Stage Is Set for Corporate Control of Wild Lands

> Healing Our World: Weekly Comment
> <http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-18g.asp>
> By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
> (excerpt)
> "I do not look forward to the day when I have to enter the 
> ExxonMobil Forest Trailhead and pay five dollars. Yet that day seems 
> to be fast approaching."
>
> Stage Is Set for Corporate Control of Wild Lands
>
> They've lost it, lost it,
> and their children
> will never even wish for it -
> and I am afraid
> that the whole tribe's in trouble,
> the whole tribe is lost -
> because the sun keeps rising
> and these days
> nobody sings.
> -- Aaron Kramer
>
> In 1997, a test began that sent chills down the spines of those who 
> love our nationís national parks, forests, and wild lands. ìDonít 
> worry,î we were told, as the U.S. Forest Service began charging fees 
> to visit national forests. Never before were public lands accessible 
> only to those who could afford it.
>
> Critics claim the fee is a carefully designed strategy, endorsed by 
> some of the nation's leading recreation industries, to get Americans 
> used to paying fees to use their forests and public lands. The 
> critics further claimed that Congress was creating a maintenance 
> crisis in federally managed forest lands by intentionally cutting 
> their budgets, thus providing an excuse to seek help from corporate 
> America. The fees, critics charged, marked the beginning of 
> corporate control of our public lands that have, until now, been 
> part of our heritage, paid for by our tax dollars.
>
> Well, guess what? The critics were right, as was recently proven 
> with the release of President George W. Bushís ìcompetitive sourcing 
> plan.î This plan requires agencies like the National Park Service to 
> seek bids from the private sector for jobs within the parks that 
> have been done by park employees. With the nearly $6 billion backlog 
> of maintenance jobs in just the national parks, this amounts to a 
> windfall for private business.
>
> Critics claim that this is a continuing effort by the Bush 
> administration to take tax dollars from the U.S. Treasury and put 
> these dollars into the hands of private businesses, under the guise 
> of stimulating the economy. Sure, a few jobs are created, but many 
> are lost as well, and few citizens will see any benefits. Large 
> corporations, however, are usually the only ones who can pass the 
> rigorous requirements for receiving such contracts and, once again, 
> the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
>
> National parks are already beginning to feel the pain of this new 
> program. Hard won dollars that have been reserved for maintenance 
> and repairs in the parks are now, by Presidential order, being spent 
> on hiring expensive consultants to prioritize maintenance jobs and 
> to come up with the plan for getting outside bids.
>
> These consultant contracts are draining park budgets. Mount Rainier 
> National Park in Washington State expects the consultants to cost as 
> much as $335,000 by the time they are finished. That money could 
> have paid for a lot of trail and road maintenance.
>
> Of course, using maintenance money to pay for such studies 
> undermines one of Bush's campaign pledges, ironically made on a 
> visit to Washington state. In September 2000, on a stop at Monroe, 
> Washington, Bush pledged to clear out a maintenance backlog then 
> estimated to be less than $4 billion. That backlog may now be 
> approaching $6 billion with no end in site.
>
> The deeper concern with this plan is the continued corporate 
> influence being exerted on our public lands. The U.S. Forest Service 
> already subsidizes the country's lumber industry with billions of 
> tax dollars by allowing them to cut trees on lands they lease for 
> pennies on the dollar. Taxpayers also foot the bill for the building 
> of roads for lumber companies. There is no requirement that any of 
> the billions of dollars in profit from the sale of that wood be 
> returned to taxpayers.
>
> There is a unique difference between park rangers, even those 
> assigned maintenance duties, and a contracted company whose only 
> interest is completing the job. Most rangers have a unique love and 
> concern for their park and are deeply interested in its survival.
>
> One employee who will probably be fired when Bushís plan goes into 
> effect is Rich Lechleitner, a maintenance worker at Mount Rainer. 
> Although one of his primary jobs is cleaning backcountry toilets, he 
> is a classic example of the kind of person that a contract wonít 
> bring in.
>
> Lechleitner makes $18 an hour as a maintenance worker, but what he 
> actually does goes far beyond the call of duty. He has a doctorate 
> in zoology, is a skilled mountaineer trained for search and rescue 
> missions, and he used to be the park's animal biologist. He is a 
> licensed firefighter and an emergency medical technician. Those 
> skills are in constant demand, especially from a place where 11 
> people died in 2002.
