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The appended news article is 350 words in length and is worthy of being committed to memory by anyone who has even a passing interest in outdoor recreation. If you want the executive summary, here it is:
1) The Forest Service is spending recreation dollars fighting forest fires and as a consequence, inadequate money is available to maintain recreation facilities.
2) Facilities that can not be kept open through creative means, such as privatization, commercialization, etc., will be decommissioned and removed.
 I have detailed the 10-step process by which this would unfold and encourage you to read my decade-old essay titled, "Our Public Lands: Their Working Capital." Assess for yourself the true nature of the ONGOING threat which resulted from permitting our lands to be treated as their capital.
If you are displeased with what you discover, do something to create a different future. And if you don't know what to do, please contact me for suggestions.
Scott
"We're going to have to do more with less until we do everything with nothing." - Cid Morgan, USFS District Ranger, 2005
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July 16, 2007
Forest Service budget cut threatens campground closures
By Callie Boyd, Staff Writer
The local Forest Service Ranger District is looking for partnerships
and new ideas to increase funding for the campgrounds and picnic areas
on the Pinaleno Mountains, also known as Mount Graham.
According to Toni Strauss, Safford's district ranger, the funding
received and what is needed to properly run and support recreational
areas on the mountain are not in balance.
Strauss approached the Safford City Council with this issue Monday,
July 9. Strauss said she was looking for support and creative,
out-of-the-box ideas on how to raise the funds needed to maintain
camping facilities.
According to Strauss, the money is budgeted for building maintenance,
toilets and keeping the campgrounds sanitary. Because of the intense
fires the mountain has seen in recent years, a portion of this money
has had to help ensure fire prevention.
If additional money cannot be raised, campgrounds and picnic areas will
not be able to be properly maintained and will have to be closed.
"If we can't maintain them to the level we're required, we'll have no other choice but to tear them out," Strauss said.
The Forest Service's budget money from Congress and what is actually needed to maintain sanitary facilities do not balance.
Strauss said, "We're trying to figure out how to bridge that gap."
Strauss also said districts that can figure out how to do more with
less money will be rewarded by Congress by receiving more money the
next year.
The community of Logan, Utah, got creative to keep their campgrounds
open in the Wasatch-Cashe Forest. Every month on residents' utility
bills, there is an optional $1 donation that goes to the Forest Service.
"That was something that really intrigued me," Strauss said.
If local residents have creative ideas to generate funding to keep the
10 Mount Graham campgrounds and two picnic areas open, they should call
the local Forest Service office at 428-4150.
If enough money is not raised, the Forest Service will have to start looking at closures about one year from now.
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- Land management 
