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Almost daily I am hearing from or about people who having paid $30, $50, $80, $95 or more for a federally issued public lands recreation pass, and who have just discovered that their pass doesn't provide the access they expected. Let me explain what's going on.
 Private concessionaires are not required to accept the America the Beautiful Pass or the Golden Age Pass, Adventure Pass, Tonto Pass, Red Rock Pass, etc. for general access or use — and they have no reason to do so. When a land management agency privatizes a recreation site, be it a picnic area, a boat launch, swimming beach, etc. by turning it over to a concessionaire, that site is no longer freely accessible to citizens or visitors. The concessionaire, being in the business of providing recreation for a profit, will demand payment for access and will expect payment in the form of cash, check or credit card. Passes issued by the government are not accepted forms of currency.
And as profitable recreation sites are being privatized, unprofitable recreation sites are being closed or, as the USFS prefers to say, they are simply not being opened for the season. I've blogged on this phenomenon already twice this week and, be assured, this trend is rapidly accelerating.
Pasted below yet another, somewhat different, illustration of what's going on. In this example, a hiker who having purchased a Tonto National Forest recreation pass for $95 discoverers that site where he wanted to hike on Tuesday was closed and off-limits between sundown on Sunday and Friday at 4:00 PM.
As outdoor recreation on our public lands is transformed from being a benefit of citizenship to being a revenue generating commodity, optimized for profitability, please understand that if a recreation site or opportunity doesn't pay, chances are it is going away.
Scott
June 15, 2007
Closure irks Tonto Forest area hiker
Lauren Gilger, Tribune
For the last three years, Scottsdale resident Tim Jacobson has gone
hiking with his dogs at Coon Bluff, a public recreation area along the
Salt River northeast of Mesa.
He even recently bought a $95 annual parking pass to be able to go there year-round.
But when he arrived with his dogs at the gate last week, he found it
locked. No sign, no notice given. When he came back again last Friday,
he said the site was still closed.
Tonto National Forest officials blame the restricted hours on staffing shortages.
Recreation sites at Coon Bluff, Phon D Sutton, Sheep’s Crossing and
Pebble Beach now close at sundown on Sunday until 4 p.m. the following
Friday each week, according to an announcement on the Forest Service’s
Web site.
“The information is out there,” said Art Wirtz, district ranger with
the Mesa Ranger District of the Tonto National Forest. “I don’t know if
they’re aware of it.”
Wirtz said the district is short about 10 staff members, and it doesn’t
have enough people available to pick up litter and patrol the areas. He
said the Forest Service is trying to stretch the staff it has by using
them on weekends when most people visit the river.
But Jacobson is skeptical.
“I’ve never seen anyone from the Forest Service out there picking up garbage in the three years I’ve been going there,” he said.
Wirtz said the recent shortages are due to what he called the “growing
pains” of a new system, in which the 156 Forest Service personnel
offices around the country were centralized into one office in
Albuquerque, N.M.
Wirtz said the Forest Service hopes to be able to reopen the recreation areas along the Salt River in a few months.
In the meantime, Jacobson is upset that the closures don’t apply equally to everybody.
While driving home last week, he said he noticed a private charter bus
entering one of the closed areas. After questioning Forest Service
officials, he learned that some businesses receive exclusive access to
the recreation areas while the public is shut out.
Wirtz defends the special-use permits given to some businesses.
He said a significant amount of money made by those businesses goes
back to the government, and some of the money helps maintain those
sites.
“Yes, tax dollars did build all of these recreation sites,” he said.
“But the money to maintain and operate them doesn’t necessarily come
from taxpayers.”
He also pointed out that private tour companies serve the public, who
otherwise would not be able to river raft with trained guides.
“The public are the ones that are using it,” Wirtz said.
Jacobson’s other complaint is that the Forest Service did not mention
that parking lot hours would soon be restricted when he bought his
parking pass. He said the three recreation areas that remain open
during the week are crowded by customers and buses from the Salt River
Tubing company.
Wirtz said the Forest Service now tells people when they buy their parking permits that some areas are closed five days a week.
In the end, Jacobson said he just wants public access to public land.
“What law gives you the authority to close public land off to the public?” he asked.
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- Privatization 
