The following editorial appeared in the Denver Post on February 22, 2004.
The U.S. Forest Service spent $1.6 million building an outhouse near the Maroon Bells, then whined it didn't have money for toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Now it charges citizens a fee just to look at the famous peaks. The paradox is just one example of why the federal recreation fee demonstration program is a bust.
Congress is considering two diametrically opposed proposals concerning the mismanaged recreation fee program. One deserves support: It would end the fees on National Forests and most other public lands, allowing only the National Park Service to continue collecting certain charges.
Since 1996, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies have collected tens of millions of dollars in recreation fees. For all practical purposes, the recreation fees are entrance fees, requiring visitors to pay to visit their own public lands. These fees are in addition to charges for campgrounds and other specific services.
The recreation fee program has so many numerous flaws that it has become fundamentally, fatally flawed. For one thing, the BLM and Forest Service haven't used fee money to pay for maintenance and conservation, as they promised Congress.
The program may cost more to run than it generates. Last year, the General Accounting Office (Congress' non-partisan investigative arm) said the Forest Service collected $35 million in recreation fees in 2001. But the Forest Service spent another $10 million in appropriated funds just to keep the fee program running. The GAO hasn't studied the BLM's use of recreation fees, but the programs' opponents suspect the BLM has been just as sloppy with the funds.
Meanwhile, public opposition to the fee program is growing. Commissioners in Jackson, Pitkin and Routt counties recently sent letters or passed resolutions opposing the program. Earlier, similar action was taken by Hinsdale, San Juan and San Miguel counties. The legislatures of Colorado and California also have come out against recreation fees.
U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, a Wyoming Republican, has offered a reasonable solution. S. 1107 would end recreation fees in national forests and on BLM and most other federal lands. The agencies could still charge for campgrounds and some specific services.
Thomas' bill would, however, let the National Park Service continue collecting entrance fees (as it has done historically) in addition to a small surcharge. Unlike the other agencies, the Park Service has used its fee money wisely: Eighty 80 percent of fees collected by an individual park stay with that park. The 20 percent sent to Washington goes mostly to help the Park Service clear its nationwide, billion-dollar maintenance backlog. Several parks, including Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, wrote business plans that identify pressing needs and allocate fee money to pay for them.
Last week, the Senate's 23-member Energy and Resources Committee passed Thomas' S. 1107 unanimously. Among its supporters was Colorado Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Thomas' sensible measure could encounter trouble on the Senate floor. U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton is lobbying to get the bill amended so the BLM, Forest Service and other agencies could keep charging recreation fees. Such amendments would be unwise.
Meanwhile, U. S. Rep. Ralph Regula (an Ohio Republican without a single national forest or BLM area in his district) wants to make recreation fees permanent and expand the program to include U.S. Corps of Engineers. If his H.R. 3283 passes, Americans could pay through the nose to just set foot on their own public lands.
Regula's proposal may get sent to the House Resources Committee. Two Coloradans on the committee, Democrat Mark Udall of Boulder and Scott McInnis from the Western Slope, should ensure that Regula's bill gets a swift and unceremonious political burial.