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 The Umatilla National Forest, located in the Blue Mountains of southeast Washington and northeast Oregon, has proposed charging recreation fees at new 39 sites as a follow-up action to their Recreation Site Facility Master Planning analysis. This is merely a "proposed action" --- in much the same was as the Umatilla RS-FMP was only an "analysis". Let's be straight, what is "proposed" is a foregone conclusion.
Pasted below are excerpts of today's announcement in the Federal Register. What I'd like to draw your attention to is the Forest Service's claimed 'justification' for charging new access fees at 17 trailheads.
When the old, entirely unrestricted, fee-demonstration program became the new RAT (Recreation Access Tax) in late 2004, Congress thought it was raising the threshold for charging fees. Congress believed that it was stopping the FS from charging access fees simply because they could. Congress' defined the minimum level of development at a recreation site that could possibly warrant the charging of fees and prohibited the charging of fees where this standard was not met. The intent was to prevent the FS for charging for simple access or imposing a fee upon those who merely wished to enjoy a walk in the woods.
Unfortunately Congress set the bar low and gave the FS too many loopholes through which they could squeeze. The result is what we are now seeing.
Today, next week and the months and years to come UNLESS the RAT is repealed, the FS will be add 39 fees sites here, 25 there and thousands more scattered everywhere. The FS will claim, as they have below, that these new sites merit being fee-sites BECAUSE the are just like other fee-sites. They will justify the amount of the fee by saying that other recently created fee-sites charge that much. They will rationalize the imposition of additional trailhead fees on the basis of having added, or being prepared to add, a cheap sign-board, a picnic table and a trashcan. The trail itself, which is the very reason and perhaps the ONLY reason for using a trailhead, will remain unmaintained or, at best, maintained by volunteers.
Although this will be the future unless action is taken by the public, it need not be the future. Legislation has been introduced that will repeal the RAT (S.2438). To learn more, click here.
Scott
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[Federal Register: February 8, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 27)]
Notice of Proposed New Fee Sites; Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (Title VIII, Pub. L. 108-447)
AGENCY: Umatilla National Forest, USDA Forest Service.
SUMMARY: The Umatilla National Forest is proposing to charge fees at 39
recreation sites. Fees are assessed based on the level of amenities and
services provided, cost of operation and maintenance, market
assessment, and public comment...
Rental Cabins: Fremont Caretaker's Cabin on the North Fork John Day
Ranger District and Tucannon Guard Station on the Pomeroy Ranger
District will be available for overnight rental. A financial analysis
is being completed to determine the rental fees; the range being
considered is from $70 to $100 per night...
Campgrounds: The Umatilla National Forest is proposing to begin
charging fees at 20 campgrounds. These sites provide similar amenities
as sites that currently require fees...
Trailheads: The Umatilla National Forest proposes charging fees at
the following 17 trailheads... These sites would be established as fee
sites since amenities such as toilets, garbage service, and
interpretive signing have been or will be added.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Randall, Umatilla Recreation Fee
Coordinator, 509-522-6276. Information about proposed fee changes can
also be found on the Umatilla National Forest Web site:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/uma/recreation/rfa/fee_changes.shtml.
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- Land management 
