Recreating on federal public lands has been a cherished birthright of Americans for generations and, with a few narrow exceptions, a right enjoyed without charge. The 1996 Recreational Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo) radically altered that tradition by requiring payment simply to access public lands for hiking, camping, and many other activities.

The harm from Fee Demo wasn't merely commercializing the experience; it effectively transferred ownership of our federal public lands from the people to land management agencies.

It now is common to see literature from our land management agencies referring to we citizens as “customers,” not owners, of our public lands. User fees are limiting access to backcountry for many working-class families, and many recreation sites not generating sufficient user fees are being closed. Predictably, public lands visitation has declined for a decade.

Areas requiring significant upkeep, such as developed campgrounds have charged modest fees for decades, but Fee Demo allowed the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to begin charging us for nearly any activity -- even a walk in the woods.

The Fee “Demonstration” program since has been extended repeatedly, and those agencies have expanded user fees to millions of acres of public lands. Entrance fees are charged for entire National Forests and use of state and county roads. National Park entrance fees jumped from $5 to $20 in some cases, and the NPS began charging additional, layered fees for such things as backcountry permits and educational programs.

Despite increasing resistance to Fee Demo, the program was worsened by the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, widely ridiculed as the Recreation Access Tax (RAT). The RAT was passed into law without debate, thanks to a rider inserted into a major appropriations bill

The RAT contains provisions intended to address complaints about Fee Demo by limiting fees to developed areas, simplifying fee payment through an interagency pass program, and requiring public participation in fee decisions. These provisions utterly failed to achieve their goals. For example:

•  Fees are still required for access to undeveloped backcountry, including designated Wilderness Areas.

•  Fees are still charged for parking, including along state and county rights-of-way and for passing through federally managed lands on state and county roads.

•  De facto entrance fees continue for access to huge tracts of undeveloped Forest Service and BLM land.

•  The Forest Service is implementing policies that will result in the closure of thousands of recreation sites unless self-supported by fees.

•  Many National Park entrance fees have risen to $25 and additional, layered fees continue in NPS areas.

•  Recreation Resource Advisory Committees, composed of citizens from various interest groups and meant to represent the public in decisions about fee programs, are conducting their business with little public input and acting as rubber stamps of approval for almost all agency proposals.

Under the RAT, the agencies continued with “business as usual,” and hundreds of new and increased fees have been approved. More will come shortly. Fees are becoming a principal agency funding source and now divert congressional appropriations into agency overhead.

Fee Retention: The Root of the Problem

Among the most harmful aspects of the “pay to play” laws is allowing federal land management agencies to retain fee revenues instead of depositing them in the Treasury. Fee retention is marketed as a “positive,” putting most money into the district in which the fees are paid, but the idea fundamentally is flawed.

By allowing local recreation managers to raise their own operating budgets, fee retention has fed new bureaucracies in Washington, diminished Congress's oversight of agency spending, and ignored public sentiment.

Recreation fees, coupled with fee retention authority, changed the focus of the public lands agencies:

•  From resource management and public service to revenue generation;

•  From viewing visitors as owners to treating them as paying customers;

•  From being stewards of resources owned by all Americans to treating the lands they manage as agency property.

After a decade of recreation fees, the concept of public ownership of public lands is on the brink of extinction.

But a growing nationwide backlash presents public lands advocates an opportunity to restore the great tradition of free access for all Americans. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) recently introduced Senate Bill 2438, the Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act, to halt the rapid commercialization of public lands. With bipartisan support from Senators Tester (D-MT) Crapo (R-ID) and Salazar (D-CO) grassroots support could push this bill into law. It may be our last, best hope to save our public lands and ensure our children inherit one of the great assets enjoyed by previous generations.

Kitty Benzar is the President of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition. Visit their website for the latest information and legislation status.

See also Is This Land Our Land?

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