Recreation Fees

The Recreational Fee Demonstration Program provides hundreds of millions of dollars to improve visitor services and address the backlog of unmet needs in four land management agencies--the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Forest Service. The program affords these agencies an opportunity to collect new and increased fees. This testimony focuses on several areas in which changes or improvements may be needed, including the need for greater coordination of fees by the agencies, greater innovation, and flexibility in revenue distribution. GAO found that spending of demonstration program revenue by the Park Service has lagged substantially behind that of the other three agencies in the program's first two years. Moreover, the Park Service has yet to develop accurate and reliable information on its total deferred maintenance needs. Until this is done, it is not possible to determine the program's impact on those needs.

GAO noted that: (1) the overall message about the demonstration program is positive; (2) the program is providing hundreds of millions of dollars to improve visitor services and address the backlogs of unmet needs in the four land management agencies; (3) in addition, those who pay the fees generally support the program, and it has not appeared to have adversely affected visitation rates; (4) nonetheless, it is appropriate to focus on several areas in which changes or improvements may be needed; (5) specifically, these issues include the need for greater coordination of fees by the agencies, greater innovation, and flexibility in revenue distribution; (6) these issues are important because the demonstration program is still at a stage where experimentation is encouraged; (7) most of GAO's observations relate to doing just that--experimenting more to determine what works best; (8) regarding the Park Service, GAO found that the agency's spending of demonstration program revenue has lagged substantially behind the other three agencies in the first 2 years of the program; (9) this has been due primarily to the larger number and scale of Park Service projects and additional scrutiny these projects are receiving within the agency and the Department of the Interior; (10) further, the Park Service has not yet developed accurate and reliable information on its total deferred maintenance needs; and (11) until this is done, determining the impact that the revenue from the fee program is having on these needs is not possible.