March 2004
Recreation Fee Demo May End on National Forests
On February 11, 2004, Senator Craig Thomas' (R-WY) Recreation Fee Authority Act was passed in committee to permanently authorize the collection of entrance fees for National Parks where fees will be spent on the park in which they are collected. However, recreation fee collection on other federal public lands (Forest Service, BLM, US Fish and Wildlife) will end by December 31, 2005, after nine years of failure to generate public support and viability as a reliable funding stream. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton had aggressively lobbied Thomas and other Senators to include permanent fee authority for the other federal public lands agencies, but this effort fails. This bill goes to the full senate sometime this session.