Are fees for recreation activities on federal lands new?
A. Recreation fees have been in place on public lands for many years under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act and other authorities. Under these authorities, land management agencies have charged for many activities including entrance to national parks, monuments, historic sites, recreation areas, national wildlife refuges, as well as camping, swimming, parking, boat launching, and cave tours. Most of these fees have gone directly to the Federal Treasury. Unlike traditional fees, those under the fee demonstration program are returned directly to the project or site. The Forest Service decided to test many new kinds of fees at sites that traditionally had no fees. Most Forest Service fees for day use are between $2 and $5 per day, with other fee structures in places for annual passes, for children, and for volunteers. Other agencies under this program have increased fees at existing sites.
More and more people recreate on National Forests each year, and keeping up with the needs of those visitors and natural resources is becoming more difficult. Seeing that National Forests, parks, and other federal lands were suffering from the lack of funding to care for these lands, Congress passed a law to test bringing more funds to these lands in a new way. In 1996, Congress authorized the Recreation Fee Demonstration program (Fee Demo) through Public Law 104-134 (as amended: 16 United States Code 4601-6a), for the Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The intent of the program is to test the application of recreation fees that are reinvested in recreation areas on federal lands and used to maintain and improve natural resources, recreation facilities, and services. The Forest Service is currently testing fees nationwide on 92 projects in 114 National Forests and Grasslands across 36 states and Puerto Rico. It is impor
