Forest Service keeps Christmas tree cash

"In the process, the whole concept of public ownership of public lands is being lost" The "public" doesn't own the lands, the federal government does. If it were "public" lands, then nothing would prevent me, for example, from going on to that land and removing tress as I see fit. Also, there's a big difference from commercial forest harvesting, including the harvesting of Christmas trees, and the individual "personal use" harvesting of Christmas tress. Unlike a commercial Christmas tree harvest, the individual harvests is not used commercially, theses tress will not be offered for sale to the public. I see nothing wrong with individual tree harvesting, and I see nothing wrong with the parks keeping the permit monies those individual harvesting "operations" generate. The laws on the redistribution of tree harvesting fees on federal lands was intended for the public to benefit from COMMERCIAL business operations which removes more than a single tree at a time, and not for private citizens who cut down a single tree for their own personal use.

Cobra, The federal government owns the lands in the name of the people. The agencies like Forest Service, Park Service, etc MANAGE the land for the PEOPLE under the oversight of Congress. You used the term "parks" as if it were interchangeable with "forests" which tells me you don't live in the West, where we know the difference: the Parks are where the toll gates are. If the Forests want to treat individual harvesting the same as commercial harvesting, all the Forest Service needs to do is get a law passed allowing that. At this time, there is no such law.