Equestrians protest trail fees

A small group of equestrians joined a national day of protest against trail park fees by staging a demonstration on Saturday, August 14, at the Sisters Ranger District administrative site.

The group numbered fewer than 10 protesters and their single poster was not visible from Sisters' main thoroughfare, Cascade Avenue.

But the handful of riders from the Central Oregon chapter of Oregon Equestrian Trails (OET) voiced their organization's opposition to the controversial Recreation Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo) implemented three years ago in many western National Forests.

Under the Fee Demo program, trail users must pay a daily or seasonal fee to park at most Deschutes National Forest trailheads.

According to local OET spokesperson Sherry Dunn, "Each (OET) chapter took a vote that we were going to unanimously and unitedly oppose Fee Demo."

The equestrian organization maintains a local membership of nearly 130. Dunn said the group maintains trails used by its members, and they are opposed to paying parking fees when they spend a considerable amount of time volunteering on public lands.

OET member Marilyn Utzinger added, "That's why we're protesting - because we work on the trails."

After their 20-minute protest at the Sisters ranger station, the group departed to ride around Black Butte.

"We're not going to park at a trailhead today," said Dunn.

The local protest was only one of over 30 demonstrations around the country coordinated as a "national day of protest" by Bend-based Wild Wilderness.

According to the organization's executive director Scott Silver, the small size of the Sisters OET demonstration was not important.

"I don't count the fact that it was small or insignificant as a setback," said Silver. "It was one extra frill."

Silver said the collective efforts nationwide were "extraordinarily successful" at getting the Fee Demo issue out in the open.

"The Forest Service has done everything they can to say that people love the fees and the opposition is isolated. They've tried like crazy to get that out," said Silver.

"Last night I watched (the Seattle) protest and the one in Portland on NBC, CBS and two cable stations, and it was on the front page of the Seattle Times. This issue's out there."

According to Deschutes National Forest spokeperson Lorette Ray, the Fee Demo program was implemented three years ago by Congress to replace funding cuts from the National Forest's Congressionally-appropriated budget.

Under the program, 95 percent of the fees collected from "Trail Park Passes" remain at local forest offices for trail maintenance and recreation facility improvements.

"The Deschutes National Forest recreation budget has dropped 22 percent from 1996 to 1999," Ray explained. "That's a $316,000 decline in the recreation budget."

Ray reports that the Fee Demo program has generated approximately $273,000 in revenues in 1997 and 1998 for the local forest, of which 5 percent goes to the regional Forest Service office in Portland.

Figures for 1999 were not yet available.

Wild Wilderness co-founder Dale Neubauer notes, however, that "there's more to the issue than simply paying fees."

Silver and Neubauer believe that Congress cut the National Forest budget in collaboration with recreation industry executives who seek profit-making partnerships with the public agency.

"There is a background push by the recreation industry to commercialize public lands and make a profit on them," Neubauer said.

Neubauer said that local demonstrations, which drew over 100 protesters to two locations in Bend, were aimed at letting the Forest Service know that people aren't buying into the Fee Demo program, despite the agency's claims of increased compliance with the fee collection.