Due to increasing recreation on public lands, and efforts to control federal government spending, there is concern that recreation services on public lands may not be adequate to meet future demands. Rather than continue to rely entirely on appropriated funding, the United States Congress authorized a Recreation Fee Demonstration Program in 1996 to examine the feasibility of generating funds from users for the operation and maintenance of public recreation areas. Under this program, federal land managers around the country have initiated fee projects such as charges for permit reservations, use of campsites and trails, and vehicle parking. The effectiveness of the program, including public response to user fees is currently under analysis.

Wilderness as a recreation resource has unique management policies and directives that may affect whether and how to implement recreation user fees. Wilderness managers implementing fee programs are faced with a variety of decisions including how to collect fees, set prices, spend revenue, and respond to potential negative visitor reactions to new fees, and how wilderness experiences may change as a result of fees. Researchers at the Leopold Institute have been studying and synthesizing information relevant to implementing the Fee Demonstration Program in wilderness.

To assist managers and others in finding scientific literature about the issue of recreation user fees, the Leopold Institute has published an annotated list of references relevant to planning for and monitoring the effects of wilderness fee programs.


Puttkammer, Annette; Wright, Vita; [Series Editor] 2001. Linking wilderness research and management-volume 3. Recreation fees in wilderness and other public lands: an annotated reading list Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-79-VOL 3. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 29 p.


ABSTRACT

This annotated reading list provides an introduction to the issue of recreation fees on public lands and is designed for managers, policy makers, students, and others interested in this topic. With an emphasis on wilderness recreation fees, this review of historical and recent research is divided into the following sections: historical context, arguments for and against fees, pricing mechanisms and the effects of price, public attitudes toward fees, the influence of fees on recreation visitations and use patterns, and methods to estimate fee revenues and determine priorities for expenditures.

For current information on the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program, see the US Forest Service's fee demo web site http://www.fs.fed.us/passespermits/about-rec-fees.shtml.