Campgrounds face closure (Bush plan to privatize parks)

[harpboy_ak]

The days of budget camping visits to OUR National Forests and National Parks will come to an end if the Repugs get their way! Now the Bushies want to starve Forest Service and Park Service budgets, then turn campgrounds over to concessionaires who will charge a fortune for fancy camping facilities. I urge everyone to read the full article and write every congresscritter you can.

casperstartribune.com/articles/2006/04/22/news/wyoming/7ac8ae2b39aff646872571570062ef4d.txt

By BRODIE FARQUHAR
Star-Tribune correspondent Saturday, April 22, 2006

LANDER -- Tucked away in a corner of the U.S. Forest Service Web site are plans and documents which could lead to the closure of hundreds of campground water systems and ultimately, hundreds of campgrounds themselves throughout the national forest system.

The time-hallowed practice of fetching water from a hand pump -- for preparing meals, washing dishes or washing dirty kids -- may become a thing of the past. Like a small-town post office, where people meet and talk, the campground hand pump is where campers meet and talk, forming friendships that can last a weekend or a lifetime.

That could all disappear in a few years, said primitive recreation advocate Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness in Bend, Ore.

What would replace those basic water systems and campgrounds?

According to Silver, they’d be replaced by fewer, but bigger developed campgrounds, featuring more expensive and complicated water systems, operated by for-profit concessionaires.

“It is all there on the Internet,” said Silver, referring to the "Recreation Site Facility Master Planning" Internet page that details the information.

<snip>

The Forest Service Master Plan info is at www.fs.fed.us/r3/measures/Prioritize/RS-FMP.htm

They can't destroy Social Security but they keep trying to destroy OUR public lands and public facilities so they can be privatized and run by corporate concessionaires. Hey, Halliburton could convert them into detention camps in no time...

[rzemanfl]

1. And we are worried about terrorists? Shit, these asshats will

destroy the whole country themselves.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. Is there nothing

they won't try to privatize so as to turn a profit?

I'm putting my gorgeous ass up for sale. Advertising welcome.

[AuntiBush]

13. Is there ANYTHING About America they Do Like?

I mean, they're doing everything they can to destroy us, limb by limb and yes I mean tree limbs.

Won't some*one* do some*thing* before we have nothing left. Notice how its any and all from the FDR era. Pretty weird, huh.

[spindrifter]

3. Maybe in the future

we will be allowed to see photos of the private estates that used to be our campgrounds.:argh:

[Ian David]

4. Wonder if we'll see many "Sportsmen for Bush" stickers anymore

Then again, I'm amazed there are "Vietnam Veterans against Kerry" stickers still out there.

Bushies are idiots.

[Roland99]

5. Any "sportsman" for * is certainly no sportsman.

[Ian David]

6. Drunken canned-hunting bird shooters for Bush? n/t

[Roland99]

11. *hic*...."Pull!"...*hic*

[partylessinOhio]

7. Please, I don't get it?

Why does the Emperor & Co. want to destroy America?

Why do they hate Americans?

This is not normal.

Once gone, these parks and public lands cannot be reclaimed.

:cry:

[rodeodance]

18. Pass this onto all you know and urge them to write to their congress peopl

e.

[Up2Late]

8. There are two rules when listening to a Republican Politicians...

1) Republican Politicians LIE about EVERYTHING.

2) If you start to believe something a Republican Politician says, refer to rule # 1.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. These people cannot make a buck on their own. They are not

rugged individualists. They are asshats who rely on crony connections to circumvent ANY FAIR COMPETITIVE PROCESS IN ORDER TO EXPLOIT public resources.

Hear that? Anybody who uses their crony connections to circumvent fair competition IS NOT THE KIND OF CAPITALIST THIS COUNTRY NEEDS. They don't have a new idea in their head. They're just exploiting our heritage.

[glitch]

14. Sucking on the taxpayer's teat is all they know. "welfare queen" was pure

projection for them.

And that goes for the "macho" blackwater boys too.

[saigon68]

25. "macho" blackwater boys bite the dust

No tears for these thugs

[Arkansas Granny]

10. So who has done favors for Bush and the Republicans and

will be rewarded with this contract? They try to stay in power by auctioning off our country to the highest bidder.

[Malva Zebrina]

12. The White Mountaiun National Forest, and it's campgrounds

have already been privatized to a certain extent. Checks for camping there are made out to a corporation. Campground monitors are paid by corporations. The facility is NOT any better than it was, except for the change in the PR--the kiosks now look like a typical advertising unit, rather than an information gathering vehicle. They used to be painted brown, with appropriate notices being posted up there--now they are garishly painted in some rendition of red, white and blue.

All of the times I have camped there, I have noticed the families who enjoy the camping--most of them are families and most use the trails with their families and it did not put a cramp on your budjet, yet it was a beautiful experience for families to enjoy for a few days or more.

I don 't know if the prices have gone up, but I do know that it now longer seems to be a down to earth experience for families and friends, but I am certain, the facility will not be updated any further (pit toilets, no electricity and etc) but the price I fully expect, will go up.(to pay for those garish kiosks)

What a shame.

[0007]

21. Are talking about the White Mountains in Arizona?

Used to go there twenty years ago with my children.

[montana500]

24. In all likelihood that campground will be gone...

Unless it can fit RV's towing ATV trailers, and the water sysem can be updated.

