jimfoo
September 18th, 2007, 11:09 AM
FOREST SERVICE CONTINUES TO REDUCE DEVELOPED RECREATION
Arizona. California, and New Mexico Forests Are The Latest To Announce Closures, New Fees, And Other Management Changes.
Documents released by National Forests in California, Arizona, and New Mexico show that the Forest Service is continuing with plans to close thousands of developed recreation sites across the country, shorten seasons, and add and increase recreation fees with little public input and no congressional scrutiny.
The latest reductions to be announced are on the Los Padres and Tahoe National Forests in California, the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, and the Coronado National Forest near Tucson, Arizona.
The Los Padres will decommission (obliterate) at least five sites, reduce capacity at 18 more, and remove toilets, picnic tables, or other facilities from eight additional locations. Fee increases will occur at nine sites, three sites will get new fees, and 19 sites will be turned over to concessionaires, non-profits, or local governments to operate at their own expense. The Los Padres cites as "improvements" almost $200,000 worth of new signs and bulletin boards explaining their fee requirements.
The Tahoe will close or decommission up to nine sites, add fees in 13 places, turn 18 sites over to concessionaires or volunteers to operate, remove amenities at 8 sites, and shorten the operating season at 19 sites.
The Coronado will convert at least 10 developed sites to dispersed recreation, remove facilities such as toilets, trash containers, and picnic tables from 34 locations, and reduce capacity at 40 sites. Two sites will see new fees, and fees will be increased at six more. Although the Coronado claims to be eliminating fees in four places, these are all overlooks along the Mt Lemmon Highway and fees for using them were actually dropped two years ago.
The Gila will begin charging new fees at two sites, increase fees at four, decommission one campground, and shorten the operating season in 11 places. While seeking public input on their proposed changes, the Gila already has already gone ahead with fee increases at two campgrounds as of September 7, prior to the release of their Recreation Facility Analysis Proposed Program of Work.
Other forests that are implementing new fees or fee increases, closing facilities, or reducing services without releasing their RFA plans, include the Grand Mesa-Umcompahgre, Shasta-Trinity, Ashley, Monongahela, Rogue River-Siskiyou, and Kisatchee.
From the data available so far the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition projects that between 3,000 and 5,000 recreation sites nationwide will be closed or decommissioned, and as many as 4,000 more will be converted to fee sites, have current fees increased, or be turned over to private for-profit concessionaires to manage.
Using a process originally called Recreation Site-Facility Master Planning and now re-named Recreation Facility Analysis, every National Forest is required to inventory and rank their developed recreation sites against a national standard. Those that do not measure up will be closed, decommissioned, converted to dispersed use, or have new or increased user fees imposed. The sites affected include campgrounds, picnic areas, boat launches, swimming sites, trailheads, and rental cabins.
The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition published a six-page research report on RS-FMP in August 2006 charging that since at least 2002, the Forest Service has been secretly implementing this policy initiative that threatens to impose a for-profit model on the management of America's National Forests.
Following a flurry of negative publicity in late 2006, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, as one of his final official acts before retiring, convened a Review Team to assess RS-FMP public participation activities, methods, products, and results from a cross section of National Forests. The Review Team's report was completed in April, 2007, but kept under wraps for seven weeks before being released on May 24. The report stated that there had been no attempt to include the public in RS-FMP because it was seen as an internal process. The report also strongly recommended that all completed RS-FMP plans be released to the public.
That has still not happened. Of at least 41 forests that have completed their site rankings and recommended management changes, only a handful have released them in their entirety. Forests with completed plans that are still under wraps include the Bridger-Teton, Fremont-Winema, Colville, Dixie, Chugach, White River, Ashley, Umpqua, Tongass, Shoshone, Medicine Bow-Routt, Sawtooth, San Juan, Apache-Sitgreaves, Fishlake, Wasatch-Cache, Salmon-Challis, Caribou-Targhee, Land Between The Lakes, Stanislaus, Boise, Angeles, Lewis & Clark, Payette, Nebraska, Rogue-Siskiyou, Carson, Uinta, and Custer.
Even among the forests whose plans have been released, public participation continues to be shallow and disjointed, consisting of informal drop-in sessions at district offices or simply the issuance of a press release inviting comments.
An "Action Plan" issued by the Forest Service's Washington Office for how forests should implement the recommendations made by the Review Team consisted primarily of changing the name of the policy from Recreation Site Facility Master Planning to Recreation Facility Analysis.
"The Review Team's report and the Washington Office's Action Plan do not address the public?s fundamental objections," said WSNFC President Kitty Benzar. "Drastic management changes such as reduced operating seasons, turning sites over to non-profits and concessionaires, removal of amenities, elimination of drinking water systems, new fee sites, and increased fees are continuing to happen with no public or congressional review. Instead of addressing these serious concerns, the Forest Service has merely changed the program's logo. Public facilities belonging to all Americans are at risk of disappearing."
The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition is a national organization based in Durango, Colorado that has called for repeal of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA). The FLREA allows the Forest Service, BLM, and Bureau of Reclamation to charge access and user fees on vast tracts of publicly owned land.
The WSNFC's August 2006 report on Recreation Site Facility Master Planning can be read at http://www.westernslopenofee.org/NoFee/RSFMP.pdf and a June 2007 update can be read at http://www.westernslopenofee.org/NoFee/RSFMP_update.pdf
Copies of RS-FMP/RFA plans that have been obtained by the WSNFC to date can be obtained on request from wsnfc@earthlink.net
WESTERN SLOPE NO-FEE COALITION
P.O. Box 135, Durango, CO 81302
970/259-4616
info@WesternSlopeNoFee.org
__._,_.___
Arizona. California, and New Mexico Forests Are The Latest To Announce Closures, New Fees, And Other Management Changes.
