Hi -
Does anyone happen to know when New York State Parks began to
charge money for people wanting to use kayaks?

My wife and I went to Taghkanic Lake State Park this weekend with our
boats. We paid the $7 to get in, and no one told us (until we were
down at the lake) that they charged $15 bucks PER BOAT just to put in,
and we'd have to adorn our kayaks with a numbered decal (about the
size of a Euro license plate). Otherwise we would be ticketed.

We nearly fell over. The State hits you up for $30 bucks just to put
two boats in the water (and they don't tell you that at the door).

Granted, they said that as long as we had the decal on the boat, we
could use it for the rest of the year at that location. However, we
later came to find out that each park region (of which there are many)
has a differnt license tag -which required yet another registration.
Another $30 bucks.

The money wasn't worth it - as we don't usually go to there.
I think this is a excessive. We're not taxing any of the resources
of the park (ie: we're not taking up the lifeguards time, not taking
fish from the lake, polluting the water like the jetski's do, etc). We
just want to park, put in (no boat launch there, just from shore next
to the beach), and get out of everyone's hair. They don't tax
bicyclists, do they?

Could someone please shed some light on the justification of this fee?
Part of what attracted me to this past time was the idea that it was
relatively free from costs like this.

Was it always like this or is this a trend?

Is my frustration at this situation unreasonable?

Hey, I'm all for the upkeep of our parks and I don't mind the $7 cover
charge at all. But how they apply their other fees - relative to all
the different kinds of activities/traffic in the park, seems a bit
unbalanced.

Is it this bad in other states?

Any insight and/or opinions are appreciated.

Thanks,
TwoK