U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today pressed officials from multiple federal land management agencies on rising user fees that threaten to make our nation’s public lands, including Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier, “uninviting” for visitors.   

Click photo for video of Sen. Murkowski talking about new fees at Mendenhall Glacier.

At the end of last year, the Forest Service announced that it will not only increase the fee at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, but that visitors will now have to also pay the fee to simply enjoy the viewpoint and hike on some of Alaska’s world-class trails in the area.

“We don’t mind paying these fees as long as they go toward improving the visitor experience. But we shouldn’t be charging people for simply walking onto public land,” said Murkowski, who questioned how the Forest Service would even collect fees from recreational users who don’t go into the visitor center. “How we make sure that there’s a reasonableness with these fees is key to how people feel about their public treasures.”

Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on Thursday convened the first oversight hearing on reauthorization and reform of the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) since the program was created in 2005. The hearing focused on streamlining permitting for outfitters and guides and instilling greater transparency in how fees are collected and used.

FLREA authorizes four agencies under the Department of the Interior – the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) – and the Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture to charge and collect fees on federal recreation lands and waters. FLREA authorizes different kinds of fees, sets criteria for charging fees, provides for public participation in determining fees, and establishes a national interagency pass.

“While I wish we did not need to charge recreation fees, I am generally supportive of FLREA,” Murkowski said. “I want to see the act and its programs continue, without interruption, as we continue to work on longer-term reforms. The path to accomplishing that is not easy, however.  With FLREA’s current authorization expiring at the end of 2016, I believe we will need to focus on two separate extensions.”

Murkowski said the first extension should be a temporary, one-year extension that would ideally be enacted before the end of this fiscal year. The extension would allow the annual pass program, reservation systems, and other operations to continue without interruption. The House has already passed a one-year extension. The second extension would hopefully be longer-term, and include practical reforms to improve FLREA. Murkowski included a one-year extension in the Senate interior appropriations bill.

In fiscal year 2014, the agencies collected $278.6 million in recreation receipts under FLREA. The National Park Service pulled in the lion share (67 percent) of that revenue at $187 million.  FLREA requires agencies to use the fees for facility maintenance, repair and enhancement, public safety, interpretation and visitor services, signs, certain habitat restoration, and law enforcement programs. Agencies may not use more than 15 percent of collections for program administration, overhead, and indirect costs.

Murkowski: “I think we’re getting ripped off.” Click photo for video. 

“We must try to keep recreation fees as low as possible to ensure that Americans can access and enjoy their public lands. We should ensure that these fees are not being used to encumber or dissuade visitors. And we should ensure that these fees are being used appropriately for maximum benefit in maintaining and improving our recreation sites,” Murkowski said.  

Murkowski raised concerns about the cost of collecting the user fees – saying a $9 service charge on a $20 user-fee permit was exorbitant – and the amount being spent on administrative costs, which has exceeded the 15-percent limit across the different agencies.

“I don’t understand how it needs to be so complicated and why it is so extraordinarily expensive,” Murkowski said of the overhead cost of administering the fees. “I think we’re getting ripped off.”

Video of Murkowski’s full opening statement is available here. Archived video of the full hearing is available on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee website.