The Land of the Fee

In just one week, that day hike through the rugged Sespe Wilderness will cost you $5. So will that bike ride down a Pine Mountain trail. And the cool dip in a Matilija Canyon swimming hole.

In fact, all 10 million annual visitors who trek to Los Padres National Forest stretching from Big Sur to Ventura County will have to dig into their pockets for the right to recreate on 2 million acres of public land.

Only motorists driving through forest land and campers who already pay a separate fee are exempt.

A new pilot program, reshaping the way the National Forest Service pays for recreation, will force everyone else to purchase what’s called a National Forest Adventure Pass--whether they simply stop for a sunset stroll to take in the Ojai Valley’s famous Pink Moment or range deep into spectacular and isolated back country.

Approved by Congress last year, the three-year program is intended to inject millions of dollars into Los Padres and the three other Southern California national forests. That money will then go to improve dilapidated restrooms, eroding trails, almost nonexistent interpretive programs and other sorely needed amenities.

“The Forest Service has fallen behind trying to maintain our recreation facilities to the standards we want and the public expects,” said Jim Youngson, Los Padres National Forest spokesman. “We’re hoping the public will support it when they see the results of their money.”

But critics who object to ponying up--$5 a day or $30 for an annual pass--to walk down a secluded trail or gaze at a stunning mountain vista condemn the recreation fee as little more than another tax or glorified parking fee.

“The forests have belonged to the people of the nation ever since the Forest Service was established, and Congress has funded recreation for that same length of time,” said Alasdair Coyne, conservation director of the Ojai-based Keep the Sespe Wild Committee. “And now they’ve decided they can’t afford to do so and they’re trying to foist off the costs to the general public.

“Spiritually, I think it makes a great deal of difference if citizens have to pay a fee to walk onto open pristine land, the place that we all go to get away from it all. If it’s not free, what does that say about society?”

One of the few things Forest Service officials and activists agree on is that the fee pilot program represents a major philosophical change in the way forests are operated and funded.

But the program, which Congress will review and decide whether to retain in 1999, is merely the most visible manifestation of an overhaul of Forest Service operations.

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Until January 1996, there was only one privately operated Forest Service site in Los Padres: Wheeler Gorge campground north of Ojai. Today, three companies run 21 campgrounds and 12 day-use areas at seven recreation sites under five-year contracts.

Moreover, a national review is underway to streamline the permit process that covers everything from filming to owning summer cabins in the forests.

An outgrowth of a concept with a telling name--”Enterprise Forest”--it’s an effort to cut costs and bring in more money.

“We are trying to run ourselves like a business,” Youngson said. “To provide quality services, you have to charge fair market value. That’s a concept the Forest Service is trying to pick up on.”

It’s a philosophy that didn’t exist at the turn of the century when the local national forests were created to protect the watershed that hundreds of thousands of people now rely upon for clean drinking water.

Watershed protection remains the primary function today, with about half of Los Padres’ $14-million annual budget dedicated to preventing fires--and thus protecting water quality--in what is considered the nation’s most fire-prone forest.

But the state’s third-biggest forest stretches 220 miles from the Carmel Valley to the fringe of Los Angeles County and is more closely associated with recreation than watershed concerns.

Although about half of Los Padres’ land is designated wilderness, officials consider it “urban forest” because of the millions of people living within an hour’s drive of its facilities.

Ventura County alone boasts 557,138 acres of Los Padres National Forest land, more than 46% of the county’s total area.

“Some of the public takes this land for granted,” Youngson said of the forest he calls “a sleeping giant in our backyard.”

“It’s here, it’s easily maintained, it’s just the back country.”

But the forest, in the vernacular of those who have watched popular national parks struggle to accommodate millions of visitors, is being “loved to death.”

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On snowy winter weekends, the crush of fun-seeking urbanites has threatened to overwhelm the forest’s capacity to handle them. That occasionally forces the California Highway Patrol to close roads leading into the forest and turn tourists around on the Golden State Freeway’s offramp.

And in the summer, officials restrict access to some campgrounds in the mountains beyond Ojai because endangered species are too often in the path of visitors’ vehicles, leading to declines in the animal population.

Meanwhile, the forest’s budget has shrunk by about $10 million since the mid-1980s. Its 1,500 miles of hiking, biking and off-road trails that were once maintained every three years now receive attention just once a decade.

As of 1994, the most recent year figures were available, Los Padres’ share of the $1-billion backlog of recreation projects nationwide stood at $17.2 million. In the Ojai Ranger District, the backlog was nearly $3 million.

To bridge the gap between escalating use and shrinking budgets, officials use a variety of tactics.

