Posted by MoparNorm on Monday, August 02, 2004 at 11:43AM :
In Reply to: Re: Public campgrounds posted by David Sherman on Monday, August 02, 2004 at 11:21AM :
In SoCal we have to pay an annual "fee" to drive on forest roads, that gives you a pass to place on your vehicle, without the pass you can be fined up to $271 for using public lands without a pass, imagine that! The forest service then stopped maintaining roads, hoping to curtail useage. That was great for the 4x4 crowd as we finally had a place to seriously wheel on roads that couldn't be closed, but couldn't be driven on by passenger cars unless maintained. Then the forest service said they will barricade these roads unless they find additional funding sources, so the Off-Road Associations worked out a deal with the help of several local congressmen to sponsor these federal roads, it is called "Adopt a Trail" we maintain (re-move litter and graffitti etc.) and the feds are still responsible for liability, it is working pretty good. That same senario could be used for these campgrounds.
The key is Mixed Use, so that no group is excluded from using the public lands. These lands belong to all, not just the backpackers and the 3 toed grub catcher.
MN
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