[canadmos]

Just some random postings I guess...

One of the local towns has put up new parking costs at one of the more popular cross country riding areas in the Toronto area. These are public lands.

It now costs $6 to park at many of the trailheads. Free if you're a resident of the local town.

Permit Parking - Trail Sustainability

www.uxbridge.ca

It seems kind of bogus to me or maybe there has been a failure of the local clubs and conservation authorities? These forests fall under either the Toronto Region Conservation Authority or the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority.

TRCA's budget outlined - https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/bu/bgrd/backgroundfile-175311.pdf
LSRCA's budget outlined - https://www.lsrca.on.ca/Shared Documents/Financial-Statements/2022-Budget-Profile.pdf

It should also be mentioned that these forests also fall under the Durham Mountain Biking Association. Their "join us" page mention having 1168 members. Registration is $40 for adults and $20 for youths - lets say that those 1168 members are split down the middle, that's an intake of about $35040. I wonder how much of that goes to trail maintenance and whatnot?


Anyways.... Just seems like an experimental cash grab from the town. I wonder if they'll start patrolling the trail heads for people who either don't know about this or just don't pay and start raking in those sweet sweet $45 fines?

 

[Bikael Molton]

User fees for parking, permits, etc generally discourage low income folks (that includes most younger people regardless of background) from participating in outdoor rec on public lands.
You could use that talking point as ammunition in a campaign to get rid of them.

 

[Jm_]

In the US, most of the time that a trail-head is unimproved, it's free, but once they put up a permanent outhouse, they can start charging a fee. We chronically under-fund our parks and natural resources though and IME it's worse at the state-level when your state is red, cuts funding everywhere and believes that lowering taxes will "bring the business" will bring all the trickle down for everyone.

If there were a direct correlation and un-touchable money set aside for trail maint, that might make sense on some scale, but that's never the way it works.

Most of the time the parking fee is just a grab to fund the parking facilities IME. Actual trail maintenance is pretty sketchy, as in it's one of the things that is seen as "not really necessary" when it comes to governments that need to buy B1 stealth tank flamethrowers or whatever.

 

[kidwoo]

IME it's worse at the state-level when your state is red, cuts funding everywhere and believes that lowering taxes will "bring the business" will bring all the trickle down for everyone.

Doesn't jive with my experience at all. Oregon and Washington charge for 'evergreen' passes just to exist on what's already public forests. Devoid of any real infrastructure most of the time. Idaho and Colorado both have incredible trail networks and for the most part, tons of easily accessible trailheads and camping spots....both opposite ends of the voting and public funding spectrum but recognize the public's access to public lands is part of the existence of public lands. Both more 'candadian' in that public lands are treated like crown land public resources, recreation included.

The west coast has far too many gatekeepers and museum makers. You can access public lands but they're going to control every single aspect of how you do it, and in most cases just close everything down when the big environmental groups don't want a user group somewhere. Way too much designated wilderness in all 3 states.

The east coast is just hell comparatively. Way too much private land and state 'preserves' where some waldenwoods reading freak loses their shit over a bicycle on a trail.

A friend of mine who used to live near here (despite perceptions, a very conservative county) just moved down to Napa area. She had a revelation that was funny to me because it was always something I was aware of regarding public lands. She said something along the lines of "I kind of miss all the republican assholes because at least they leave you alone and don't try to tell you what to do all the time" Abortion rights aside, that's pretty spot on when in comes to how rich 'blue' areas go about supposedly public lands. Go no farther than marin county and the oakland hills, home to the vandemans of the world to see this in action. Gentrification of the outdoors is very much a thing.