While a backcountry use fee might help meet a small portion of Great Smoky's bills, a better solution is a park entrance fee/Kurt Repanshek
In a 25-page motion attacking not just the propriety but also the legality of a backcountry user fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a group of backpackers has not only asked that the fees be tossed out, but shined some light on the conundrum of how to afford our public lands.
The overwhelming dilemma here is not that backcountry users have to pay $4 a night, with a maximum fee of $20 for one trip, but rather that the National Park Service has its hands legislatively tied in its efforts to meet the needs of one of the most popular national parks. Politicians seem quick to oppose the fee but not as quick to solve the problem.
The lawsuit (attached below) makes accusations about how the staff of the park, under former Superintendent Dale Ditmanson, went about building its case for the user fees. Among the charges is that the staff concocted complaints about the existing backcountry reservation system, that minutes of public meetings were missing from the administrative record, and that some staff discussions of the matter were conducted on private, not government, email accounts. It also argues that federal regulations prohibit fees for backcountry campsites unless they come with "drinking water, access, road, refuse containers, toilet facilities ... (and) reasonable visitor protection," none of which exist, short of privies, in the park's backcountry.
More so, the lawsuit, contends that federal law prohibits the National Park Service at Great Smoky from charging "an entrance or standard amenity recreation fee ... unless fees are charged for entrance into that park on main highways and thoroughfares."
Southern Forest Watch, which brought the lawsuit, also contends that "(A) 25 percent drop in backcountry camping (from 84,236 in 2012 to 62,863 the following year) since full implementation of this fee is dramatic evidence that this fee has impaired this generation's use of the Smoky Mountains ... "
In February 2012, Superintendent Ditmanson told the Traveler that, faced with an inadequate budget and unable to charge an entrance fee for any of his roughly 9 million yearly visitors, he saw no way of improving visitor services and protecting backcountry resources without charging users who spend the night in the woods.
The solution would seem to lie with those political entities that have sided with Southern Forest Watch in its anti-fee fight: the speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, the Knox County (Tennessee) Commission as well as county officials in Bradley and Blount counties in Tennessee and Swain County in North Carolina. Rather than simply opposing the backcountry fees, these politicians should work to overturn the prohibition on entrance fees to Great Smoky, or to pressure Washington to better fund the Park Service. Or both.
Similar support should be sought from U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, who in the past has been honored by the National Parks Conservation Association for his pro-Park Service stances. Moving to shore up financing for Great Smoky Mountains specifically, and the National Park Service in general, would burnish that William Penn Mott Jr. Park Leadership Award he received from the NPCA in 2007 for opposing drastic changes to the Park Service's Management Policies and the costly "Road to Nowhere."
This is not to wholeheartedly endorse fees in the parks across the board. But when entrance fees are charged at one-third of the 401 units of the National Park System, and put to good use in improving the parks for the visitors' benefit, the longstanding ban against such a fee at Great Smoky is an anachronism in this day of scarce federal funds.
While recreation fees are generally unsavory, if there are to be fees, the Smokies would benefit much, much more from a $10-$20 per car fee from the millions who enter the park and exert considerable wear and tear on not only roads but also frontcountry facilities each year than from a $4 per night fee on 65,000 backcountry campers who sleep on the ground and walk down a path.
Comments
John, just for fun, you have some errors again that should be pointed out. First, you can use a checking account on the backcountry reservation system. All you need is your account and routing information. Secondly, I use a smarthone and am one of 1.75 billion people to have and use one, so i'm far from a rarity, and more like the norm in this country. I can access the site, and register quite easily with my phone, then my permit information is emailed to me, and I then just get the permit on my phone and keep it there while im in the backcountry. I usally turn my phone off so I don't waste battery, but its on there incase i'm in camp and get asked to pull out a permit. I then turn on the phone, pull up the permit, and the end. Secondly, i'm only aware of a small handful of trails in the National Park system that require a fee. Most do not for day hiking. Whitney, Half Dome, and the Tall Trees in Redwoods NP are a few that come to mind. Can't think of many more other than those. Most parks do require a fee to enter the park. The Smokies does not. A majority of parks have a backcountry permit fee. Not all, but most. The system is not cumbersome, unless you are so technically unsavy that you can't even power on a computer let alone get on the web. If they can't handle that simple website, then they have much bigger issues going on. Secondly, they can call in, and the number is on the backcountry camping page on the website. It's open 8 to 5 daily, and that number is (865) 436-1297. The person above sounded like she didn't even call the office but the main park line.. Once again, a simple search on the web gives you the number.
I'd also think that the 25% visitation you love to promote as ABSOLUTE facts that the backcountry system is failing is a misnomer, and here's why. First, last year was a weird year for the Smokies. Let's not forget in January the main highway slid off the side of the road and took 5 months to repair. That closed the main road through the park. Imagine Going-to-the-sun Road going off the side of the mountain. Think Glacier would be affected for some time. Well that happened in the Smokies. That screwed up the wildflower pilgrimage, and many other things. Pretty much set back spring tourism in the park. Then June, July and August turned out to be one of the coolest, and wettest summers on record. Over 110+ inches of rain fell in the backcountry last year. Many main holiday periods were dealt with lots of rain. I remember it well, because I was out in it A LOT. It was a lot of bad days of weather. So, that had an affect. Then let's not forget the tea party shutdown of our parks in October. Boy, you think the height of October when fall was at it's prime doesn't affect visitation? Think again. October is the busiest month, and half of it was shut down, and many had to cancel their plans. Im sure you remember that well, while you were promoting from the sidelines to bring anarchy to the park. Some of us had to watch it all unfold. Wasn't pretty, wasn't kind, and it left me with an utter distaste for the tea party, and people calling for the anarchy. So, let's be fair.
