Oregon Public Broadcasting

With just one year left in his term, George W Bush's administration is making big changes in Oregon's forests.

As Christy George reports in part two of her series, Forest Politics, Bill Clinton may have been the first president to charge fees in the forests -- but George Bush's Forest Service is looking at making every National Forest pay its way.

The Forest Service is inventorying every campground, boat launch and fire-pit in the nation. Those that are little-used will be shut down and those that are popular may be improved.

Jocelyn Biro oversees developed recreation planning for the Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest. 

Jocelyn Biro: "For years we've been fixing things with baling wire and twine, and not knowing what our total needs are out there."

The Forest Service also plans to charge fees for attractions that used to be free.  Like Sahalie Falls in the Willamette National Forest.

Sahalie Falls is on the drawing board for a new $5 fee.

Scott Silver: If this becomes a fee area, basically people are asked to make a decision: Do they want to stop here? Do they want to stretch their legs? Is it worth $5 for 5 minutes?

Scott Silver started his group Wild Wilderness to fight what he calls "pay to play" recreation. He found allies among people stopping by Sahalie Falls, like Oklahoma visitor Elwyn Hofan.

Elwyn Hofan: "Seeing them this time of year with snow around and everything is pretty spectacular. With fuel costs what they are for traveling it's nice to see something without paying for it."

The recreation plan also turns over some Forest Service facilities to private concessionaires. To Scott Silver, it's part of a Bush administration pattern of privatizing government.

Scott Silver: "It basically takes what was a public good and transforms it into an item of commerce so people will have to think about it. And the dollars that we pay to provide us with these benefits will no longer provide benefits and everything will be a la carte."

Chuck Shephard: "If anybody thinks there are these private guys getting rich off the taxpayers, it's not true at all."

Chuck Shephard owns Hoodoo Ski Area, just up the road from Sahalie Falls.  He manages a lot of Forest Service campgrounds, and expects to manage even more as part of the recreation plan. He says it's unrealistic to think public land is cost-free just because the public already owns it.

Chuck Shephard: "You do have to pay for them twice because once they're in, they still have to be maintained."

Shephard says he makes ten thousand dollars a year profit on his concessions, which he plows back into improvements. And he says, his successful real estate business -- not his concessions -- pays his salary.

Barbara Thomas: "What I wanted to ask about on the Mt. Adams Horse Camp. You said they're going to increase the fees there."

Julie Litson/USFS: "We've talked anywhere between $10 and $12.50 -- per night."

This week, the Forest Service held an open house in Vancouver, for users of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Nathan Goodman: "I used to use this campground a lot here."

USFS rep: "Fill out that card over there. That's kind of on the list."

On the night of the worst rainstorm in decades, sixty to seventy people walked around the room, looked at charts and maps of what will stay open and what will close, and composed their comments.

Roger Cole: "They're talking about improving some of the campgrounds, and that to me is a fee looking for a place to spend it."

Anita Will: "Did they take into consideration that since '96 we've had flood damage up there, and the roads have not been repaired since '96. We've had several wars where the funding was taken away from the Forest Service?"

Dave Seesholtz: "The Forest Service is trying to respond to a very conservative administration in Congress and the users are the ones that are the losers."

Brian Parr: "After seeing a little bit of the budget and knowing that it's declining every year. That's why, as a group, we do as many volunteer hours as we can, to try and help offset some of those costs."

Lawrence 'Rocky' Rockwood: "Well, I think we need to go to Congress"

Christy George: "And?"

Lawrence 'Rocky' Rockwood: "Get more money!"

Jocelyn Biro says the Forest Service can't rely on the federal budget alone.

Jocelyn Biro: "We're primarily accustomed as a culture for paying for things that we use, and even though we do pay taxes, Congress holds the purse strings."

The forest experience will now be branded.  The Forest Service's Terry Slyder helped create niche statements for each forest -- like the one for the Willamette National Forest -- 'follow the water.'

Terry Slyder: "It's what people think of. They think of the various rivers that run down from the Cascades -- and the qualities of the water, cascading and rushing down through the hills and the blue, sort of cobalt color of that water. It also has to do with the folks who use and recreate in that the area. They're very connected to the fishing, to the boating, to the suntanning."

The statements are still being finalized, but here are a few:  The Winema-Fremont National Forest is 'Find Yourself, By Yourself.' The Deschutes is 'Fun in the Sun.' And the Columbia River Gorge is ''Wind, Water and Wow.'    That one is still a draft.

Whether it's an epidemic of childhood obesity, or aging baby boomers, people are using the National Forests differently.

The Forest Service couldn't say whether attendance is up or down, but Scott Silver says his sources inside the agency say a recent study put attendance at the National Forests down by more than 25 percent.

Also in 'Forest Politics' Series

- Administration Pushing For More Logging

- Nixon-Era Law Has Slowed Bush Administration's Environmental Changes