The 9th Circuit Crt. says the Forest Service can't charge a fee for parking at or for accessing an undeveloped area. Yeh! Given reduced funding for recreation, would you donate a buck or two? Share your thoughts on this most contentious subject. Please vote; you can change it at any time if you wish.

Playing devil's advocate, I suppose there is no guarantee donations will actually go to recreation. And, donations may not be used within the area, e.g. ranger district jurisdiction.

Usually, I will donate a buck or two for stuff like this when I have the singles. I picked up the habit years ago from my brother-in-law, who does it all the time. For certain things, he will purchase a yearly sticker when in a different state even though he is using the facility only for a couple of days.

I get more than my share of enjoyment using these facilities.

As for the application of donations to the correct spot, ya just have to assume it will happen. Otherwise you would not donate money to anything! My view is that most people will do the right thing and rarely have I been disappointed.

I voted yes, but this would be my only concern as well.

[quote] donations may not be used within the area[/quote]

I'm not sure what this means...if "may not" means that it is not allowed to be used in the area, then my vote would be NO...if it means that there is a possibility that the funds could be used elsewhere, then I would go with Tom's instinct and trust that the right thing would be done.

Ed

Tom, I agree that a donation is a good thing to do, but I doubt everyone feels that way. Some will and some won't. Having been a camp host at a NPS campground I can tell you that there are quite a few people who won't pay the $10 admission fee, nor will they pay the camp site fee if the host is off duty and doesn't catch them. Sometimes they play the game "My wife has the fee envelope"/"No, I gave it to my husband"/Wait, she is looking through her purse - we'll drop it in the box when she finds it". This goes on until they are outta there!

Yeah, there are always some cheapscates like that. It is disappointing but a fact of life.

I remember back in the late 70's when my buddy and I were camping up in the Canadian Rockies after Labor Day. The Banff NP campgrounds were shutting down for the season. We were not sure how many days we were going to stay and the ranger was rarely around so we used to leave our daily or 2 day fee on the windshield when we were out hiking. The ranger was very appreaciative that he did not have to follow up on us so he allowed us to stay in one of the sections that were "officially" closed. We had to haul our garbage a little farther but we had a lot more peace and quiet!

I'm probably among the minority, but I already have a problem paying $12 a night for a beat up old table and a pit toilet. I sure don't believe I need to pay to stop and camp in an undeveloped area, but that's just me.

Mike