Sawtooth drops fee
for 21 trailheads
"Upon reviewing each one of our
thirty-eight trailheads where recreationists are currently required to
pay fees, we found that 21 were not in alignment with the definition of
significant development as described in the national blueprint."
— RUTH MONAHAN, Sawtooth
National Forest supervisor
Fee program revised
The Sawtooth National Forest is
dropping 21 trailheads from the list of sites it charges fees under
authority of the Congressionally-mandated Recreation Fee Demonstration
Program.
There will be no change in the
fee structure for parking passes retained in the program. A three-day
pass is $5 and annual passes are $15. In addition, the Golden Eagle, Age
and Access passports will continue to be honored.
Trailheads to be retained in the fee
demonstration program include:
Sawtooth National Recreation
Area
Stanley Lake
Iron Creek
Grandjean
Redfish Lake
Williams Creek
Boulder Creek
Fourth of July Creek
Champion Creek
Tin Cup Hiker
Tin Cup Horse
Prairie Creek
Ketchum Ranger District
Oregon Gulch
Baker Lake
Adams Gulch
Pioneer Cabin
Mormon Hill
Greenhorn
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
The Sawtooth National Forest is
revamping its Recreation Fee Demonstration Program and discontinuing
fees charged at 21 of the trailheads that have been part of the local
program since the summer of 1999.
Fees will be retained at 17
trailheads on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Ketchum Ranger
District, including Adam’s, Greenhorn and Oregon gulches in the Wood
River Valley.
The U.S. Forest Service is
revising its recreation fee demonstration program and plans to drop 21
trailheads from the list of sites where fees are currently required.
Adam’s Gulch, pictured, will remain on the list of sites where fees will
continue to be charged. Express file photo
"Nationally, the Forest Service
has reviewed its Recreation Fee Demonstration Program and developed a
new national policy to guide where fees may be required," said Sawtooth
National Forest Supervisor Ruth Monahan. "In a nutshell, the key lessons
we learned from this review were that fees are acceptable to most
National Forest users if they have a direct connection to a perceived
benefit.
"Fees are most often supported for
developed areas with tangible benefits and services, such as sanitation
facilities, and fairness, consistency, and convenience of payment are
important to visitors."
The Sawtooth National Forest’s
review of its fee program resulted after the Forest Service developed a
blueprint for recreation fees that established criteria for consistency
in charging fees across the country. The forest finished its review in
March. The federal blueprint was completed last summer.
Under the new blueprint,
trailheads retained in the fee program must provide services, like
restroom facilities and prepared parking lots, said Sawtooth National
Forest spokesman Ed Waldapfel.
"We’re dropping 21 that don’t meet
the compliance standards," he said.
Monahan said the review of the
Sawtooth National Forest’s program was only recently completed.
"Upon reviewing each one of our 38
trailheads where recreationists are currently required to pay fees, we
found that 21 were not in alignment with the definition of significant
development as described in the national blueprint," Monahan said.
The revamped program will begin
May 15.
"We went through a screening
process and dropped those sites that do not align with the national
blueprint and did not have significant amenities and services," Monahan
said. "The changes are also consistent with feedback that we have
received from the public regarding willingness to pay for the use of
significantly developed sites."
A brochure, including a map that
shows the locations of the 17 trailheads where a trailhead pass is still
required, will be available at local Forest Service offices at the
beginning of the summer season.
The cost to use trailheads
remaining in the program will stay the same: $5 for three days or $15
for an annual pass.
But the changes to the local fee
demo program will entail dropping more than 21 trailheads from the fee
collection list.
The Forest Service also plans to
install fee tubes, referred to as "iron rangers," at a majority of the
17 developed trailhead sites.
The Forest will also initiate
efforts to establish a recreation user board that will comprise a
"variety of local interests." The board will review the recreation fee
program and make recommendations for investment priorities for the fees.
The composition of the board is something that has not yet been
determined, Monahan said.
Since the implementation of the
Recreation Fee Demonstration Program on the Sawtooth National Forest in
1997, forest officials have made a number of changes.
"These changes have been in
response to comments received from the people who use these areas,"
Monahan said. "Initially, Forest users on the Ketchum Ranger District
and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area were required to purchase a
general, individual user pass."
However, the public was incensed
by the general access fee, and the forest revamped the program in 1999
to require that vehicles parked at trailheads displayed a pass. In
addition, a number of campgrounds were added to the forest’s program,
enabling public land managers to retain overnight camping fees for
on-site improvements.
Monahan said more than $590,000
has been generated through the Sawtooth’s fee demo program. Waldapfel
qualified that the reduction in fee trailheads will almost certainly
translate into a reduction in collections.
Forest Service officials have
leveraged fees collected to obtain grants from the state and other
sources, and forest officials said the extra funds have improved their
ability to accomplish more on-the-ground work.
"Significant increases have
resulted in annual trail maintenance, installation of restroom
facilities and developed parking areas at trailheads, new picnic tables,
fire rings, new trail bridges, campground maintenance and visitor
information boards," according to a forest press release.
Meanwhile, forest fee watchdogs
are continuing to keep an eye on Congress. Wild Wilderness Executive
Director Scott Silver issued an e-mail alert this week, noting that the
George W. Bush administration is attempting to amend a Senate bill
designed to dispose of forest fees on Bureau of Land Management, Forest
Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land. The bill, Senate Bill
1107, was unanimously passed by the Senate Energy Committee in February.
"Oversight hearings on fee demo
have been announced for April 21," Silver wrote. "It is very possible
that this hearing will lead to new legislation or an amendment to Senate
Bill 1107 to make fees permanent for these three agencies. We must head
off this initiative."
Silver also called attention to
another bill, House Resolution 3283, which calls for a National Parks
and Federal Recreational Lands Pass to enter any public lands
administered by the Forest Service, BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service,
National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation.
The bill is scheduled for a
hearing by the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and
Public Lands on May 6.