Congressional legislation could end user fees

If passed, legislation introduced in Congress last week will end the U.S. Forest Service’s Recreational Fee Demonstration Program.

Called the Forest Tax Relief Act, the bill was introduced by Rep. Mary Bono, R-Calif.

Bono, who represents Southern California through her hometown of Palm Springs, said she drafted the act in response to tumultuous public sentiment against user fees in the Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests.

Those forests and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area join 10 other sites nationally in being what Forest Service officials consider problematic test areas. There are 67 national forest fee-demonstration sites nationwide.

The user-fee program was implemented by the Forest Service as part of the 1996 Interior Appropriations Act.

In a press release issued last week, Bono stated that the program creates a burdensome new tax for those seeking to enjoy the great outdoors. She called the program "offensive" and said it contradicts the very concept of the national forest system.

In addition, she expressed concern that the fee will deter visitors from discovering the "wonder and beauty" of the national forests.

Bono’s press assistant, Frank Cullen Jr., cited three reasons that Bono is opposed to the fee demo program: It is a double tax; there was not enough notification that it was going to be instituted; and the Forest Service has not been spending the proceeds wisely.

Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, a recreation advocacy group in Bend, Ore., said, "the Forest Service shows no inclination to listen to the growing public opposition to forest fees. Unless enough public protest reaches Congress directly, it is likely that forest fees will soon become permanent."

Congressman Merril Cook, R-Utah, is one of the bill’s five bipartisan co-sponsors.

"It is a regressive tax to reward wasteful bureaucrats," said Michael Garrity, Cook’s legislative assistant. "It could eventually lead to having pay-toilets on Forest Service lands."

Garrity pointed out, however, that only about 400 bills receive congressional approval and become laws out of the more than 10,000 that are introduced annually.

The Forest Tax Relief Act was introduced in the House Committee on Resources and in the Committee on Agriculture. Cullen said the bill will move this year, but that there is no way to tell when it will hit the House floor.

Sawtooth National Forest supervisor Bill LeVere said that termination of the User Fee Demonstration Program will result in a loss of services on the recreation area.

"If we don’t have user fees and appropriations continue to lower, something has to fall off the plate," he said.

LeVere said services and projects such as trail maintenance and the new bathroom facilities at Oregon and Adam’s gulches would be dropped.

LeVere acknowledged that user fees are comparable to a new tax, but pointed out that they also differ from taxes in that those who pay user fees realize the benefits directly.

Also, the SNRA is revamping its user-fee program to accommodate input collected from local public lands users. Beginning in May, a per-automobile pass will be instituted rather than the general user fee pass that has been tested thus far.