KSUT Regional  8am Newscast 09.14.06           

From KSUT, Four Corners Public Radio, I'm Joan Zwisler.
        
HOST LEAD: A Durango based group is sounding an alarm when it comes to forest recreational opportunities.
           
The Western Slope No Fee Coalition says the Forest Service is moving to close thousands of recreational sites nationwide.

 

The Coalition says the forest Service is doing this with little or no public input or congressional oversight.

 

           
KSUT's Victor Locke reports the federal agency confirms it is in the process of making studies of facilities.
           
But the agency denies it's acting behind close doors.
           
VICTOR: Kitty Benzar of Durango is with the Western Slope No Fee Coalition.
           
That's a group opposed to access and user fees on National Lands.
           
Benzar says they've obtained documents suggesting thousands of Forest Service Recreation sites could face closure under what she says is secret plan called Recreational Site Facility Master Planning, or RSFMP.
           
BENZAR: It's a policy which is requiring every forest throughout the country to inventory each recreation site that is on that forest, and then to compare the facilities and the maintenance status, and the revenue potential of that site, to a national standard. And if it doesn't meet the national standard, to close it or decommission it.
           
Benzar says the national standard was created by Forest Service managers without any public comment or review.
           
She says 22 Forests have completed their RSFMP'S. 130 others should complete theirs later this year.
           
And she claims the coalition has received results of some of the studies.
           
BENZAR: Based on two complete plans that we've been able to obtain and three plans that we've been able to get partial information about, we estimate that somewhere between two and five thousand sites around the country will be closed or decomissioned. And decomissioning means bulldozed, all their facilities removed, "obliterated" is the word used in the policy guidebook.
          
JIRON: I think that's complete hyperbole.
          
Dan Jiron is the National Press Officer for the Forest Service.
           
JIRON: In some cases the forest facilities may be updated. Others may be changed, depending on the need they may go through some sort of change, but thousands of closures is simply not true. People will be fully aware of anything we propose. They'll be commenting on it and they'll be influencing outcomes.
           
Benzar says no RSFMP Plan has been completed or disclosed yet for the San Juan National Forest, comprising more than 2.5-million Southwest Colorado Acres.
           
But she claims documents she's obtained identify 53 San Juan recreation sites for study, 26 of which have been labeled as not being managed to the standards of the RSFMP, and could be subject to closure.
           
The San Juan plan is being developed by David Baker at the Public Lands Center.
           
BAKER: We built a lot of sites in the 60's and 70's when people tent camped, we've moved to big rv's and pop up trailers, so certainly how we use our rec facilities has changed so we're looking at that and how we're going to manage rec facilities in the future. So finding efficiencies, not closing sites, finding efficiencies in how we do business cuz you know, a 60-year old toilet needs to be replaced, and that's a deferred maintenance cost. And we're trying to figure out how we're going to replace it or do something else with it.
           
Baker says what's underway is a realignment, not a reconstruction. They aren't starting over, they are moving forward.
           
As for Benzar, she's sticking to her claims.
           
BENZAR: When the forest service claims that these closures are just hyperbole and we're overreacting, my challenge to them is to release the plans.
           
Baker expects the San Juan Mountains draft 5 year plan to be released later this month or in early October for 60-days of public comment after which a final plan would be adopted.
           
But, he says more public input and environmental assessments are required to implement specific recommendations in the final plan.
           
Benzar and the Western Slope No Fee Coalition is also calling for congressional review and an audit of forest service recreational budgets.
           
BENZAR: We look at the amount they are appropriated versus the amount that's making it to the ground, there's a huge, millions of dollars, a huge amount of money that's unaccounted for. We want to know where that money's going and we think that calls for a gao audit.
           
Jiron says 90-percent of Forest Service land remain fee free, and that isn't expected to change.
          
 I'm Victor Locke, for KSUT.

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