Forest fees rescinded in some places

AS of May 28 -- Memorial Day weekend -- the U.S. Forest Service will stop charging people who want to park their cars and hike, picnic or otherwise use parts of three Southern California national forests.

The agency no longer will require people to purchase Adventure Passes in these areas: The Monterey Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest; the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument in the San Bernardino National Forest near the Coachella Valley; the area south of Interstate 8 and north of the Mexico border in the Cleveland National Forest; the Mt. Palomar area north of Highway 76 in the Cleveland National Forest, east of Escondido.

Those places are lightly used. None of the Angeles National Forest sites are affected, said Forest Service spokeswoman Ruth Wenstrom

“We couldn’t really find an area that had light enough use” in the Angeles, and the agency couldn’t afford to lose the revenue that the fees bring in, she said.

The Adventure Pass is an experiment that allows federal agencies to assess fees in exchange for access to recreational lands.

But it has been contested as outdoor users object to paying to access public lands supported by tax dollars. The fees typically cost $5 per motorized vehicle per day or $30 per year.

-- Christopher Reynolds