BLM to start charging day-use fees at some sites in North Idaho

Federal land managers plan to start charging day-use fees and increase overnight camping fees at a handful of sites in North Idaho later this year.

The Bureau of Land Management announced Wednesday that overnight camping fees will rise and that a $5 day-use fee would go into effect this summer at Mica Bay Boater Park, Windy Bay Boater Park, Killarney Lake Campground and Access and the Huckleberry Campground.

The increases are laid out in the BLM’s business plans for the sites, which were updated last year. Ray Pease, the agency’s Coeur d’Alene field manager, said in a news release that the agency “took a hard look” at its fees and found they needed to go up.

“For the BLM to continue to meet the public’s needs, we felt adjustments were necessary,” Pease said.

The new fees are set to go into effect on July 10.

The sites affected are distributed around the Coeur d’Alene field office’s territory. Mica Bay and Windy Bay boater parks are on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Killarney Lake is east of the lake, not far from Harrison.

Huckleberry Campground is along the St. Joe River east of the town of St. Maries.

Business plans for the sites say that increased fees are needed to keep up with maintenance needs and to deal with growing visitation. Officials have also seen a shift in how people are using BLM land – more people are showing up just for the day rather than staying overnight.

Day users still use toilets and trash cans, however, so the agency sought a way to squeeze revenue out of them to help pay for the services people expect at developed sites.

The $5-per-vehicle fees at the four sites are a first for the agency’s Coeur d’Alene district. The plans call for increasing them over time, topping out at $10 in four years.

Michael Traver-Greene, a BLM spokesman, said the boat launch pass for the area will cover day use fees. The price for that pass is also increasing, from $40 to $80.

Camping fees will go from $10 to $20 at Mica Bay, Killarney Lake and Windy Bay.

At Huckleberry, single RV campsites will increase to $30 per night while group RV sites will go to $90 per night. Fees for using the dump station and accessing electrical and water hookups will also increase.

Traver-Greene said the agency had last reviewed its fees in 2012, and that officials plan to revisit the business plans every five years. He also said the new fees are comparable to the ones charged by other land managers in the region, such as the U.S. Forest Service.