Sawtooth Forest To Charge User Fees Officials Say Fees Will Help Maintain Trail Campgrounds

Starting in June, outdoor enthusiasts in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area may have to pay a “recreation user fee.”

Fees also would be collected for recreational use inside the Ketchum Ranger District of the Sawtooth National Forest.

Sawtooth forest officials have gotten approval from Washington, D.C., and hope to launch a “demonstration program” for recreation user fees over the next three years. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is embarking on a similar program at the Milner Recreation Area, west of Burley, and along the South Fork of the Snake River, east of Idaho Falls.

An annual pass for families would cost $25, while the cost would be $10 for a single person. A single person would spend $5 for a 10-day pass and families would spend $15.

Passes would not be required in areas with site-specific fees, such as campgrounds. Declining budgets and soaring visitor use are forcing public land managers to make hard choices between closing campgrounds and letting trails deteriorate, or experimenting with new funding sources, said Sawtooth Forest Supervisor Bill LeVere.

“The compelling need is to take care of the land and the resource because we’re experiencing an all-time high in terms of recreation use,” LeVere said.

Collecting user fees will supplement, but not supplant, the Forest Service’s congressionally appropriated budget, LeVere said.

LeVere said he has seen the power of user fees and he is a believer. A few years ago, the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Utah spent about $5,000 per year to maintain facilities in Mill Creek Canyon, just north of Little Cottonwood Canyon, near Salt Lake City.

“It was barely enough to clean up the garbage in there,” LeVere said.

Salt Lake County agreed to use county authority to charge a nominal “road-use” fee for motorists, then turn all proceeds over to the Forest Service for improvements in Mill Creek Canyon.

“After that, the Forest Service was spending $250,000 a year in that canyon,” LeVere said.

Trails were maintained, restrooms were rebuilt, and streamside rehabilitation projects were launched.

“People also felt safer in that canyon and crime fell 62 percent,” LeVere said.