On new and increasing fees for outdoor recreation - Always Ants

Join us as we rant a bit about new and increased fees, at Eden Valley Campground in the Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon in November 2019. Despite the chilly shiver-inducing weather, the blood ran hot when we noticed the posting about yet more fee increases and new fees at formerly free sites. When you can afford only the fuel to get somewhere, fees are not an option. And when the levels of maintenance and supervision are so clearly nonexistent, one cannot but suspect unsavory things about the reasoning behind new and increased fees. The USFS can afford to do good with $6 billion we give it each year to operate-- yet only spends 0.04% of it on recreation. So it cannot rightfully fall on our shoulders when six-figure administrator salaries or questionable spending take precedence over the basics of facilities maintenance. But that's how governments stay powerful, and how corporations stay wealthy: by passing the cost on to the citizen and consumer. Our last actually paid campground night was the evening before we hiked to a most special place for us, back in June 2019: youtu.be/xcXUHZm4IEw. It was, as always, a hellish campground experience due to constant extremely discourteous and intentionally problematic behavior by numerous other campers-- which the USFS staff simply ignored. Please subscribe, and to help keep us going, please donate at: patreon.com/AlwaysAnts