azbackpackr wrote:nonot wrote:Is it true, official, and already in place - no more Catalina fee for climbing, hiking, backpacking, canyoneering, etc?
Just to be exact, those things never cost a dime.
It was parking on FS property that cost money. If somehow you could get there on foot, everything was free. It was a vehicle fee.
Excerpted from:
http://www.fs.fed.us/passespermits/docs ... elines.pdf
These guidelines support the Forest Service recreation vision and key objectives set forth in the National Recreation Agenda and reflect the requirements an d intent of the 2004 Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (REA). The overarching philosophy of the recreation program is to provide the public with Forest recreationopportunities funded primarily with Federal tax dollars, recreation fees, and support from partners, grants, and other non-appropriated sources.
The types of activities and services that should be funded with appropriations and those that should be funded in part or entirely by recreation fees have not been articulated clearly in the past. This lack of clarity has resulted in inconsistency where fees were charged which understandably caused confusion and concern by the visiting public. Of particular concern were day-use sites, including trailheads, picnic areas, and observation sites which make up a significant portion of the Forest Service’s recreation opportunities.
To address these concerns, Congress (through the REA) has provided specific direction on where fees should not be charged. Further, Congress mandated that the public have free access to a variety of recreation opportunities and undeveloped public lands. The Act also requires agencies to “establish the minimum number of recreation fees and shall avoid the collection of multiple or layered recreation fees for similar uses, activities, or programs.”
The enactors expect a reduction in the number of standard amenity recreation fee sites.
On page 7 of 33 you will see a list of the actions where a fee will NOT be charged (or is not SUPPOSED, legally, to be charged
Category 1
(
no recreation fee)
Services and facilities for which
no fee can be charged
(benefit society as a whole):
• General access
• Pass-through travel by car, foot, boat, or horse (think Mt. Lemmon, etc.)
• Scenic overlooks and pullouts
• Wayside exhibits
•
Parking only
• Dispersed areas with low or no investment
• Information centers at administrative offices
• Right-of-access permitted hunting & fishing access (Like parking along 89A to fish (with a license) in Oak Creek
• Extra services for needs of disabled
• Facility entry & use of standard amenity fee sites and services for persons under 16 & education.
Further, excerpted from: 3(d) 1 of
http://www.fs.fed.us/passespermits/fee- ... tml#twelve
(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.
(A prime example is SR64 that enters GCNP from the south but then heads east over to Cameron . If just traveling THROUGH GCNP you need
not pay the $25 entry)
(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.
"The censorship method ... is that of handing the job over to some frail and erring mortal man, and making him omnipotent on the assumption that his official status will make him infallible and omniscient."
George Bernard Shaw
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