Volunteers often maintain trails, wilderness cabins and perform other work, said Jeff Saley, Los Padres human resources coordinator.

More significantly, officials have also turned to private companies to maintain and operate recreational facilities.

Forest officials point to the Wheeler Gorge campground next to picturesque California 33 north of Ojai as a model.

For years, the remote 71-site camp was known as a haven for raucous parties by high school students, gang members and others.

Faced with overwhelming law enforcement and maintenance problems, the Forest Service officials threw up their hands and in 1987 hired a concessionaire to operate the campground.

Ten years later, Wheeler Gorge is regarded as the epitome of public-private cooperation.

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Piru-based Pyramid Enterprises Inc. has two on-site hosts whose around-the-clock presence deters unruly campers--a show of manpower the Forest Service is unable to match.

A decrease in vandalism has prompted further investment in the campground. Pyramid put in a $4,000 information kiosk this spring, something the Forest Service is hesitant to place in unsupervised campgrounds.

The concessionaire will install 15 new fire pits this summer, and interpretive programs will begin for the first time ever at a nearby nature trail.

Last summer three campsites that allow disabled people to enjoy an outdoor experience were built at a cost of $3,500 with the aid of Navy Seabees and other volunteer labor. The campsites boast wheelchair accessible picnic tables, flat decomposed granite surfaces and raised fire pits.

“We have had some disabled people come up and they love it because it’s not something you typically find at Forest Service campgrounds,” said Brian Roney, Pyramid’s vice president of operations.

And while Pyramid hasn’t installed an ice cream cart, some modest luxuries are available: Campers who forget to bring their own firewood may have it delivered via golf cart for $5 a bundle, a service that helps discourage campers from turning wooden picnic tables and trees into kindling.

“People coming here aren’t looking for the back country experience,” Youngson said. “They want toilet paper, they want a ranger to come talk to them around a campfire.”

The amenities come with a price. Summer camping fees rose $3 this year to $15 a night--higher than the typical Forest Service fees. On the other hand, on-site administration means people may use Wheeler Gorge during the day for $6; previously the Forest Service charged day users the full camping fee.

Still, officials say they have received no complaints about rising camping costs. On the contrary, the well-maintained restrooms and other touches of civilization in the forest have earned plaudits from users.

Seeking to duplicate the success, last year the Forest Service allowed concessionaires to assume operational control of six other recreational areas from Big Sur to Piru.

Yet critics contend the higher fees have made camping unaffordable for many families while private companies make a fat profit off public facilities.

The argument is an old one, stoked by the 1989 revelation that the federal government received just $635,000 from the $84.7 million collected by concessionaire Yosemite Park & Curry Co.

“The Curry Co. battle did more damage to the concessionaire business than anything else,” Youngson said.

In Los Padres National Forest, concessionaires return from 1% to 10% of their gross to the U.S Treasury.

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Pyramid’s contract at Wheeler Gorge calls for the company to return 9% of the campground’s annual gross, which last year totaled $70,000. In actuality, the company’s contribution was less than 9% in cash, since some of the money was reinvested in campground improvements.

Coyne points to Blue Point Campground near Piru as one of the most egregious examples of inequitable fees. United Water Conservation District, which operates recreational facilities at nearby Lake Piru, has run the small 36-site campground since May 1996 and returns 1% of its gross to the federal government.

Furthermore, United raised the camping fee to $16 a carload, more than double the $7 fee the Forest Service charged.

“It basically handed over a public facility almost for free,” Coyne said. “The Forest Service could be said to be dumping its responsibilities by handing United Water a nice little cash cow and asking a pathetic 1% for the rights to do so.”

In contrast, Forest Service officials see Blue Point as an unqualified success story.

Stuck in an isolated canyon accessible only through United’s recreation area, the campground had a reputation for being the rowdiest in the entire forest.

Indeed, the chronic problems prompted forest officials to close the campground’s access road from 1993 to 1995, although it was possible to hike in and camp for free.

Given the campground’s dismal state, small size and poor reputation, no concessionaires responded to the Forest Service’s request for bids.

Instead the Forest Service approached United.

Today Blue Point campers have access to the lake, boating facilities and other amenities at Lake Piru, and law enforcement problems are virtually nonexistent.

“It’s not only open after being closed for a long time, but it’s a quality recreational experience now, and it doesn’t cost us a lot of money to administer it,” said Larry Mastic, district ranger for the Ojai Ranger District.

Rose Valley Stands to Profit From Fees

However, private companies can’t assume management of all Forest Service campgrounds, officials said. Some are too isolated, small or run down.

Enter the fee pilot program, another method to recoup some of the $900,000 reduction in Los Padres’ recreation budget over the last five years.