Documents released by National Forests in California, Arizona, and New Mexico show that the Forest Service is continuing with plans to close thousands of developed recreation sites across the country, shorten seasons, and add and increase recreation fees with little public input and no congressional scrutiny.
The latest reductions to be announced are on the Los Padres and Tahoe National Forests in California, the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, and the Coronado National Forest near Tucson, Arizona.
The Los Padres will decommission (obliterate) at least five sites, reduce capacity at 18 more, and remove toilets, picnic tables, or other facilities from eight additional locations. Fee increases will occur at nine sites, three sites will get new fees, and 19 sites will be turned over to concessionaires, non-profits, or local governments to operate at their own expense. The Los Padres cites as "improvements" almost $200,000 worth of new signs and bulletin boards explaining their fee requirements.
The Tahoe will close or decommission up to nine sites, add fees in 13 places, turn 18 sites over to concessionaires or volunteers to operate, remove amenities at 8 sites, and shorten the operating season at 19 sites.
The Coronado will convert at least 10 developed sites to dispersed recreation, remove facilities such as toilets, trash containers, and picnic tables from 34 locations, and reduce capacity at 40 sites. Two sites will see new fees, and fees will be increased at six more. Although the Coronado claims to be eliminating fees in four places, these are all overlooks along the Mt Lemmon Highway and fees for using them were actually dropped two years ago.
The Gila will begin charging new fees at two sites, increase fees at four, decommission one campground, and shorten the operating season in 11 places. While seeking public input on their proposed changes, the Gila already has already gone ahead with fee increases at two campgrounds as of September 7, prior to the release of their Recreation Facility Analysis Proposed Program of Work.
Other forests that are implementing new fees or fee increases, closing facilities, or reducing services without releasing their RFA plans, include the Grand Mesa-Umcompahgre, Shasta-Trinity, Ashley, Monongahela, Rogue River-Siskiyou, and Kisatchee.
From the data available so far the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition projects that between 3,000 and 5,000 recreation sites nationwide will be closed or decommissioned, and as many as 4,000 more will be converted to fee sites, have current fees increased, or be turned over to private for-profit concessionaires to manage.
Using a process originally called Recreation Site-Facility Master Planning and now re-named Recreation Facility Analysis, every National Forest is required to inventory and rank their developed recreation sites against a national standard. Those that do not measure up will be closed, decommissioned, converted to dispersed use, or have new or increased user fees imposed. The sites affected include campgrounds, picnic areas, boat launches, swimming sites, trailheads, and rental cabins.
The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition published a six-page research report on RS-FMP in August 2006 charging that since at least 2002, the Forest Service has been secretly implementing this policy initiative that threatens to impose a for-profit model on the management of America's National Forests.
Following a flurry of negative publicity in late 2006, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, as one of his final official acts before retiring, convened a Review Team to assess RS-FMP public participation activities, methods, products, and results from a cross section of National Forests. The Review Team's report was completed in April, 2007, but kept under wraps for seven weeks before being released on May 24. The report stated that there had been no attempt to include the public in RS-FMP because it was seen as an internal process. The report also strongly recommended that all completed RS-FMP plans be released to the public.
That has still not happened. Of at least 41 forests that have completed their site rankings and recommended management changes, only a handful have released them in their entirety. Forests with completed plans that are still under wraps include the Bridger-Teton, Fremont-Winema, Colville, Dixie, Chugach, White River, Ashley, Umpqua, Tongass, Shoshone, Medicine Bow-Routt, Sawtooth, San Juan, Apache-Sitgreaves, Fishlake, Wasatch-Cache, Salmon-Challis, Caribou-Targhee, Land Between The Lakes, Stanislaus, Boise, Angeles, Lewis & Clark, Payette, Nebraska, Rogue-Siskiyou, Carson, Uinta, and Custer.
Even among the forests whose plans have been released, public participation continues to be shallow and disjointed, consisting of informal drop-in sessions at district offices or simply the issuance of a press release inviting comments.
An "Action Plan" issued by the Forest Service's Washington Office for how forests should implement the recommendations made by the Review Team consisted primarily of changing the name of the policy from Recreation Site Facility Master Planning to Recreation Facility Analysis.
"The Review Team's report and the Washington Office's Action Plan do not address the public?s fundamental objections," said WSNFC President Kitty Benzar. "Drastic management changes such as reduced operating seasons, turning sites over to non-profits and concessionaires, removal of amenities, elimination of drinking water systems, new fee sites, and increased fees are continuing to happen with no public or congressional review. Instead of addressing these serious concerns, the Forest Service has merely changed the program's logo. Public facilities belonging to all Americans are at risk of disappearing."
The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition is a national organization based in Durango, Colorado that has called for repeal of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA). The FLREA allows the Forest Service, BLM, and Bureau of Reclamation to charge access and user fees on vast tracts of publicly owned land.
The WSNFC's August 2006 report on Recreation Site Facility Master Planning can be read at http://www.westernslopenofee.org/NoFee/RSFMP.pdf and a June 2007 update can be read at http://www.westernslopenofee.org/NoFee/RSFMP_update.pdf
Copies of RS-FMP/RFA plans that have been obtained by the WSNFC to date can be obtained on request from wsnfc@earthlink.net
WESTERN SLOPE NO-FEE COALITION
P.O. Box 135, Durango, CO 81302
970/259-4616
info@WesternSlopeNoFee.org
__._,_.___