[oneold1-4u]

15. Rather Odd!

Living for many years within the boundaries of national forest it has always been that camping within the forest, in a designated campground, was not mandatory. In this new scenario it will likely be made a law. The nation needs to know that Government does not OWN the lands, they are only caretakers! They have been over jumping that authority for years with crooked timber sales and land trades and give-a-ways! This bunch is just planning on optimizing until Americans will no longer have a country at all!
Give a damn! Make a noise! Make a change!

[rodeodance]

17. Write a snail mail letter to your congresscritters NOW. And call them.

[CatholicEdHead]

27. Use a postcard instead

so it gets through quicker.

[creeksneakers2]

16. Its hard to find a nice private campground now

Nearly all of them are just parking lots for RVs. Public parks still have wilderness ,even though you have to share it with other campers. Give the private campground operators a concession, and they'll cut down the trees and bulldoze the campground to make room for RVs, where the big money is.

[bklyncowgirl]

22. My husband & I have been considering buying a campground

We've been looking into the economics of it.

Most public campgrounds operate at a loss. They are, after all public services and they are different from private campgrounds in the way that a public library is different from Barnes & Noble.

A public campground provides a basic camping experience for people who want to get close to nature. A private campground is either an overnight parking lot for RVS--the more RVs you can cram into the place the more money you make--or it is a destination resort where people camp close to attractions--using the RV as a mobile hotel room. Private campgrounds often offer game rooms, swimming pools, mini-golf courses all designed to keep the kiddiepoos out of mom & dad's hair and of course get mom & dad to shell out cash--nothing wrong with this, mind you--it's just different. Barnes & Noble, in the end, wants me to BUY a book. My local public library wants me to READ their books. Both are good--both serve different purposes. Barnes & Noble is a business. My library is a public service.

RVs are longer than they were a few years ago with slide outs that take up even more space. Many prefer "satellite friendly" sites i.e. no trees. The big rigs require 50 amp electrical service for their air conditioners--especially important if you have a "satellite friendly" site. Frankly they don't fit into most public campsites and since most public campgrounds don't have the electrical water and especially sewer hookups that RVers crave they can't attract this market. Doing what it would take to make these campgrounds suitable for RVs would cost big bucks and totally change the nature of most public campgrounds--especially in the National Forest Service who's campgrounds tend to be more rural.

I personally love the National Forest campgrounds which typically have larger more wooded sites than event he National Park campgrounds. It would be a shame to see them privatized but then again, the Republicans have a philosophy that the worth of anything is measured by the profit it generates.

[susanna]

28. Just thinking aloud here...

Won't that change if RVs are priced out of the reach of most folks? With gas the way it seems to be going?

The reason I ask is I always figured I would be an RVer when I retired (I am in my 30s now). I make a very good living and have a lot saved for retirement, but RVing is looking less and less interesting in the face of volatile energy prices, which I think will only continue and get worse.

Hopefully (I am an eternal optimist) that might help in saving our campgrounds and wilderness spaces? I do not know the ins and outs of all of this in detail, but those are my thoughts. Does that make sense?

[creeksneakers2]

29. That makes lots of sense n/t

[DrBloodmoney]

19. I heard that the terra-ists...

... were hiding in those forests.

[rodeodance]

20. Kick and nominate.

[sweetheart]

23. the parksystem is overtrafficed, begs an economic solution

I can't quite see the stretch to privitization,
but the park system is overburdened with too many
visitors. YOu might as well just put a mall down
the center of yosemite valley... and once in a
while people can look up.

[montana500]

30. This is a national forest plan.

The national park service is a different system. National forests are great places, as good as many national parks. They are more known for their quietness and overall lack of tourists comapred to the national parks with very popular attractions like Half Dome or Old Faithful.

[WhiteTara]

26. and that bastard came and tore up our trails

in one of California's state parks.

IMPEACH BUSH AND SEND THEM ALL TO THE HAGUE

[Jose Diablo]

31. This is how it goes

first they 'improve' it by putting in guard shacks and chained gates everyplace except the guard shacks. The guard shacks are explained as the need to collect users fees for the national parks to make 'needed' improvements, like charcoal grills and Jonnie on the Spots at designated picnic areas. All other areas in the park are off limits to 'visitors'.

Then the budget is cut until there is no money for the guards, the user fees previously collected go to pay for building a private golf course someplace.

Then the chained gates are placed in front of the guard shacks and nobody gets in.

Then the whole thing is 'sold' to a private company with promises to make improvements.

Improvements are made, mostly strip mall type of affairs that sell junk with huge rates of profit to benefit the 'public' spirited corporation that bought the park for pennies on the dollar.

Crowds of mindless people then flock to see some dipshits dressed-up like some cartoon charecters and the whole thing is as far from what it used to be, a good place to go enjoy the wilderness and cook a few hotdogs and hamburgers.

The public park has become a mindless creation used by mindless people. It's the Republican way to a 'better' future, a way filled with profit, for themselves.

[stanwyck]

32. My family was able to visit over 40

states (my parents were public school teachers) during our summers because we could camped almost every night. The big treat was a night at a motel with a pool. (and my poor Mother would spend that luxurious night doing laundry at a laundromat). We stayed at state and national campgrounds for nominal fees. We bought groceries and Mom (such a vacation for her) cooked our meals on a campstove. And Dad setup the tent, pumped air mattresses and did all the driving. We helped. Kind of.
The middle-class in this country is losing out.

[anitar1]

33. Some public lands have already been put up for sale. Here

in Oregon and Washington, quite a few acres along the Columbia River are for sale. So much for these being owned by the public. I read this in my local paper a couple of months ago.