RSFMP
Recreation Site Facility Master Planning

At the same that USFS is increasing fees and implementing new ones using FLREA, they are inventorying recreation sites to determine which sites to expand, close or leave alone.  The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition (WSNFC) has learned that some forests plan to close from 10% to over half of their sites.  This planning is taking place without Congressional oversight, NEPA involvement or public input.

This complete disregard for legal requirements and the public will has outraged many including Senator Max Baucus of Montana as this article from the Helena Independent Record makes clear.

Baucus wants public input before Forest Service makes any decisions
By EVE BYRON - IR Staff Writer - 11/29/06 
Sen. Max Baucus is asking the Forest Service to hold public meetings in Montana before the federal agency decides what campgrounds, picnic sites or other recreation facilities to close - something the federal agency said it will do.
In a letter to Regional Forester Gail Kimbell, Baucus requested that Montanans' opinions be gathered before cutbacks are made at any facilities in the state, through a series of public meetings on each of the nine national forests in Montana.
"I'm not going to let the Forest Service make decisions about our campgrounds without full public input and scrutiny," Baucus said. "Limiting access to our public lands for hunting, fishing and camping is something Montanans don't take lightly."
The Forest Service is in the process of evaluating its 15,000 campgrounds, trailheads with bathrooms and other developed recreational sites on 193 million acres throughout the nation, with an eye on discontinuing some services due to shrinking budgets and a backlog of maintenance.
Montana has around 1,500 developed recreation facilities on national forests.
Baucus is concerned because the Forest Service is not required by law to gather public input into these decisions, and he wants to give Montanans a chance to weigh in on the proposal.
A spokesperson for Kimball said they plan to involve the public in the recreation site facility master plan process as soon as they come up with five-year proposals, with meetings slated as early as next January.
"(Each forest) is coming up with a product - what recreation facilities we have, how they are being managed and how to proceed with them," Christine Romero, a public affairs specialist for Region 1, said on Tuesday. "We'll present the list to the public and ask them if we're on the right track."
Thirteen national forests are in the Forest Service's Region 1, which includes all of Montana and a portion of Idaho. While all are going through the self-evaluation, five out of the 13 forests - the Helena, Lewis and Clark, Lolo, Bitterroot and Flathead - are further along than others, Romero said.
At this point, the Forest Service's schedule calls for meetings on those forests, as well as in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Kootenai forests, next January. A public meeting on the Custer National Forest is slated for February, with the Gallatin National Forest to follow in March.
Each of the 155 national forests and 20 grasslands are putting together recreation master plans that evaluate the condition and frequency of use of sites, as well as how they fit into the forest's recreation "niche," by the end of 2007. The master plans will determine which facilities to keep, close, or upgrade, as well as look at instituting or increasing user fees at certain sites.
One of the largest budget problems for the Forest Service is its $346 million backlog for maintenance, and the growing costs for fire suppression, which makes up about 42 percent of the Forest Service's expenditures. Exacerbating the problem are dwindling funds - the federal agency's budget for 2007 was cut 2.5 percent, to $4.9 billion.
Barrett Kaiser, a spokesman for Baucus, said the senator is working on a long-term funding plan to deal with the cost of fighting wildfires without having to pull money from other forest programs.
"He's committed to getting additional funds for the Forest Service," Kaiser said. "The biggest chunk of their money goes to fighting wildfires, and Max wants to create some type of stable trust fund so they don't have to take from their other budgets to fight forest fires.
"It's safe to say Max is committed to finding a solution to this backlog, but he wants to ensure Montanans don't lose any hunting, fishing or camping opportunities."