The BLM recently prepared a new Recreation Area Management Plan (RAMP) for the ISDRA. One of the provisions of this Plan is the requirement for an intensive monitoring effort for various species of concern in the ISDRA. The RAMP calls for funding to be provided from three sources that include:
- 200,000.00 Appropriated dollars;
- The State OHV grant program; and
- Fee demo money.
The cost of the monitoring effort is almost $1 million. The BLM decided that it would be beneficial to perform this monitoring effort before the new management plan was approved. Where did the funding for this million-dollar effort come from? Obviously, it did not come out of the 200,000 appropriated dollars. Grant funds from the State OHV Trust Fund have been eliminated. So the full-blown monitoring effort, without concern for economic or user impact, is being conducted and is being paid for out of fee demo money.
This is contrary to promises made by the BLM in 1998 when the User Fees were established. In a December 8, 1998 news release, the BLM identified how the fees would be used. To wit: "The fees collected will be used to fund additional improvements, including camping pads, rest rooms, trash removal and maintenance of access roads and trails. Additional law enforcement, visitor services, and emergency medical services may also be provided on holidays and weekends."
No public input or TRT vote on this use of fee demo money was solicited. This can be considered arbitrary and capricious. At the very least, when the fees are raised again next year, it amounts to taxation without representation.
In a December 8, 1998 news release, the BLM identified how the fees would be used. To wit: "The fees collected will be used to fund additional improvements, including camping pads, rest rooms, trash removal and maintenance of access roads and trails. Additional law enforcement, visitor services, and emergency medical services may also be provided on holidays and weekends."
This is now not the case.
It was not the intent of Congress in 1996 that the "flexibility" of the recreation fee program should allow managing Federal Agencies to use fees collected to conduct extensive arbitrary species monitoring studies while none of the fees are used for "enhancing visitor facilities and services" at a given recreation area. (The balance of fees collected at the ISDRA covers operation and maintenance).
The BLM's "flexible fee experimentation program" at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area may well lead to the ISDRA pricing itself out of the recreation market. The people who recreate at the ISDRA should have some say at a higher level than simply advisory as to how their fees are spent!
I have to ask myself; "Has the BLM El Centro Field Office really thought this through?"
Using Fee Demo money to fund Monitoring programs, or ANY program, that a Government agency arbitrarily deems necessary sets a dangerous precedent.
No accountability of to have appropriated funds available for monitoring projects leads to a wish list of projects. Fees will be raised to the point that no one will be able to afford to go the ISDRA.
There is no Record of Decision (ROD) of the new Recreation Area Management Plan (RAMP). The RAMP states that a monitoring program has to be done. However, the RAMP states that these programs should be paid for with a combination of Grants, Appropriated Funds, and Fees. NOT 100% fees
Funding the monitoring program at the ISDRA with User Fees sets a dangerous precedent. This leaves the door wide open for anything at any time to come out of user fees. This was not the intent of the BLM when the fees were established. Nor is it what the ISDRA users were promised.
A December 8, 1998 BLM news release demonstrates this point: "The fees collected will be used to fund additional improvements, including camping pads, rest rooms, trash removal and maintenance of access roads and trails. Additional law enforcement, visitor services, and emergency medical services may also be provided on holidays and weekends."
Please let common sense prevail, find other funding for monitoring at the ISDRA.
The fees collected at the ISDRA are not being used as promised. As a long time user of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Area (ISDRA), my family has been lied to and robbed. From a BLM News Release dated December 8, 1998: "The public has told us that they want more and better services at the dunes and are willing to pay an additional fee for these services in developed areas if these funds go directly for those purposes," said Tim Salt, BLM Acting California Desert District Manager.
We learned recently that our fees are now being used to fund a federally mandated monitoring program at the ISDRA at a cost of $825,000!!!. By no stretch of the imagination is this an improvement to our families' recreational experience at the Imperial Sand Dunes.
This release also stated: "The fees collected will be used to fund additional improvements, including camping pads, rest rooms, trash removal and maintenance of access roads and trails."
Since 1999, the fees have produced no new camping pads or new restrooms; trash removal is barely adequate even on off-weekends. There are no trails to maintain within the ISDRA.
Weekly User Fees jumped from $10.00 a to $25.00 and from $30.00 to $90.00 for a season pass. With the BLM arbitrarily spending the fees without regard to their intent, promises made, and the policy that initiated them, I shudder to think how high the fees will go next season and following seasons.
The government once again has gone back on their word and lied to my family and me. When will it end?
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