Congress Takes On Public Land Recreation Fees

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, May 7, 2004 (ENS) - The recreation fee demo program has raised some $1 billion for federal agencies since 1996 and there is broad support in Congress for giving the National Park Service permanent authority to set and collect recreation fees from park visitors. Some lawmakers, and the Bush administration, are eager to permanently extend the program to other federal land management agencies, a move critics say is unnecessary and unsupported by the American public.

The 1996 fee demo program, which has been renewed several times by Congress through the appropriations process, is set to expire on January 1, 2006.

The program allows the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to collect recreation fees and reinvest those fees into enhancing visitor facilities and services.

The program ensures that 80 percent of the fees are kept to benefit the site where they are collected. The remaining 20 percent is used on an agency wide basis for parts of the system that are precluded from participating in the program.

A bill by Ohio Republican Congressman Ralph Regula would make the program permanent for all four agencies as well as for the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Park Service says surveys indicate most Americans do not object to paying for access to national parks. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

It would establish three fee levels along with a pass that would allow users to access any fee area across the nation, regardless of agency.

Regula, who created the demo program in 1996, said it has provided a valuable source of funds for individual sites to address the maintenance backlog needs that is not at the whim of the agencies or the appropriators.

The Interior Department estimates its maintenance backlog is some $5.1 billion to $8.3 billion and the Forest Service estimates its backlog is some $8 billion.

"The current fee demo program is not the ideal solution to this problem," Donna Christensen, a Democratic Delegate from the Virgin Islands. "But it should be either abandoned completely or permanently authorized."

Congressman George Radanovich, a California Republican and chair subcommittee chair, agreed.

Rather than keep extending the program haphazardly via riders on spending bills, Radanovich said, it is time for lawmakers to "step up to the plate and decide the future of this program."

The California Republican acknowledged that some lawmakers fear making the program permanent will ultimately shortchange the agencies - as the fee program could be used to replace, rather than supplement appropriations.

"I do not think the evidence would suggest that," Regula told the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands on Thursday.

The Interior Department expects to collect $138 million through the program in fiscal year 2005 - the Forest Service expects to reap $46 million.

Increasing numbers of Americans are seeking recreation opportunities on public lands and waterways. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

Interior Department Assistant Secretary for Policy Lynn Scarlett noted that since 1985 recreation demand has increased by 65 percent on BLM lands and 80 percent on Fish and Wildlife Service lands.

There are more than 211 million annual visits to Forest Service lands, said Forest Service Deputy Chief Tom Thompson, and demand for recreation on these lands "is up tremendously."

The Forest Service, which has been criticized for spending too much implementing the program, now has a good handle on it now, Thompson said, and would benefit from permanent authorization.

"Visitors have come to count on the extra services and amenities that these fees allow us to provide," Scarlett added. "It is not the agency label that is relevant."

But critics bristle at that suggestion and contend the American public should not have to pay to access lands owned by the federal government.

They say there has been little opposition to the Park Service fees - from the public or conservationists - because fee collection has a historic legacy at the national parks.

Recreation fees at some of the national parks date back to beginning of the Park Service in 1916 and the agency's recreation fee authority was expanded under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act in 1965.

The fee demonstration program increased fees already in place and added others, authorizing the agency to collect fees at 100 of its 388 units.

The national park system faces the strain from a shrinking budget as visits the parks climb. Some 277 million individuals visited the national parks last year. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

"This long ago stopped being a user fee and became an access fee," Funkhouser told the subcommittee. "If we allow the agencies to charge a fee we have given ownership of these lands to the agencies and taken it away from the American people."

Regula rejected this notion and said most Americans are willing to pay access and recreational fees if they have faith those fees are reinvested on site and well spent.

"In my conversations with visitors they do not feel put upon by modest fees," Regula said.

Disagreement over whether to permanently extend the fees beyond the Park Service looks likely to dominate the debate.

A Senate bill authored by Wyoming Republican Craig Thomas would grant permanent authority to the Park Service, but would kill the programs for the Forest Service, BLM and Fish and Wildlife Service.

That bill passed the Senate Resources Committee in February.