Forest funding on a downhill slide

Funding of the Deschutes National Forest has dropped 41 percent since 1990, and 15 percent in just the past two years.

However, the Deschutes National Forest remains the most highly funded forest in the nation, according to Bill Anthony, Sisters District Ranger.

For various reasons, high profile forests in the Northwest have traditionally received more funds -- and still do.

As an example, Anthony cited a Colorado forest of exactly the same size (1.6 million acres) which receives a budget allocation of less than one-third that of the Deschutes National Forest.

Forest Service appropriations in recent years have remained "flat," and inflation has converted that flat budget into a declining one.

This factor, and an historically lopsided distribution favoring Northwest forests, have necessitated reallocation of shrinking forest funds.

As a result, Anthony reports, Northwest forest funding "has fallen 41 percent since 1990. Yet, recreation use has continued to increase at a rate of 28 percent in the Pacific Northwest over the last decade."

According to USFS figures, since 1998 the Deschutes National Forest budget has suffered a decline in appropriated funds from $35 million to $30 million due to the redistribution.

Forest use fees -- which are facing stiff opposition from a host of environmental organizations -- have somewhat tempered the budget losses. Anthony reports that fee receipts for 2000 will comprise about 15 percent of the budget for the Deschutes National Forest -- up from 5 percent in 1997.

He emphasizes that appropriations are not reduced by fee receipts; rather the fees are supplemental income for the forest.

"While the public has traditionally not paid to use trails in their National Forests, it has always cost money to build and maintain them," he said.

"The new Northwest Forest Pass streamlines our procedures and gets more money to the environment and to the recreation experience -- which is what we all want."

Anthony sits on the board that allocates fee receipts within the Deschutes National Forest.

Fees are distributed among the three Deschutes ranger districts according to the number of "high use" areas, the miles of summer trails, the number of fee trailheads, and the total funds collected.

Anthony stated that 10 percent of the gross fee receipts go to a regional Forest Service account.

When a forest pass is sold by a private vendor, processing costs take another 5-10 percent.

That means that 80-90 percent of the collected funds are returned directly to the forest where fees were collected. For this reason, Anthony urges forest users in Sisters to purchase their passes locally, in order to keep the money working in the area.

If forest users plan multiple visits or trips to other Northwest forest sites, Anthony recommends purchase of the annual pass ($30).

"It only takes six visits for the annual pass to pay for itself," he said. "It's more economical for us, too, since we only have to process one transaction, rather than several."

The Forest Service hopes to encourage a higher volume of sales with a pricing strategy intended to keep the cost of the pass low.

"Our marketing research says that the public considers a fee as high as $70 to be reasonable. By keeping the cost less than half that figure, we hope to encourage greater participation," Anthony said.

With or without the fees, Anthony believes that his task remains unchanged.

"We, the Forest Service, advocate for a quality forest environment and experience for the public," he said. "Congress will ultimately decide whether user fees are part of that scenario."