Page 11 - the NOISE November 2013

CONTINUED FROM 8
appropriations funding proportionate to the amounts they report they collect annually in fees. This causes the districts to implement more user fees in an effort to raise income for the upkeep of local public lands.
In addition, the USFS has struggled to pro- vide the public with accurate performance records. The US General Accounting Office (GAO) has been investigating the Forest Service’s financial accountability since 2003. The overall appropriations for the USFS have increased over 75% since 1999 but no one in the government seems to know exactly where that money is going.
Once user fees are in place, it is easier for ranger districts to contract fee sites out to private companies to manage. Since fees can only be charged in developed areas, the For- est Service goes through the process of add- ing expensive facilities at taxpayers’ expense and then turns these financially more attrac- tive sites over to private companies. But the catch is the private concessionaires are not obligated to reinvest the fees they collect into the local area as USFS run sites would be.
And fees for the Special Use Permits in- volved are really just a myth, as mentioned earlier. Provisions in the Granger-Thye Act, which authorizes private management of public lands, allow the concessionaires to “off- set” their permit fees “in whole or in part” by the value of any “maintenance, recondition- ing, renovation, and improvement” (known as MRRI) they perform at their own expense. So, in reality, permit fees are rarely, if ever, paid back to the USFS or the forest district in which the fee sites are located and managed under a Special Use Permit. In this way, the whole fee retention issue becomes a double- edged sword. And Mr. Meyer’s credibility on the issue becomes even more tainted.
For example, at the Crescent Moon Ranch day use site in Sedona, a $9 entry fee is re- quired for each car entering the parking lot. Several years ago when that location was still managed by the USFS, that entry fee was around $4. Of the current $9 fee, only about $1 is promised to the USFS. However, deduc- tions made for MRRIs can result in not one penny of that money ever being paid back to the Red Rock Ranger District.
In 2009, RRM’s Special Use Permit in Se- dona grossed nearly $1.4 million. The USFS is not at all clear on how much of that money actually stayed in Sedona and was used for public benefit.
Private management of public lands also raises the issue of operating costs. Sites managed by the USFS look and function the same way privately managed sites do but require employees to be paid according to the federal wage scale, which is standardized throughout the federal government. In ex- change, the public receives the presence of a dedicated, trained, educated, and perhaps career-oriented Federal Employee who takes pride in his/her position and joined the USFS to honor a sense of stewardship and respon- sibility to protect public lands. These federal employees are trained to interact with visi- tors and provide local and historical informa- tion to interested guests.
Concessionaire employees are promised by law only minimum wage and perhaps do not experience the same sense of ac- countability and conscience that a federal employee might have nor do they neces- sarily have the same education and train- ing. Interactions with RRM employees at the Crescent Moon Ranch area rarely go beyond the exchange of money for the entry fee and reporting dirty restrooms.
Mr. Meyer claims that most of his employ- ees are retired so they don’t mind receiving only minimum wage for their efforts. He says they don’t want to earn more money and jeopardize their social security benefits. But the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which doesn’t use private concessionaires at all, manages to employ volunteer camp hosts from the same population without having to pay them a cent.
As mentioned earlier, in a memo dated March 1, 2007 addressed to regional and area foresters, James S. Bedwell, then USFS Di- rector of Recreation and Heritage Resources, discussed the issue of standard amenity fee sites managed by concessionaires. He wrote that forest policies “do not require existing concessionaires operating sites that qualify for charging a standard amenity recreation fee under FLREA (primarily day use sites) to give free use to holders of the annual Inter- agency Pass.
“Additionally, they do not require these concessionaires to give a discount to holders of other passes for day use. The agency’s cur- rent policy for a 50% discount only applies to camping. Requiring these concessionaires to provide free use or discounted day use is not consistent with the terms of their permit and corresponding prospectus.
“In addition, requiring these concession- aires to provide free use could prevent their concessions from qualifying for the Service Contract Act (SCA) exemption from the high- er wage rates imposed under the SCA. The United States Department of Labor could view these concessions as providing more of a public benefit than a business opportunity and therefore could determine that they do not qualify for the exemption. Not qualifying for the SCA exemption could make some of these concessions unprofitable.”
Through the increased privatization of fed- eral lands, private corporations are being al- lowed to set public policy and even sue the federal government when things go wrong politically. Organizations like the NFRA lobby Congress to tighten their hold on our public lands. Natural areas are developed unneces- sarily. Special Use Permits are granted and federal laws are circumvented without input from the American people. It’s time for the tax-paying public to stand up and take back our legacy.
And one MoRe ThinG...
In spite of all the Capitol Hill political wran- gling it took to present a bill that all sides could agree on so the government could get up and running again, a few items that might be considered non-germane still made it into the documents signed by the President.
One of those items was a one-year exten- sion of FLREA! This means the USFS and its private contractors get another year to con- tinue charging fees on federal lands — even the illegal ones — without any changes or improvements to the system!
Annual passes can continue to be sold through December 2014 with a full year of value attached to them. And Congress gets one more year to consider who really owns our forests and how many times we need to pay for the privilege of using them.
| Cindy Cole is an adven- turesome mother & avid hiker, photographer & writer.
cindycole@live.com
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news
• november 2013 • 11