The following editorial appeared in The Bulletin on March 28, 1999.
A $5 admission fee to the formerly free Lava Lands Visitor Center south of Bend is turning away visitors in droves.
With the initial results in from the experimental fee-collection program — a $45 percent drop in visitors last year — this experiment is looking like a failure. Forest service managers need to lower the fee or even consider scrapping the admission charge altogether.
The agency has taken a lot of flack for the past two years over its "fee-demo" program, an attempt to ease budget problems through user fees. The Deschutes National Forest is one of the participating forests now charging folks money to visit attractions or just to park at trail heads.
It's easy to see why users balk at suddenly having to pay admission to what used to be "free." But user fees are simply an attempt to recoup some of the cost formerly subsidized by the general taxpayer or the agency's timber sales program. Land management agencies, including state and national parks, have charged similar fees for years.
So the five-bucks-a-carload fee at the Lava Lands is not fundamentally bad, it's just shortsighted.
Visitor numbers declined to an all-time low of 46,000 last year, plummeting from 83,500 two years ago. That steep of a drop should force officials to question their pricing structure. Visitors are reluctant to pay the asking price, particularly when they can choose from the free- and low-cost attractions nearby.
While the admission has had a dramatic effect on visitor numbers, it has not had the desired impact on the bottom line. After Washington takes its 15 percent cut, the Deschutes will ne about $51,000 from the admissions. That hardly makes a dent in its operating budget. In fact, it will barely fill the hole left by recent cuts in the agency's recreation budget.
As long as the fees are in place, it's unlikely thar visitor numbers will rebound to their former level. And as long as Congress continues to slash the recreation budget, the facilities at the site are bound to deteriorate — offering even less for the money. It's called a death spiral: not a very smart business strategy for business nor government.
Perhaps lowering the fee to $3 per vehicle would help. But considering the public backlash and the diminishing returns, maybe it's better to scrap the admission charge outright. In the current budget climate, that may mean the forest has to cut back on services, or find other sources of money, such as granting concession rights, or building partnerships with other governments or corporations.
A case can be made that operating facilities like Lava Lands, even if they are subsidized by general taxpayer dollars, is exactly what the "new" Forest Service is about. Unwise political decisions have hamstrung the agency's ability to sell timber and grazing rights on lands originally set aside in part for those purposes. The agency's new emphasis is on recreation and stewardship of forest lands.
If that's to be the case, perhaps a unique and educational facility like Lava Lands should be judged by what it give back to citizens, not what it rakes in at the toll box.