September 2003

Backcountry Snowsports Alliance Policy Position
Recreation User Fees on Public Lands

In 1996, the federal government began a user fee demonstration project to evaluate the feasibility of charging fees for the use of public lands in order to help provide needed services and infrastructure to the sites. Users were told that the money collected would help with improvements to the sites, that there would be no cutback in federal funding, and that the amounts charged would be fair and equitable. Unfortunately, government agencies have not lived up to this promise. Fee demo has been used to justify expansion of user fees far beyond the mandate of the original program. Thousands of trailheads across the country have become "pay-to-play" sites with little or no justification for their existence other than revenue enhancement for the managing agencies.

Because of these problems, the Backcountry Snowsports Alliance (BSA) opposes any authorization to extend the current fee demo program beyond its expiration date of September 30, 2004. Furthermore, BSA opposes the permanent establishment of a fee program until problems with accountability, flexibility, and fairness are addressed. An evaluation of the user fee demonstration program using the recently completed GAO report, as well as more formal public involvement methods, should be undertaken prior to any decision regarding the future of the program.

With limited exceptions for areas with high cultural/historical significance, environmentally sensitive sites, and those areas managed under special operating conditions (such as developed campgrounds), access to public land should be free to all. The management of public lands should be fully funded using tax dollars.

Given budgetary constraints, BSA recognizes the difficulty in providing recreation management in a time when the popularity of outdoor recreation is growing rapidly. Therefore, under very limited circumstances, BSA could agree with the implementation of user fees under the following criteria:

  • User fees must supplement tax dollars, not replace them.
  • The public must have full input before any user fees are implemented.
  • Agencies should justify fee proposals with a business plan that specifically addresses the needs of each site.
  • Monies generated from a specific area must be used for that site only. If revenue is generated in excess of the site's needs, fee collection should be ended or reduced for that site.
  • Fees should be used only for:
    • Maintenance, rehabilitation, and improvement of existing facilities for existing uses.
    • Law enforcement and education in high impact areas.
    • Capital construction, but only for any development necessary to reduce environmental damage to the site.
  • Performance expectations and measures must be implemented to determine if fee collection/coordination practices at a site and/or agency are meeting predetermined goals. Fees would be ended if criteria are not met within a specified time.
  • Agencies should reasonably accommodate any formal request for an accounting of fees collected and how they are spent.
  • Fees must be fair and reasonable with the amount charged consummate with the needs established in the business plan.

BSA opposes user fees where:

  • Fees are used to offset federal funding.
  • Fees for high-use sites are primarily used as "revenue generators" for other areas of the governing agency.
  • The existing recreational impact on a site is minimal, such as in areas where the main activity is non-motorized backcountry travel.
  • There is additional infrastructure development that substantially changes the character of the site and/or results in an increased recreational impact.
  • Management of the site is contracted out to private interests.
  • Fees are used for marketing and promotion of the site.

BSA believes public lands, with limited exceptions, should be free to all and that management of these lands should be primarily funded through government appropriations. We are against the arbitrary implementation of fees without specific goals for specific sites.