Retiree John Montle has never protested anything in his life. Now the avid outdoorsman is waiting to appear in court for defying the federal government.

His infraction: refusing to pay a $5 user fee to enter the scenic Yankee Boy Basin near here.

Mr. Montle is part of a growing revolt over a controversial pay-to-play program being tested on federal lands nationwide.

For years, the federal government has charged entrance fees to national parks - and even raised them recently - with relatively little complaint from the public.

Now, however, several other federal agencies - including the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service - are levying user fees at a growing number of outdoor haunts that used to be free.

From Oregon to here in Ouray, the self-proclaimed "Switzerland of the US," the result is rising civil disobedience - sometimes from unlikely sources.

"I've never participated in a protest in my life, and I'm 50 years old," says Kitty Benzar, an active backpacker and skier, who also refused to pay the Yankee Basin fee.

Federal officials say they need the money in the face of stagnant budgets and rising recreational use. They're acting under a 1996 law, the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, that allowed the three federal agencies and the National Park Service to begin charging user fees at selected locales.

Fees were levied last year at 376 locations for such activities as visiting California's Mono Lake, backpacking in the Grand Canyon, reserving a boating permit for Michigan's Pere Marquette River, and parking in New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest.

This tiny town in the San Juan Mountains depends heavily on tourism on Forest Service lands. It's popular with off-road-vehicle drivers who tour century-old mining roads through the high basins and across alpine passes.

In late May, the Forest Service began charging car and truck drivers $5 to travel into Yankee Boy Basin. The picturesque bowl -part of the Uncompahgre National Forest - is filled with wildflowers and mining ruins, surrounded by sheer cliffs and dramatic waterfalls. On average, 150 vehicles traverse the four-wheel-drive road daily between May and October, and several Ouray companies chauffeur tourists along it in open jeeps.

After the fee was announced, a loosely knit group, calling itself the Western Slope NoFee Coalition, organized protests. It is one of more than 200 grassroots groups that have sprung up around the country, according to antifee activists.

On July 7, armed Forest Service officers issued $25 citations to 50 NoFee Coalition members -including Mr. Montle and Ms. Benzar - who refused to buy basin passes.

Ouray Mayor Art Fox was incensed by what he sees as federal heavy-handedness. "All of a sudden, local officials have no control over that area." he said, adding "the majority of the [fee] money is just going to rangers to collect the fees, and I can't support that."

Other protesters around the country have fought the $25 to $50 tickets they have been issued for failing to buy recreation passes. A hearing date has yet to be set for protesters at Yankee Boy Basin.

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