to the park project of my choice, than if I got suckled for $25 to feed the friggin' parking meter!

There was a pass (I could swear it was the NW forest pass, but they might do others now...?) about 2-3 years ago that you could get for free after 2-3 sanctioned trail cleanup sessions. Our local alumni group would often have a couple people that got it from doing this.

 

I'll keep digging to see if I can find information...

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"Free" NW Forest passes information:

 

From http://www.wta.org/~wta/cgi-bin/wtaweb.pl?5+os+passes

 

As a result of the Congressional order, in the Northwest Region (Region 6) of the USFS, we now have the Northwest Forest Pass program. For $30 you may now buy a pass that's good at all Forest Service trailheads through out Oregon and Washington. The pass is valid for one year from the day you purchased it. Single day passes are also available for $5.

 

NOTE: If you do not wish to pay the $30, you may do two days of volunteer work on Forest Service trails with WTA. Your volunteer service will be acknowledged with a free annual pass. See our Trail Teams section for more information.

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