The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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Last updated: 04/04/03
For Immediate Release: June 29, 1999 |
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The Bureau of Land Management today announced that it is raising the minimum fee for special recreation permits from $2 per "user day" to $4 per person per day. The fee increase, the first of its kind since 1984, affects competitive and organized group events on BLM-managed lands. In a notice published in today's Federal Register, the BLM said the increase takes effect October 1, with future fee adjustments, if needed under an inflation-adjustment formula, to occur every three years.
"Our agency's recreation permit fees have not changed in 15 years," said BLM Acting Director Tom Fry. "Inflation has devalued the current fees, and it's necessary to raise them so that the BLM can recover more of its recreation-related administrative costs. Our agency must also ensure that taxpayers get a fair return for the use of their Federally managed public lands." Fry noted that both the Interior Department's Inspector General and the General Accounting Office have found that the BLM needs to do a better job of collecting user fees from those who participate in outdoor recreation activities on the nation's public lands.
All of the special recreation permit fees collected by the BLM will be used at the site of collection to improve the quality of the public's recreation experience. The BLM estimates that it will collect an additional $200,000 to $400,000 a year with the higher minimum fees, which will enable the BLM to improve interpretive services and signing, refurbish sites, upgrade restroom facilities, and improve access for the disabled.
Under the existing fee structure established by the BLM in 1984, the agency charges $2 per "user day" for competitive events, such as Off-Highway Vehicle races, and for organized group activities, such as hot-air balloon events, reunion gatherings, and large encampments by Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Campfire Girls. (A "user day," the term used in the BLM's 1984 special recreation permit regulations, means the same as "per person per day.") The BLM is raising its special recreation permit fee to $4 per person per day under a formula that uses 1984 as the base year and then makes adjustments for inflation based on changes in the Implicit Price Deflator Index (IPDI), which is published every February as part of the President's economic report to Congress. The BLM has rounded up the new inflation-adjusted fee to the nearest whole dollar.
The inflation-adjustment formula is also used every three years by the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM to update minimum fees for commercial and assigned-site use. Future notices of any adjustments in the special recreation permit fee will be published in conjunction with these commercial and assigned-site fees, which are next scheduled for adjustment in March 2002. Based on recent trends of the deflator index, the BLM anticipates that the special recreation permit fee will likely not increase for at least the next 10 years.
The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more land -- 264 million surface acres -- than any other Federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, which has a budget of $1.2 billion and a workforce of about 9,000 employees, also administers more than 560 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM preserves open space by managing the public lands for multiple uses, such as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, and mining, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources found on the public lands.
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