The end (for now) to backcountry extortion....

[hikeaz]

September 14, 2006
For Immediate Release

FEDERAL COURT FINDS ARIZONA FOREST SERVICE FEE PROGRAM IS ILLEGAL

Hiking and Parking Fees Are Not Authorized In Fee Law

A mild-mannered, churchgoing, Tucson legal secretary has pulled the legal rug out from under a major Forest Service fee program, and potentially from hundreds of similar programs nationwide. When Chris Wallace decided to fight the two tickets she received last September for backcountry hikes on Mt Lemmon without displaying a $5 access pass on her parked car, the Forest Service got more than they bargained for. With the help of California attorney Mary Ellen Barilotti, she challenged whether the Forest Service has legal authority to charge the fee.

On September 5, United States Magistrate Judge Charles R. Pyle agreed with Wallace.
He dismissed both her tickets because the Mt Lemmon fee does not meet federal requirements.The Court found that:

*** The legal prohibition on fees for certain activities
applies within a High Impact Recreation Area

*** The Forest Service does not have authority to charge
a fee for parking along roads, or for undeveloped,
minimally developed or semi-developed sites

*** The Forest Service has no authority to charge fees
for trails, trailsides, or developed trailheads

*** The agency is prohibited from charging for camping
at undeveloped sites.

Wallace's case hinged on the restrictions spelled out in the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA), which was passed by Congress as an appropriations rider in December 2004. The FLREA repealed the unpopular Fee Demo law and replaced it with a permanent, but more restrictive, fee authority. The FLREA specifically prohibits fees merely for parking, for hiking through Forest Service lands, or for access to undeveloped backcountry.
After passage of the FLREA, the Forest Service issued internal guidelines that allowed parking, hiking, and access fees in areas designated as "High Impact Recreation Areas" or HIRAs. Under these guidelines, fees are being charged nationwide for parking at undeveloped areas, trailheads, and along state highways and county roads.
Judge Pyle's ruling says, "With respect to the 20 developed trailheads [on Mt Lemmon], never in the 42 year history of fee-charging on federal lands has fee-charging for trailheads ever been contemplated by Congress. . .Of the 48 sites identified by the USFS, only nine picnic areas are appropriate for a standard amenity recreation fee, the fee at issue in this case, assuming they are in fact developed sites, and not roadside picnic tables and trash cans."

Judge Pyle's ruling concludes that "The USFS needs to abide by the constraints of Congress and allow reasonable access to dispersed areas for low impact activities." Alasdair Coyne of Keep Sespe Wild adds, "This ruling sends a clear message to the Forest Service to ensure their fee programs follow the letter of the law."

The court ruling can be found at:

http://www.wildwilderness.org/images/st ... ismiss.pdf

[fishbike]

Tell me that this applies to the Red Rock Ripoff that Sedona started a few years ago.

[big_load]

I doubt the final word will come from the Magistrate level. It's a nice start, though.

[hikeaz]

Tell me that this applies to the Red Rock Ripoff that Sedona started a few years ago.

Don't get me started on THIS boondoggle.........

[hikeaz]

Tell me that this applies to the Red Rock Ripoff that Sedona started a few years ago.

Don't get me started on THIS boondoggle.........

In Sedona, AZ, 60% of every dollar put into an automat ... he machine. After they make $175,000, their take drops to 40%.




The below, excerpted from: http://www.flagstaffactivist.org/fan/GOAreport.phtml

How much Fee Demo money REALLY goes to help our Forests?

The Forest Service gross Fee Demo revenue for FY 2001 was over $35 million (p.6).
We must subtract the reported cost of collection, $5,051,000 (p. 9), the undeclared use of $10 million of appropriated funds to support the program (p.32), the Adventure Pass program's unrecorded
vendor cost of collection $370,000 (data obtained under FOIA request in June, 2002 but withheld from the GAO, p. 25), and a further $4.6 million. That is the amount raised at some Fee Demo sites that already produced fee income [campgrounds, boat launches, etc.] before Fee Demo began in 1997 (April 2002 Interim Report to Congress on Fee Demo, p.23), that leaves a net revenue of $15 million.

