County Repeals Fees for Hiking on Trails
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Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky wants his constituents, and everyone else, to take a hike--for free.
Yaroslavsky announced last week that a fee placed on hikers in 1993 to help bridge a county budget deficit was recently repealed by the board.
The free trails policy begins Jan. 1, 1997.
Currently, hikers are required to pay either a $23-a-year trail-pass fee or a daily rate of $6 to use county trails, which are maintained by the county Department of Parks and Recreation.
The county imposed the fee as an alternative to closing down the 330 miles of trails in the county system due to a lack of maintenance and operating funds.
The fees, however, led to a reduction in the use of the trails. As a result, the county did not collect enough money to make the program worthwhile, Yaroslavsky said.
The fees were abolished by the Board of Supervisors last month.
“So now we’re telling the public to go take a hike,” Yaroslavsky said in a press release, “and we hope they do it on our county trails.”
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