In mid-September 2006, the Government Accountability Office issued a report titled: "RECREATION FEES: Agencies Can Better Implement the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act and Account for Fee Revenues."

The report made several references to the failure of the agencies to set the price for the new inter-agency federal public lands pass.

Many people have speculated that when this new pass goes on sale in January 2007, it will sell for about $100 -- roughly twice what the current National Park pass costs.

Those who can not afford $100 a year to walk in the woods (managed by the Forest Service), sit by a stream (managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service), or watch the sun set (managed by the Bureau of Land Management), can earn a pass by volunteering on federal lands. Five Hundred hours will earn you a pass, good for a year -- a pass that, incidentally, costs the government little more than printing costs. Five Hundred hours is the equivalent of twelve and a half, 40 hour work-weeks.

Our government has suggested on numerous occasions that volunteerism is the perfect way for middle and lower income people to gain access to their public lands.  I just wonder what those middle and lower income persons will be doing for income during the three months they are working on public lands at the cash equivalent rate of 20 cents per hour!?

Here is a table from that report. The full document can be downloaded from here. 

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