Pay For Play

Outdoor recreation

An economics professor at Montana State University says all recreationists should pay a fee to use federal lands and users should be checked randomly for compliance.

“Recreation on federal lands is a below-cost activity,” said Terry Anderson.

In fiscal 1994, the six major federal agencies providing recreation collected $160.6 million in recreation fees but spent about $1.5 billion on recreation, Anderson said.

The fees would be in addition to those now charged, and fee collection could be simple, possibly following the model of the federal duck stamp program, he suggested.

License fee receipts could be divided among federal agencies that provide recreation, based on each agency’s visitor-days of use.

Anderson’s recommendations were offered in testimony before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Lands in Washington, D.C. His trip was sponsored by the Political Economy Research Center in Bozeman. The center bills itself as a research group providing market solutions to environmental problems.