August 1, 2006

Visitor Days: New Math for USFS and NPS

Posted by Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.

The San Bernardino National Forest was recently caught using a highway counter strip at Big Bear Dam in Big Bear Lake, California to count all vehicles entering and leaving this community of 16,000 people. This was used to “document” the Visitor Days for this portion of the national forest; however, every day many of the local folks are commuting to and from their jobs in the Inland Empire.

These are residents and definitely NOT visitors to the national forest.

The American Land Rights Association (www.landrights.org) revealed the National Park Service was doing the same thing to commuters living in Virginia on the George Washington Parkway in Washington D.C.

Recently, I have been told by a reliable source that the National Park Service staffer in charge of documenting Visitor Days to the 249,000-acre Channel Islands National Park (a U.N. biosphere reserve off the coast of Southern California) has been counting passengers and crew on commercial airplanes and cruise liners that pass within eyesight of the islands. This NPS employee allegedly even calls the cruise line and airline offices to get the exact number of passengers and crew on board. They then become “Visitor Day” visitors to the National Park.

This national park is very difficult to visit, and is very desperate to justify its existence.