United States Forest Service Implementation of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act PDF Download

Author: Lauren Newton
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Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (REA) enables the United States Forest Service (USFS), along with other public land management agencies, to charge user fees at recreation sites to support user-generated cost recovery for federal recreation programs. The USFS implements policies as a decentralized agency using both formal procedures and informal agency norms, along with staff discretion in decision making. Previous research suggests that recreation fees could have disproportionate impacts on low-income users and potentially displace visitors, which presents equity concerns with recreation fee implementation. Using interview and pre-existing program monitoring data and reports, this study examined the USFS's implementation of the recreation fee program under the REA at four national forests to (1) understand how staff implement the recreation fee program, and (2) explore staff perspectives on the impacts of recreation fee program implementation. This study found that during implementation of the recreation fee program, USFS staff (1) prioritize similar policy objectives to those in the USFS Recreation Fee Manual, but lack capacity to achieve objectives in full, (2) use formal and informal mechanisms during implementation, however experiences with these mechanisms vary, and (3) must make tradeoffs with limited funding and information, which are exacerbated with rising visitation. Staff perspectives on impacts of the recreation fee program include: (1) impacts to the organization itself which includes staff, site, and financial impacts, (2) visitor experiences are negatively impacted by a negative perception of recreation fees due to ineffective communication, (3) low public engagement in the fee program may be dependent on local demographics, and (4) displacement can occur but is not necessarily a negative impact. USFS implementation of the REA does not distort policy. Rather staff lack the financial resources to achieve the policy objectives in full and the outcomes of implementation exacerbate inequities in outdoor recreation. Increasing appropriated dollars with equitable allocation and improving communication and efforts to include underrepresented groups in USFS recreation processes can reduce inequitable outcomes of REA implementation.