Collecting funds for forests a simple and fair solution

Protesting reasonable user fees for Coronado National Forest is like protesting Albertson's or Safeway because they have the audacity to (gasp) ask you to pay for the food you take from their respective establishments.

Lands held in the public trust cost money to maintain. The money has to come from somewhere. Asking the people who use the land to support the cost of maintaining the land is both the simplest and fairest solution. One must remember that for "Congress to increase allocation for these resources in their annual budget appropriation," this necessitates either an increase in the federal budget or a cut in another portion thereof. In either case, we are talking about tax revenue from every taxpayer in the United States, the vast majority of whom will never set foot in Arizona, much less Coronado National Forest. Why should taxpayers in New Hampshire, Georgia or Alaska be forced to subsidize our weekend recreation? [Read article]

The corporate giants who opened their wallets ÷ as the President campaigned nationwide to get a Republican majority in Congress ÷ should not be disappointed.

President Bush's Forest Service Associate Chief Sally Collins has already announced plans to remove environmental considerations and public input from the equation when it comes to deciding how to manage publicly owned forests.

Congressman-elect Raul Grijalva, who represents the UA and surrounding area, has already announced his opposition to the plan, and sees this as the beginning of many rollbacks of environmental legislation. [Read article]

An all-too-common scene from the Integrated Learning Center computer lab:

Two guys, let's call them Nick and Larry, drift watchfully around the same packed area of computers. It's like musical chairs, but without the music and plenty of chairs, although none of the free ones are in front of a computer. Someone in the far corner of the room does some final mouse clicking, stands up, gathers her things and leaves. [Read article]