Finally, let's also look at current statistics. There is about a 28% increase in visitation this year, over last. It's actually rather insane how much busier the park has been. Also backcountry use is up too. You can get the stats on the internet. They are out there. Personally, I don't have a true feeling either way on a gate fee for the Smokies. At times I think it would be useful, other times I think what makes this one National Park different would be lost. One thing I do like is that it is open and people can dayhike basically for free without paying any fee. I don't think that's a bad thing. Like you, I'm also not a fan of Pigeon Forge. I have yet to understand that town or what exactly it is. It's an odd place... like a bizarre southern offshoot of Las Vegas for christians and bumpkins. Seems to be mostly a regional thing, because i've never seen a similar town built anywhere around any other national park. I always considered West Yellowstone weird...well that was until I first saw Pigeon Forge. West Yellowstone is tame in comparison. I guess that makes you and I agree on at least something.
Backcountry use is down %25 percent and those are the parks own numbers. Where in the world do you get the idea that it is up? Please show me a link. I would like to hear how you think that a decrease in backcountry use is good. And regarding the backcountry reservation website, when is the last time you backcountry camped in the Smokies, Gary? Seriously. There are numerous complaints, documented, with regard to that BS software. It takes three separate screens and your bank account? You can give them your bank acct info but I refuse to do that because it is foolish. You don't agree that the Smokies needs an entry fee but you think backcountry campers need one. The irony of your positions is glaring. But that is what happens when non backcountry campers weigh in on the backcountry fee. Dayhikers don't mind if we backpackers pay a fee and park service employees don't mind it either. You fall in both categories. Next thing I expect to hear is how you think horses are good for the trails.
Reading comprehension skills is not one of your strong suits. Should I write S-L-O-W-E-R or something? Yes, last year the decrease in visitation was noted and witnessed, but a lot of it was because of three events - a road sliding off the side of a mountain shutting the main park down for 5 months, a wet and cold summer, and a government shutdown during the busiest part of the year.
Backcountry usage is up this year, actually way up compared to last year. Visitation is astronomically higher. Sorry to burst that bubble of yours. If you are having trouble with a simple website, than that is your problem. I didnt go to school around here, so maybe the schools need better funding if people can't click through 3 easy pages. If that's tough, then analyzing data on park statistics is going to be a tougher task. Its simple to find. Good luck!! All park visitation statistics are out on the web and current to the last month.
And I am usually out in the backcountry many times a month. Was just out last week. And, I am very much a proponent of backcountry camping. That's how I spend most of my vacations, and I spend many weeks a year out in the Smokies backcountry on filming excursions. I have to backpack anywhere from 50 to 60 lbs worth of gear, so dayhiking is a tough task to carry what I have to do. It's easier to backcountry camp with that much gear.
And I did state I don't have an opinion on a gate fee. I think it has it's pluses and minuses. I also didn't have much of an opinion on the backcountry fee either, but I have seen rangers many times on the trail, and have seen what they've done. So, it's being put to the right use. I will say, I have seen a LOT less dogs traveling up LeConte and the AT this year. Two years ago, I saw them almost every day. Now, its rare to encounter them, or stragglers using up shelters that didn't reserve them.
The usual lack of data that so characterizes our NPS is displayed beautifully here. Along with the slandering of those that question them and uncivil manners. I saw two dogs on Leconte two months ago. I thought the fee was supposed to stop that. More undocumented mythology from the NPS and its employees but no one was paying me to hike up there so perhaps my view is a little different.
Did you take a picture of it? And seriously, did you not learn how to use google? Come on Johnny, you're telling me you don't do any real research before you make your claims?
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jan/20/fixing-smokies-slide-area-chall...
http://earthsky.org/earth/u-s-southeast-experiencing-extreme-rainfall-in...
http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/07/20/smokies-visitat...
Gary, I think that is the number he is looking for. Do you have a link for that?
He obviously does not. But this is also the guy who swore that a private resort never ever maintained their own trails in the Smokies and later admitted he never went there to check it out and to this day hasn't gone.
Gotta love the incompetence. For someone that is supposedly so up-to-date and knowledgable about the Park (yeah right), and has such a supposed deep insight on every aspect of the park (yeah right again) so that he can use such supposed insight to fire off false accusation after false accusation, he doesn't even know where to access current park statistics to back up any of his anti-park propaganda. Wow.
Yep, the figures show a 28% increase in visitors from last year and that June 2014 was the busiest month ever in the Smokies. And yes, June was insanely crowded. Over 2 million visits, which is a record by over 300,000 people. Backcountry usage beyond 50,000 at this point. Heck, just half way through the year, and it's probably going to top all years in the previous decade, and we haven't even hit fall (second busiest month), nor has July (the busiest month of the year) been updated yet. Ohh boy.