Zinke: Too Many People Enter Federal Lands for Free

[fireweed]

The HUGE problem with anything "federal"--USFS, Parks, BLM--is that process and overhead eat money like a hog at a trough.  Imagine that a park has an old building that needs a new roof.  A normal business calls in a few contractors, gets some bids, and BINGO in a few weeks there is a new roof with one county permit.

 Now, imagine the process for fixing the same roof in a National Park! Environmental analysis, public comment, alphabet soup of regulations, then if that building is over 50 years old--watch out--a whole new process of historic structures with a whole new slate of regulations.  No wonder nothing gets done.  Multiply that process by every road, trail, outhouse, viewpoint, bridge...you get the picture.  I actually get letters in the mail detailing simple USFS maintenance proposals like removing a few tress that are blocking a viewpoint, asking for comment and outlining the whole regulation process moving forward.  EEEKKKK.

There should be no new fees or fee increases unless they reduce the process burden on the ground first.

[bigtex]

The HUGE problem with anything "federal"--USFS, Parks, BLM--is that process and overhead eat money like a hog at a trough.  Imagine that a park has an old building that needs a new roof.  A normal business calls in a few contractors, gets some bids, and BINGO in a few weeks there is a new roof with one county permit.

 Now, imagine the process for fixing the same roof in a National Park! Environmental analysis, public comment, alphabet soup of regulations, then if that building is over 50 years old--watch out--a whole new process of historic structures with a whole new slate of regulations.  No wonder nothing gets done.  Multiply that process by every road, trail, outhouse, viewpoint, bridge...you get the picture.  I actually get letters in the mail detailing simple USFS maintenance proposals like removing a few tress that are blocking a viewpoint, asking for comment and outlining the whole regulation process moving forward.  EEEKKKK.

There should be no new fees or fee increases unless they reduce the process burden on the ground first.

And who mandates these reviews/studies? Congress

People like to lay blame at the agencies for doing it but they're just following the law. Believe me, if they didn't have to spend all the time and money on the studies they wouldn't. But when Congress consistently puts out vague laws like NEPA they end up forced to having to follow them.

[Skyvalhunter]

Well lets hope this administration eliminates a lot of those stumbling blocks!!

[bigtex]

Well lets hope this administration eliminates a lot of those stumbling blocks!!

Congress has to do it, not the administration.

[olyguy79]

The difference between the state and national park issue is they get a different type of visitor. The typical state parks visitor is someone local or from within the state. Nobody from Florida is going to travel to WA just to go to Potholes Reservoir or Deception Pass state parks. But for National Parks you get locals, people from the other side of the country, and international travelers. That family from Florida may very well travel to Rainier, Olympic, etc. That's why they can keep raising the federal lands fees and not have an issue, but the state side is sticky.

[fireweed]

Well lets hope this administration eliminates a lot of those stumbling blocks!!

Congress has to do it, not the administration.

Then the administration (or the agencies themselves) can send congress a list of all the over-the-top regs that need repealed before any fee increase or budget increase.  Part of the problem has been lawsuits by mostly environmental groups trying to slow down or stop any action by using these laws as weapons.  Fixing a road has become a political weapon and a nightmare of inefficiency.  Look at the Cispus washout--which took years to fix, when the local loggers were offering do it immediately, for FREE, with essentially the same end result. 

[logger]

boy I could go on forever, my experince is with the f.s only, first thing they could do is do away with nepa, re write the current contracts without all the hoops to jump through and that alone would increase their stumpage value overnight, Way to many people on the payroll doing zero! And the ones that are trying to get things done run into constant push back, years to lay out a simple timber sale, helocopter required logging on units on units that have a road right through the middle of it. I don't have enough time in the day to go over the contunial waste I see everyday of people who just march to their own drum with no repercussions for productivity, not all are that way but the vast majority

[bigtex]

boy I could go on forever, my experince is with the f.s only, first thing they could do is do away with nepa, re write the current contracts without all the hoops to jump through and that alone would increase their stumpage value overnight, Way to many people on the payroll doing zero! And the ones that are trying to get things done run into constant push back, years to lay out a simple timber sale, helocopter required logging on units on units that have a road right through the middle of it. I don't have enough time in the day to go over the contunial waste I see everyday of people who just march to their own drum with no repercussions for productivity, not all are that way but the vast majority

NEPA applies to all federal agencies. It was a good idea by Congress but was written so vaguely that now every single action fed lands ranging from putting up a new sign to a timber sale has to go thru NEPA analysis.

Still waiting for Congress to do something on NEPA decades after it was enacted...

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