All "Nature" is Owned today ...I have to pay for a park or admission to It

[KoKo]

If I want to escape...bike ride...sit on a cliff, mountaintop where I can get away...see something else beyond me and my petty life, it seems that I have to "pay for a ticket."

Beaches, Mountains, State Parks...off the beaten paths. We are forced to pay for our "Commune with Nature." For those of us that get our souls/spirits/grounding from "Getting AWAY" to what EARTH calls us to...where do we go?

The condo's and tourist industries have pretty much taken it over in the USA that is..and that's where I am...I guess I could go to Bali..?

[Blue_State_Elitist]

1. A good read

Read the book "It's All For Sale." It's a pretty good breakdown of how each commodity is being used to make maximum profit. It's by an author that writes for the Villiage Voice, can't recall him offhand.

[Haymare22]

2. Its not so easy.....

...anymore. I do know parks, beaches, personnel, cleaning(after humans) and maintenance cost money.
Is there open space? Not enough by a long shot. The fukin insane human backwash sprawl closing in around me is awful and Im not complaining as I live very rural with open space but the backwash is lapping my feet.
And I know what you are saying about having to pay to get anywhere or do anything and know what I wrote doesnt help, but sadly today someone does have to clean up after human waste, of all kinds....Pretty sad.

Personnally I keep wonderin when all these people will go back to their own 'countries'......

[amazona]

3. blame ronald reagan

He was the one who decided that instead of our national parks belonging to all, even the poor, we should have to pay "user fees."

That said, I trespassed freely on state land for two decades and was never stopped or even noticed by a ranger since I carried no gun or fishing pole. I wasn't really aware that you needed a license even if you weren't hunting or fishing. My state's non-consumption stamp is only $5.50 per year so I go to WalMart each year and purchase it there now because there is no tacked-on profit there, like there is when buying it over the internet. They also sell the National Duck Stamp for $15. You do not have to use it to hunt ducks. It also gives you free access for a year to a variety of national refuges. If you are not a hunter, don't go while hunting is going on, or if you must, wear orange, but the rest of the year you should be able to enter freely.

In some areas, if you are a very early riser, before the rangers feel like manning the entrance, you can enter certain parks for free.

Stop at your state's welcome center and ask for their birding trail map if they have it -- should be free. This trail will have some free sites marked on it.

You can get access into many National Forests for free, or at least I have gotten in for free, if I was supposed to buy a stamp, I'm not aware of it. Never collect more than one tree or one mineral specimen from a National Forest without permit.

By the way-- where do you live -- I might be able to tell you where you can go for free.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72