News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Starting in May, forest users will have to pay $5 per vehicle per day to park at trailheads, up from $3 in previous years.
However, the new "Northwest Forest Pass" is good for more activities, covering entrance to special areas such as Lava Lands Visitor Center in Deschutes County and other sites throughout the Pacific Northwest. Annual passes are available for $30 and are now good for a year from the month of purchase.
"Because it's covering more, we thought it would be appropriate to charge a little bit more," said Mark Christiansen, recreation program manager for the Deschutes National Forest.
According to Christiansen, the change comes in response to public feedback on the "Recreation Fee Demonstration Project," which was authorized in 1996.
"The public was telling us that they wanted a simpler pass that was more all-inclusive," he said.
Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, based in Bend, reads public sentiment differently.
"The Forest Service is responding to the lack of enthusiasm for the program up till now," Silver said. "The public has basically rejected user or access fees."
Silver and other opponents of the recreation fee program believe the program represents the "thin edge of the wedge" that will open the National Forest to privatized, motorized commercial recreation.
The Forest Service denies that the program tends toward privatization. According to Forest Service materials provided by Christiansen, "the recreation fee program actually helps ensure that federal agencies remain the managers of that land. Under the program, the fees are returned to the place where they are collected for improvements and maintenance of the land, facilities and services."
Funds have been used in the Sisters country for trailhead maintenance, a portapottie at Black Butte trailhead, and Youth Conservation Corps trail crews.
Silver argues that the fees, instead of being tied directly to a service, represent a "total disconnect between the money you spend and the improvements. That's no longer a user fee; that's a tax."
Opponents of the program believe forest users are being "double-dipped," paying for National Forests through taxes and then again through fees.
But Christiansen says taxes fund only a tiny proportion of the maintenance needs of forest facilities.
"Rather than increase taxes to cover the costs," he said, we're focusing on sharing those costs (among) the actual users."
Northwest Forest Passes are available in Sisters at the Chamber of Commerce Visitors' Center, at the Sisters Ranger District office and at local trailhead fee stations.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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