This image was taken at a hidden pond in the Two Medicine Area. While the mother ate, her baby slept off in the dense brush on the other side of the pond. Click on the image for a much larger view.

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The Coconino National Forest might close almost all off-road trails used by motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles in September 2009.

The local off-road driving ban, which could be modified once existing trails are mapped, is part of a national proposal aimed at curtailing cross-country motorized travel.

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Washington, D.C. — Today, music legend Carole King joined Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) in announcing the introduction of the bipartisan Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA, H.R. 1975). NREPA, which has been cosponsored by 73 other Members of Congress, will protect some of America’s most beautiful and ecologically important lands while saving taxpayers money and creating jobs.

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The Illinois Audubon Society announced this week it has purchased a 56-acre parcel of the Lusk Creek Wilderness Area, which is part of the Shawnee National Forest in Pope County.

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A Bradley County father/son were found not guilty Monday after a day-long bench trial on charges of killing a black bear in a bear sanctuary in the Cherokee National Forest.

Ted Williams is widely considered the nations top outdoor writer, and we are proud to have him on the Wilderness Sportsman.

You’re losing more than money when you have to pay to fish public water

Robbed by RAT’s

By Ted Williams

It sounded okay when Congress authorized it in 1996. The few sportsmen and environmentalists who even noticed vacillated between disinterest and mild approval. Starved for funds, as always, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service would charge the public new or increased fees for accessing its land to fish, hunt, boat, drive, park, camp, walk. . . . It was going to be an “experiment” — a three-year pilot program. That’s why it was called the “Fee Demonstration.”

Americans were used to paying entrance fees at national parks and wildlife refuges. But after Fee Demo was extended through 2001 they expressed outrage about what they came to call the Recreation Access Tax (RAT) on national forests and BLM land. Late in 2004 RAT was extended yet again — this time for 10 years — when Fee Demo was replaced with the Recreation Enhancement Act, a law that empowers the four agencies to charge even more access fees.

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