Forest Fees Are Needed

In response to his June 16 letter objecting to the forest users fee, I would like to invite Juan Carlos Marvizon to my home on any weekend or holiday weekend he has free. I live on Highway 39 in Azusa, the route to Crystal Lake and Angeles Crest National Forest in this area. I wish they would charge more money to go there.

I don’t mind the dirty diapers and beer bottles forest users throw on the way back (better my yard than the forest). I don’t mind the rescue helicopters, ambulances, paramedics, police vehicles, firetrucks and tow trucks screaming up to the mountains to aid the forest users. I don’t even mind the sobriety checkpoints set up outside my house. If it prevents a disaster, more power to them.

What caused me to write this letter is the perception that nature is “carefree” in some people’s minds. People visit nature much as they visit any attraction in Southern California. Attractions have fees to get in, in order to maintain them after the users have left. We’re far from “natural” in dealing with nature anymore. Let the animals run the mountains and the forests. I’d bet they would never let any of us in, no matter how much money we offered.

LOUISE GRIJALVA

Azusa