Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, agrees that outdoor recreation, if managed well, presents people with a better use of open space than the nearly bygone days of mining and timber extraction. What he and others fear, however, is the tendency for commercial enterprise to be the primary voice in open-land policy.

"We can be fairly confident that the policymakers will manage the land as they have managed every other extractive use on public lands: for the benefit of corporations and to the detriment of the public and the land itself," he says.

Indeed, plans like the Lewis and Clark bicentennial invite a new consumer infrastructure. Where, after all, are the thousands of Lewis and Clark enthusiasts going to sleep? Eat? Buy gas?

One possible solution is the Recreational Fee Development Program (RFDP) being tested in 100 sites around the country. These sites are charging anywhere from $3 and up, depending on the type of activity and number of people, to recreate on public lands. Proponents say the fee program will help shore up funds that have fallen short over years of federal mismanagement. Environmentalists view it as a dangerous step in the wrong direction, a plan that favors industrial recreation interests over anyone who still might hope to view nature the old-fashioned way, with a backpack and frying pan.

On the surface, the RFDP seems a logical enough way to collect funds to better manage land trusts. The very idea, however, of raising funds for public land implies that some sort of commercial infrastructure is needed to make the land "viable." Environmentalists ask what happens when, in a profit-driven system that works harder to generate cash than to protect lands, the boat- and ATV-lovers offer to pay more for a wilderness permit than a fisherman or backpacker.

As the Bush administration and new land-use policies threaten to bring more big business outdoors, it means companies like Philip Morris and other for-profit interests will increasingly help dictate public-land-use policies. It means that a remote lake in the backcountry will soon carry a price tag. It signals the end of recreating on public lands and enjoying nature on an "as is" basis.

Two final products come out of Moab's Marlboro Adventure. After dinner, on the final evening in the desert, team members approach the stage to receive diplomas for their achievement in conquering the wild. Journalists covering the event are given a collection of the week's finest images on CD. Meanwhile, the Philip Morris ad team brings us one step closer to taming the Wild West, to reducing the frontier into a computer-enhanced vision of fun and adventure without even the threat of a rattlesnake bite.

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