Access Fees 1

Avid sportsperson and Washington State wildlife biologist Amy Spoon is very concerned about a program being adopted by private landholders such as Weyerhaeuser who are fencing off their property and putting in gates that require a fairly substantial fee to gain access. “It's really making it hard for normal access, normal pursuit of animals or, like you said, just taking a hike, going berry picking, mushroom picking, taking your kids for a mountain bike ride. It is making these simple, everyday activities that are a way of life for so many people over here so hard to do and it is only going to get worse. As these keys actually do sell, they are going to see selling keys as a success and something needs to change before they keep saying the sale of these keys as a success and keep expanding this program. That is in Washington and it is also expanding in Oregon. There are access areas in Oregon that you can only have access for one month. They are selling 40 keys per month from August through January next year and the keys for one month of access cost $550. You can’t tell me that $550 for a key is what it’s going to take to offset the cost of vandalism and littering for that one small for a month. The price to get in there is way too much.