At least 80% of the money collected from the $5 daily fee or $30 annual pass will stay in the local forest, rather than being funneled into the Treasury like most money generated from campgrounds.

Even if only one in three visitors purchases an Adventure Pass, which officially begins June 16, the program will generate an estimated $6 million annually for all four Southern California forests, officials said.

The Southern California pilot project is the largest of almost 100 similar programs nationwide, covering the massive swath of land that comprises the Los Padres, Angeles, Cleveland and San Bernardino national forests.

Officials acknowledge they face a massive public relations challenge not only to make people aware of the program, but also to win their support.

The key will be to make visible improvements, Youngson said.

“I wouldn’t mind paying at all if it’s going to show,” El Rio resident Mary Segovia said recently as she fished at Lower Rose Valley Lake in the Rose Valley Recreation Area 15 miles north of Ojai. “If it’s going to keep up the forests, that’s good.”

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Rose Valley--with 50,000 annual visitors and crumbling facilities--should quickly benefit from the fee pilot program, Youngson said.

“If there’s one place the public in Ventura County is going to be looking for improvements under this program it will be Rose Valley,” he said. “It symbolizes the current situation and the challenges the Forest Service is facing all over the Los Padres.”

The Forest Service has tried to figure out what to do with the 5,000-acre recreation area for years.

Starkly beautiful, Rose Valley boasts waterfalls, streams and geologically significant rock formations.

It also has charred picnic tables, no water, creeks damaged by off-road vehicles, blown-out windows in squalid 1950-era bathrooms and an unparalleled reputation as weekend party central.

“People say, ‘You go to Rose Valley, you can do anything you want,’ ” said Don Turner, one of nine officers--down from 16 a decade ago--assigned to patrol the forest. “People have told me they are frightened for their very lives and they’ll never come up here again.”

The Forest Service hasn’t collected camping fees at Rose Valley since last year, after the self-service device in which people deposited fees was vandalized beyond repair.

But because many roads lead into the expanse, the Forest Service can’t afford to close down the area and ensure people are kept out.

Despite two attempts in two years, no private companies have been willing to assume the necessary investment to operate the campground.

Officials believe the Forest Service could entice a concessionaire to Rose Valley by making improvements with money from the fee pilot program.

Greg Helms, community affairs coordinator with the Environmental Defense Center, a public interest law firm that opened a Ventura office earlier this year, likens such arrangements to “corporate socialism.”

What’s more, the move toward concessionaires could backfire, he said.

“I’m concerned Congress is going to see their recreation budget cutting activities as a success and they’re going to cut more deeply,” he said. “The Forest Service is doing themselves no favor by showing they can do this with privatization.”

Critics don’t argue with the need for the Forest Service to charge for camping. But Helms believes if the service had done a better job enforcing camping fees at Rose Valley and elsewhere it would have had a more stable source of revenue.

“People are going to be in for a rude awakening this summer,” Helms said. “It seems to me the Forest Service has run and hidden from this problem instead of trying to work it out.”

Criticism aside, Youngson acknowledges implementing the Adventure Pass system presents significant logistic challenges and will require a “leap of faith” by the public.

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The pass, good for all Southern California forests--is intended to hang from a vehicle’s rear-view mirror, not from a hiker’s neck--unlike fishing licenses.

People who briefly pull over to the side of a highway running through the forest don’t need to buy a pass. Ojai residents and others who can walk into the forest from their homes don’t need a pass either because it isn’t an entrance fee. Neither do people who park outside a forest and then walk in.

But every car parked in the forest should have a pass on it.

Youngson concedes that Forest Service personnel, as well as the public, are hung up on the “what ifs” associated with the program. After all, failure to purchase passes could bring a fine of as much as $100.

But people are unlikely to get fined at the program’s outset because officials want the public to support the pass system rather than see it as an enforcement tool.

In an effort to cultivate public acceptance, 10 “recreation technicians” will wander the Los Padres to spread the recreation fee gospel.

“We’re not out here to bust people on the forest,” Youngson said. “It’s the spirit of the thing we’re asking people to understand.”

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FYI

Annual Adventure Passes are on sale now at Los Padres National Forest offices including the Ojai Ranger District, 1190 E. Ojai Ave. Sales of daily passes begin June 16, the day the pass program begins, at the ranger district office and at several private vendors such as convenience stores and gas stations. Call 646-4348 for exact locations.

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Pay to Play

Starting June 16, visitors to Los Padres National Forest will need passes to enjoy the forest’s trails and vistas. The nearly 2-million-acre forest stretches from the fringes of Los Angeles County to the Carmel Valley. The northern portion of the forest is not shown on this map.