Hiking Fee

You have had two articles running back to back about the nature trails (April 24 and April 25). The first one discussed the trails as being the latest victim in man’s unrelenting abuse of nature, this time in the form of graffiti (a crime that should carry a sentence of a year’s worth of community service cleaning up graffiti for a first-time offender). The latter article discussed how many are disillusioned and angry with the county’s decision to charge a $23 annual trail hiking fee.

Initially, I was opposed to the fee, but now I have changed my mind. I think it should be vigorously enforced. First, it may be the only way of keeping the trails open and properly maintained. And even more importantly, it just may keep the gangbangers and graffiti taggers out of the trails, because they definitely won’t see the value of paying a fee for what they’ve been able to do for free, everywhere else, for many years now.

MICHAEL MASHIAN

Los Angeles