>
> Park and forest managers are being pressured to seek more and more 
> money from private corporations. The American Recreation Coalition 
> (ARC), a recreation industry supported group that includes over 100 
> recreation related associations and corporations, was instrumental 
> in lobbying Congress to implement the public lands fee program back 
> in 1997 and this organization continues to be active .
>
> In February 1999, Derrick Crandall, president of the ARC and 
> president of the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, an 
> industry trade group that represents nearly 95 percent of all 
> recreational vehicle sales and service in North America, testified 
> before Congress. He told an oversight hearing of the U.S. Senate 
> Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that the fee program is 
> ìan important learning opportunity."
>
> "Across the nation," Crandall said, "we are experimenting with new 
> fees and fees collected in new ways, with fees that vary by day of 
> the week and which are regional in nature.î
>
> And there can be no clearer proof of the intentions of the ARC than 
> the fact that they paid for the implementation of the fee program! A 
> look at some of the members of the ARC is quite revealing - and 
> chilling.
>
>
> *	American Council of Snowmobile Associations
> *	American Hotel and Motel Association
> *	American Motorcyclist Association
> *	American Petroleum Institute
> *	American Power Boat Association
> *	Chevron Corporation
> *	ExxonMobil Company
> *	International Association for Amusement Parks
> *	International Jet Sports Boating Association
> *	National Rifle Association
> *	The Walt Disney Company
>
> These are just a few of the over 100 organizations that are working 
> hard to influence Congress that they should acquire the rights to 
> develop and operate recreation facilities on public lands and be 
> given contracts to maintain those lands.
>
> With recreational spending of Americans estimated to be $300 billion 
> yearly, these companies are poised to reap unprecedented financial 
> benefits. Their plan appears to be to develop a "pay as you go" 
> attitude among public land users where we have to pay for every form 
> of recreating. I do not look forward to the day when I have to enter 
> the ExxonMobil Forest Trailhead and pay five dollars. Yet that day 
> seems to be fast approaching.
>
> Can it really be that the value of our recreational experiences, the 
> power and importance of reconnecting with the natural world and our 
> access to nature are all dependent upon who is the highest bidder?
>
> Do we all really exist to provide profit opportunities for the 
> business and industry? I hope not. We cannot exist solely to provide 
> business opportunities. We must not accept that we can no longer go 
> into the woods when we want to without first finding a store that 
> will sell us a pass because Congress - which includes many former 
> business leaders - wishes to provide opportunities for the world's 
> largest corporations.
>
> The implications of the fee program and Bushís competitive sourcing 
> plan are far reaching and threaten to set a precedent that will 
> affect the way we perceive public lands and the way we are allowed 
> to visit the natural world for generations to come.
>
> RESOURCES
>
> 1. Learn more about the arguments of those who are against the 
> forest service fees and corporate control of wild lands at Free Our 
> Forests at: http://www.freeourforests.org/
>
> 2. Learn about Mount Rainier National Park at: 
> http://www.nps.gov/mora/home.htm
>
> 3. The National Parks Conservation Association advocates for 
> national parks. It recently gave the Bush administration a grade of 
> D minus in a recent analysis of the handling of issues that affect 
> national parks. See their website at: http://www.npca.org
>
> 4. See the campaign led by conservation associations to boost the 
> park service's budget. It is called Americans for National Parks at: 
> http://www.americansfornationalparks.org
>
> 5. See an article about the impact on Bushís plan on parks at: 
> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/130993_parkmaintenance16.html
>
> 6. See the National Park Service website about the Fee Demonstration 
> Program at: 
> http://www.nps.gov/dena/home/visitorinfo/programs/userfee.html
>
> 7. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail 
> them. Tell them they need to stop Bushís competitive sourcing plan. 
> If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: 
> http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
>
> {Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and 
> the author of "Healing Our World," A Journey from the Darkness Into 
> the Light," available at: 
> http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html and ìOf This Earth, 
> Reflections on Connections,î available at: http://ofthisearth.org. 
> Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at: 
> jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his website at: 
> http://www.healingourworld.com}
--
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