Page 11 - the NOISE February 2014

Representatives of the FAA were also in at- tendance. In their defense, air tour operators pointed out that they help prevent looting and defacement at archaeological and other sites by allowing people to see these loca- tions without being on the ground. But, ac- cording to Ms. Branton, the USFS is open to continuing a dialogue about noise and fly- over complaints. Any agreements reached between the two parties would essentially be voluntary as there are no statutory provi- sions on this issue other than the USFS being able to prevent landings on forest lands.
Page 139 of the draft forest plan regard- ing “Recreation Special Uses” for the Se- dona/Oak Creek Management Area (MA) states that the USFS will “Collaborate with Federal Aviation Administration, Sedona Air- port Administration, and air tour operators to minimize aircraft effects on threatened, endangered, or sensitive animal species, par- ticularly over suitable peregrine falcon nest- ing habitat and big game wintering habitat.” Directives specific to the Sedona Neighbor- hoods MA, a submanagement area of the Sedona/Oak Creek MA, add an intention to
“work with commercial operators, filming groups, and homeowners to resolve safety and quality of life conflicts such as concerns about noise, safety, and facilities mainte- nance needs” (page 141). Ms. Branton said she hopes to continue productive dialogue with air tour operators to raise awareness and implement mutually agreeable solu- tions to these ends.
MeAnTiMe ... bACK AT The CreeK
In the meantime, the RRRD has announced that on March 1 it will convert the Beaver Creek Campground into a day use site. The campground is currently under the manage- ment of Recreation Resource Management (RRM), the private concessionaire that has a Special Use Permit with the Coconino NF for the management of campgrounds and day use sites in the district. However, any fee changes are supposed to be reviewed by the Arizona Resource Advisory Committee (AZ RAC), through its recreation arm (RecRAC) before being implemented. The AZ RAC is scheduled to meet on January 29 and 30 but the Beaver Creek fee is not on the agenda.
This is just the sort of issue that a lawsuit was filed about in Washington, DC in Sep- tember 2012. The last response was filed in June 2013 but no judge’s decision has been made in the case.
In that lawsuit, plaintiffs representing indi- vidual forest recreators and advocacy organi- zations charged the USFS and private conces- sionaires with using Special Use Permits to al- low the USFS to circumvent restrictions that would apply under regular forest service ad- ministration. The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act of 2004 (FLREA) requires new recreation fees and changes to existing fees to be reviewed by the RAC before imple- mentation. The RAC is statutorily required to document public support before approving a fee proposal. Historically, issuing a Special Use Permit has allowed the Forest Service to forego this public involvement process.
An inquiry regarding this fee change has been sent to Francisco Valenzuela, South- west Regional Director of Recreation, Heri- tage and Wilderness. Mr. Valenzuela stated he would look into the issue but no further response was received at press time.
A FAileD eXperiMenT
The AZ RAC is a volunteer organization composed of citizens from around the state of Arizona who represent a wide range of viewpoints on public lands issues including grazing, mining, and water use, as well as
recreation. The RAC is actually a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) organization but the USFS, in order to be in compliance with the FLREA, asks the existing group to review USFS issues as well. The AZ RAC has a Rec- reation Subcommittee (RecRAC) that does preliminary reviews before presenting their recommendations to the full RAC.
While Arizona has an exceptional RAC whose members recently refused to give the USFS their approval on a controversial issue without seeing more evidence of public sup- port, other states are not as fortunate. By and large, most RACs have blanketly voted to approve any and all fee proposals brought to them by both the USFS and the BLM.
Recently in California, RAC approval of USFS fee proposals on the Angeles Forest raised the ire of La Cañada Flintridge resident Trent Sanders. The Angeles Forest is one of several Southern California area forests that require the Adventure Pass, a recreation pass similar to Sedona’s Red Rock Pass.
In a January 22 letter to the editor of the La Cañada Valley Sun, Mr. Sanders stated, “The committee is made up of 11 citizen volunteers, non-Forest Service employees.
The Forest Service committee regulations require a quorum of eight committee mem- bers to vote on any fee issue. Of the 11 mem- bers who were supposed at be at the meet- ing, one didn’t show up, there’s one com- mittee vacancy and three members’ terms had expired last July with no replacements. That meant there was no required quorum to vote on anything. Did the lack of quorum matter to the Forest Service? Not at all! And all the fees that you and I will have to pay to visit our Angeles Forest were approved.”
Kitty Benzar, President of the Western Slope No Fee Coaltion (westernslopenofee. org) attended a meeting of the Utah RAC on January 10. Two recreation fee areas on the agenda were pulled at the last minute by the USFS leaving only issues with which Ms. Ben- zar’s organization has no qualms. However, when given the opportunity to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting, she expressed her own dismay with the pro- cess. She criticized the Utah RAC for approv- ing every single fee proposal the USFS has ever put before them and for simply accept- ing the agency’s word about public approval of fees rather than requesting to review ac- tual comments received by the USFS.
Ms. Benzar stated that “On the RecRAC process, I essentially have given up because a year from now there won’t be any RecRACs. The process is viewed as broken by Congress. Chairman Representative Rob Bishop from Utah had a series of hearings this summer on federal public land management and one of those was on FLREA. He asked the whole panel if anybody thought the RecRAC pro- cess was working and should be preserved and not one single person answered yes. So the legislation that’s going to replace FLREA, they’re out drafting something instead right now. I don’t know anything that’s going to be in it. I’ve given input to it, and so have a lot of other people. But one thing I know that is not going to be in it was going to be RecRACs.”
Just what the public involvement process on recreation fees will look like after FLREA, no one really knows yet. But, in the mean- time, RAC review of fee proposals is still re- quired by law — a fact some in the USFS are wont to disregard.
| Cindy Cole’s new book, Red Rock Ripoff is available at
tinyurl.com/buyredrockripoff. cindycole@live.com
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