No-Fee Resolution Delayed in CA Senate - Urgent - Your Help Needed!


The CA Senate public hearing on AJR 21, the no-fee resolution, has been postponed till Tuesday June 26th. Partly, this is because the US Forest Service has come out to openly oppose the passage of this resolution - and we need YOUR HELP to voice strong support for AJR 21.

In some other states that passed similar no-fee resolutions, the Forest Service testified at hearings but stopped short of opposing the resolutions. The CA Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Water is giving considerable weight to the Forest Service's opposition to AJR 21 - and it is up to us, as citizens of California, to demonstrate to the committee's chair and staff that we oppose fees for access to our federal public lands.

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_WHAT TO DO_

Please email a quick letter (in your own words) to the CA Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water's chair, Senator Darrell Steinberg, and send a copy of the SAME letter to three of the committee staff working on the no-fee resolution, email addresses below.


DEADLINE Monday June 25,

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SAMPLE LETTER_
(Please adapt this and add your own comments, to make it your OWN letter. Exact copies of this sample letter will carry much less weight. Thank you!)

Honorable Darrell Steinberg, Chair, Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water,

Please support AJR 21, the no-fee resolution that will come before your committee for a public hearing on June 26th.

The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which AJR 21 asks Congress to repeal, has given federal land management agencies the incentive to develop more and more fee sites, since the agencies can retain fee income. I don't want to see more undeveloped public lands turned into fee sites.

The BLM is now selling Special Use Permits under the FLREA for a wide range of activities such as hiking, fishing, hunting and boating, which I oppose.

The Forest Service has interpreted the FLREA so broadly that fees are often charged miles beyond the developed sites where fees are allowed. This means that trailheads and backcountry access now require fees, even though the FLREA prohibits this.

The Forest Service spends a large amount of the fee revenue, as much as 50%, on the administration and enforcement of the fees.

The FLREA carries severe penalties - fines of up to $100,000 and/or 6 months in jail for non-compliance. Low-income visitors have been shown in numerous studies to be visiting
their federal public lands less often, when these fees are in place.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment.

Yours sincerely,
(Name and Address)



_EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO_

Senator Steinberg, Committee Chair -
darrell.steinberg@sen.ca.gov

and to his staff -
william.craven@sen.ca.gov
marie.liu@sen.ca.gov
kiyomi.burchill@sen.ca.gov

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WHAT ELSE TO DO_

Please phone the following Senators who sit on the committee to ask them to support AJR 21.

Sen. Bob Margett (R-Vice Chair) (916) 651-4029
Sen. Dave Cogdill (R) (916) 651-4014

Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R) (916) 651-4036

Sen. Christine Kehoe (D) (916) 651-4039

Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D) (916) 651-4023

Sen. Michael Machado (D) (916) 651-4005

Sen. Carole Migden (D) (916) 651-4003
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_PLEASE NOTE_

Committee member Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R-San Diego) has already coauthored AJR 21. Your calls to his office should_ thank him_ for this and ask him to speak about AJR 21 when it comes to the Senate floor for a vote.


Thank you! AJR 21 needs YOUR support to pass!
Alasdair Coyne


Thanks, Buggy Family, for caring and participating.

-Dooley :moon:

Hi Dooley.....good luck with this, I don't really understand what it is you have said, only that is seems that people will be charged for using public land....whcih is odd?!?.

The more we stand up and rally to our cause the better :singing:

Cheers..