Top 40 Issue 10: Fee Demo, LWCF, and CARA.

ISSUE: For the third year in a row, American Whitewater has identified Fee Demo and funding for our public lands as a Top 10 issue. More than 600 hundred of American Whitewater members responded to our summer letter-writing appeal urging Congress not to approve a rider extending Fee Demo without an honest and open opportunity for citizen dialogue. In late June, Senator Gorton (R-WA) and Graham (D-Fl) made the unbelievable decision to propose a rider to the Interior Appropriations Bill permanently authorizing Fee Demo for the Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and Fish and Wildlife Service. These gentlemen failed to hold public hearings or acknowledge opposition for permanent extension of Fee Demo from virtually every national recreation and conservation group in the country. For boaters, Fee Demo is particularly threatening and discriminatory since a quarter of all fee collection sites are on rivers despite the fact that river use represents less than one tenth of one percent of visitation.
GOAL: Oppose permanent extension of Fee Demo for the NPS, USFS, BLM, FWS, and Army Corps. Require Congress to (1) authorize an unbiased public review of this fee demonstration "study" before taking any action to extend the program, and (2) to hold public hearings on this program before any action is taken to extend the program. Obtain increased federal funding for America's land management agencies, via approval for increased funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA).