National Forest Legal News Blog

Wyoming - I was reading this article about a $10 trailhead parking fee for the West Tensleep Trailhead in the Bighorn National Forest.  The writer is clearly distressed by the user fee and calls for it to be repealed. Somehow the idea that an environmentalist has to pay a fee to access the Forest Service's trail system is wrong?  I don't understand.  Environmentalists rail that we need to pay a carbon tax.  We need to pay tolls on our highways. We need to stop destructive grazing.   Whatever happened to the Tragedy of the Commons that environmentalists lecture about?  If you allow people to take public lands or use resources for free they will be abused and overused.  Instead, you put a price on it to deter free use and make actual users pay for their share.  Apparently, this principle only applies to others when dealing with environmentalists.