Judge rules against Forest Service on user fees

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published December 8, 2001

PORTLAND -- A federal judge in Oregon has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service had no authority to collect user fees at trailheads, pullouts and other sites around the Northwest from 1996 until November of this year.

Under the program, millions of dollars were raised to maintain trails and Forest Service buildings through the sale of Northwest Forest Pass permits, but it sparked opposition from those who say the fees priced people off public lands.

The ruling Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin in Eugene pointed out that in 1996 Congress allowed federal land management agencies to charge the fees at no more than 100 sites nationwide on an experimental basis.

While Forest Service officials claimed that the Northwest Forest Pass was just one of the 100 fee projects allowed by Congress, Coffin said, it actually forced visitors to pay at 1,349 trailheads, picnic areas and other sites in the region.

The ruling will probably prove a hollow victory for foes of the federal Recreation Fee Demonstration Program because Congress in November lifted the 100-site cap.

Agencies now can levy fees in as many places as they want. Coffin wrote in a footnote that his ruling "is likely to have no impact on future enforcement actions."

It's unclear what, if anything, the decision means for people who paid fees that Coffin found were improperly charged.

"The ruling is on a point that is moot in the future, but it proves the Forest Service got away with murder for years," said Scott Silver of the Bend group Wild Wilderness, a leading opponent of forest fees.

"The vast majority of people who paid fees were paying at sites where they should not legally have had to. If the Forest Service wanted to be honest, it would return that money."

Forest Service officials said they were pleased that the decision will not hamper the recreation fee program in the future.

The ruling came in the case of Leeanne Siart of Eugene, who was cited in June for hiking into the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area without buying the required Northwest Forest Pass for $5 a day or $30 a year.

In the ruling, Coffin waived the $50 fine against Siart, a biologist with the Oregon Natural Resources Council who was observing snowy plovers when she got the ticket.

Forest Service spokesman Rex Holloway said several hundred people in the Northwest have received $50 citations such as Siart's for not paying fees this year.

He said there are no plans to reconsider those citations to return the money in light of Coffin's decision.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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