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Guest Opinion:
Americans Must Reclaim Ownership of National Forests
A recent front-page story in the Denver Post
described Recreation Site Facility Master Planning, a USDA-Forest
Service internal policy initiative that has thousands of recreation
sites slated for closure nationwide.
There are a number of important issues that were not addressed in the article.
RSFMP is a policy that threatens to impose a for-profit model on the
management of America's national forests. As one agency official put
it, "In our development sites, we've been told they need to pay for
themselves or we need to get rid of them."
The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition estimates that RSFMP will close or
decommission between 3,000 and 5,000 recreation sites. Many of these
sites will be gated and no longer accessible.
Closures already have begun on some forests, with little or no public
notice. So has decommissioning, including the removal of drinking water
systems, picnic tables, toilets and fire rings.
But closure and decommissioning are only one aspect of RSFMP. The
policy also calls for turning many sites over to private sector
partners to manage.
According to one Forest Service recreation manager, the agency has
adopted a "No Partner, No Potty" policy that threatens to close
hundreds of facilities because they can't attract a corporate manager.
Thousands more are slated for increased fees, new fees and reduced
operating seasons.
RSFMP focuses on the Forest Service's developed recreation program,
including trailheads, day-use areas, lake and river access points and
campgrounds.
But similar policies are being embedded in forest Travel Management
Plans and will bring the same approach to hiking, biking and equestrian
trails, OHV areas and even roads.
RSFMP will have enormous impacts on national forest gateway communities
nationwide. As sites are closed and fees increase, forest visitation
(already in decline) will certainly shrink.
Local, often rural, communities adjacent to or surrounded by national
forests will see a drop in the tourism that supports their economies.
The removal of toilets and drinking water systems will have negative
impacts on public health that will have to be addressed at the state,
county, or municipal level.
Economically disadvantaged citizens will find themselves ever more
excluded from the recreational opportunities that have traditionally
been available to them on national forests.
These actions fall hardest on those who reside near national forests and who make up more than 60 percent of forest visitors.
The Forest Service cites plummeting recreation budgets as the impetus and justification for RSFMP.
While Congress needs to recognize the importance of our public lands
and adequately fund their upkeep, a serious reality gap exists between
what the Forest Service is claiming is available to them in
appropriated funds for developed recreation and what Congress is
actually appropriating.
Appropriations for Forest Service recreation actually have increased by
22 percent over the last decade to $433 million - but allocation of
those funds from the Forest Service's Washington and regional offices
to the individual forests has dramatically decreased.
Many forests are receiving less than $150,000 a year to manage their developed recreation program.
Millions of dollars are disappearing into the agency bureaucracy without ever making it to a national forest.
RSFMP requires that every forest produce a five-year plan that ranks
all sites. Forests have been working on these plans behind closed doors
since at least 2002 and more than 40 of them are known to be complete.
But only a handful of the completed plans have been released and none
has gone through the public comment process specified by the National
Environmental Policy Act.
Now that word of RSFMP has leaked to the public, the Forest Service has
agreed to take public comment (outside of NEPA), but its management
action decisions have already been made and the fate of many recreation
areas, as far as forest managers are concerned, already is sealed.
All 155 national forests are required to complete their plans this year and begin implementation in 2007.
RSFMP is an out-of-control locomotive. But Congress has the power to slam on the brakes.
All RSFMP planning must stop, completed plans must be scrapped and
implementation must not proceed. Oversight hearings must be held.
A General Accounting Office audit of Forest Service recreation budgets is long overdue, and Congress must require one.
RSFMP is being implemented right now. Heavy equipment is poised to
remove campgrounds, cabins, picnic tables, fire rings, toilets and
drinking water systems from national forests nationwide.
Time is running out for the American people to reclaim ownership of their national forests.
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Robert Funkhouser is president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition.
Website: www.westernslopenofee.org. Read the WSNFC Report on Recreation Site
Facility Management Planning.
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