But those who use it have a responsibility to take stewardship. Helping it out with a couple dollars is not much of a sacrifice. All introduced user fees of some sort in the past three years. But because national parks already charged entrance fees and BLM and Fish and Wildlife lands were not as popular for recreation, national forests became the battleground. They counter protests by noting they return 95 percent of user-fee revenue, including some for collection costs, to the forest that collected the money.
Officials make a passionate case.
The Forest Service manages more than 23,000 developed recreation facilities nationwide, including campgrounds, trail heads, picnic areas, boat ramps and visitor centers. It oversees more than 100,000 miles of designated hiking trails. The money for upkeep must come from somewhere. And it's no longer coming from Congress, officials say. The figures, though, don't account for inflation.