The cost of collection then is closer to 50% - requiring more than $15 million to raise less than $15 million. Congress' limit on Fee Demo cost of collection is 15% (p.26).

The $15 million adjusted net revenue is likely to still be too high, vendor discounts at sites other than the Adventure Pass are unknown, and Fee Demo managers have been inconsistent with their categorizing of costs of collection (p.17 and p.7).

[hikeaz]

(d) Limitations on Recreation Fees.--

(1) PROHIBITION ON FEES FOR CERTAIN ACTIVITIES OR SERVICES.--The Secretary shall not charge any standard amenity recreation fee or expanded amenity recreation fee for Federal recreational lands and waters administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, or the Bureau of Reclamation under this Act for any of the following:

(A) Solely for parking, undesignated parking, or picnicking along roads or trailsides.

(B) For general access unless specifically authorized under this section.

(C) For dispersed areas with low or no investment unless specifically authorized under this section.

(D) For persons who are driving through, walking through, boating through, horseback riding through, or hiking through Federal recreational lands and waters without using the facilities and services.

(E) For camping at undeveloped sites that do not provide a minimum number of facilities and services as described in subsection (g)(2)(A).

(F) For use of overlooks or scenic pullouts.

(G) For travel by private, noncommercial vehicle over any national parkway or any road or highway established as a part of the Federal-aid System, as defined in section 101 of title 23, United States Code, which is commonly used by the public as a means of travel between two places either or both of which are outside any unit or area at which recreation fees are charged under this Act.

(H) For travel by private, noncommercial vehicle, boat, or aircraft over any road or highway, waterway, or airway to any land in which such person has any property right if such land is within any unit or area at which recreation fees are charged under this Act.

(I) For any person who has a right of access for hunting or fishing privileges under a specific provision of law or treaty.

(J) For any person who is engaged in the conduct of official Federal, State, Tribal, or local government business.

(K) For special attention or extra services necessary to meet the needs of the disabled.

[Nighthiker]

Alternative fee program coming soon.

[Davis2001r6]

60% of every dollar put into an automatic payment machine, at a trail-head etc., goes to the private company that owns the machine[/url]. After they make $175,000, their take drops to 40%

Man, how can I get a machine installed up there

[jeremy77777]

So does this mean I can park down the raod from a pay area and not pay the fee? And what if I am hiking and I happen to wonder through a "pay area" and I don't pay a fee but I am not using any of the "facilities"?

[azbackpackr]

Responding to the last comment: You didn't mention which area. I can't speak for Sedona. I can only speak for the Mt. Lemmon area. At any time during the application of these fees they never applied to people on foot--it was a vehicle parking fee. So you could backpack up Mt. Lemmon from any trailhead at the bottom--they are too numerous to name--and hike around for a week if you wanted to and no fees were due. It was only if you drove up Mt. Lemmon Highway and were planning on parking anywhere in the National Forest. At the time it started this applied to any trailhead up Mt. Lemmon highway, or any place you found a wide spot to park, you had better have that paper attached to your rear view mirror.

Also, as was well-publicized at the time they started the fees: You did not have to pay the fee if you were going only to Summerhaven, and you were parking in Summerhaven and eating in a restaurant there or staying in a cabin, etc., because that is private property, and the fees applied to PARKING on the National Forest property.

Does anyone know if they stopped collecting fees at that toll booth just as soon as the judge's ruling came through?

[hikeaz]

So does this mean I can park down the raod from a pay area and not pay the fee? And what if I am hiking and I happen to wander through a "pay area" and I don't pay a fee but I am not using any of the "facilities"?

re. park down the road...
Each area is different... the tightest is likely the Red Rock Pass gestapo in Coconino. Otherwise the USFS & their parking concessioners post no parking signs in the likely places.

re. wandering, .....See "D" and "G" above....

Alternative fee program coming soon.

That's a given.......