"California Fee Demo Protester Found Guilty
United States District Court Magistrate Judge Jennifer T. Lum found Mr. Robert Bartsch guilty of engaging in a recreational activity within the San Bernardino National Forest without paying the $5 recreational fee known as the Adventure Pass. According to Forest Officer Nathan Judy, the car belonging to Mr. Bartsch was parked near the San Antonio Canyon Falls Road August 17, 2003 and was not displaying the Pass.

The defendant admitted that he had hiked to the top of San Antonio Peak (Mt. Baldy). This infraction is punishable by a maximum $100 with no possibility of jail time.

The United States Government waived the $100 fine. Magistrate Jennifer Lum did sentence Mr. Bartsch to three months probation with the stipulation that he stay out of the forest for that period of time and a $10 court cost. Mr. Bartsch plans to appeal this verdict.

Mr. Bartsch has had 6 previous Forest Service citations dismissed and claims he has been singled out for persecution because he distributes information against this program to forest visitors.

The Forest Service has admitted that they have written over 200,000 Notices of Non Compliance (within the 4 Southern California National Forests) to defiant forest visitors since the inception of the fee program in 1997. No more then 15 real citations have been written for not paying the fee in Southern California.

Mr. Bartsch is the second person successfully prosecuted by the Forest Service here in Southern California for failing to comply. Mr. Terry Dahl of Santa Barbara was found guilty of not paying the fee January 9, 2001 by U. S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder and was instructed to pay restitution of $5 on the last one of 11 Notices of Non Compliance plus a court fee of $10.

Mr. Bartsch made the following statement to the court:

"Your Honor,

I am not guilty of doing anything immoral or wrong. If this test program (which is responsible for me being here in court today) becomes permanent law, we will be barred from all of our public lands without a permit every where within this country. This will essentially take away a very important part of our freedom so that it can be sold back to us at 'FAIR MARKET VALUE.' There is no limit as to what we can be charged.

Without a doubt, the vast majority of Americans will agree, that we will have lost a very important part of our freedom if we must have a permit to simply go for a walk in our forest. Our public lands belong to all citizens of this country, rich and poor, not just those who can afford to buy a permit to leave the city.

It looks to me as if America has become a hypocrisy, our government brags to the rest of the world how wonderful our freedom is and at the same time they are taking away our birthright to walk on our own public lands. I really do believe that this is a sad day in the history of our country.

Your honor, I am 64 years old and the best years of my life are over. If I can not continue to pursue freedom the way that our forefathers intended, you may as well lock me in prison. I refuse to pay any monetary fine that you impose on me or serve community service as a penalty. There is only one way that I can prove to this court, the Forest Service and our law makers that there are still many millions of Americans who believe in and cherish the principles of freedom that our forefathers fought and died for. I am unwilling to compromise those principles and for this reason, I will serve the time in prison rather than pay the $100 fine. There is no other way that I can protest this totally corrupt un-American test program that was fostered by corporate America to benefit corporate America.

I will appeal this guilty verdict."
"
http://www.freeourforests.org/n042.html#court23

Here is a petition everyone can sign to fight the fees:

http://www.petitiononline.com/feedemo/petition.html

Signed #6590