Federal Public Land Management Reports

General Accounting Office
Report for Congress

Recreation Fees: Demonstration Fee Program Successful in Raising Revenues but Could Be Improved (Chapter Report, 11/20/98, GAO/RCED-99-7).

Chapter 4

Greater Innovation and Improved Coordination Will Enhance Program Effectiveness

Each of the agencies can point to a number of success stories and positive impacts that the fee demonstration program has had so far. Among the four agencies, a number of examples exist in which a new or innovative approach to collecting fees has resulted in greater convenience for the visitors and has improved efficiency for the agency. In addition, several of the agencies have tried innovative approaches to pricing that have resulted in greater equity in fees. However, some agencies could do more in this area. For example, while the Park Service has been innovative in looking for new ways to collect fees, it has been reluctant to experiment with different pricing approaches. As a result, the agency has not taken full advantage of the opportunity presented by the demonstration program. Greater innovation, including more business-like practices like peak-period pricing, could help address visitors' and resource management needs. In addition, although the Congress envisioned that the agencies would work with one another in implementing this program, the coordination and the cooperation among the agencies have, on the whole, been erratic. More effective coordination and cooperation among the agencies would better serve visitors by making the payment of fees more convenient and equitable and, at the same time, reduce visitors' confusion about similar or multiple fees being charged at nearby or adjacent federal recreation sites.

Innovations Have Benefited Visitors, But Further Opportunities exist

One of the key legislative objectives of the demonstration program is for the agencies to be creative and innovative in implementing their fee programs. The program offers an opportunity to try new things and to learn lessons on what worked well and what did not. Among the four agencies, numerous examples can be found of innovation in developing new methods for collecting fees. In addition, the Forest Service and BLM have also experimented with new pricing structures that have resulted in greater equity in fees. However, the Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service have generally maintained the traditional pricing practices they used prior to the demonstration program. Accordingly, the Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service can do more in this area. Furthermore, greater experimentation would better meet the objective of the demonstration program as agencies could further their understanding of ways to make fees more convenient, equitable, and potentially useful as tools to influence visitation patterns and to protect resources.

Examples of innovations in fee programs are differential pricing and vendor sales, which have been widely used by commercial recreation enterprises for many years. For instance, golf courses and ski areas frequently charge higher prices on the weekend than they do midweek, and amusement parks often sell entrance passes through many vendors. These concepts had rarely, if ever, been part of the four agencies' fee programs prior to the demonstration.

Several Agencies Have made Paying Fees More Convenient For Visitors

The Park Service, the Forest Service, and BLM are trying new ways of collecting fees that may prove more convenient for visitors. For example, the Park Service is now using automated fee-collecting machines at over 30 of its demonstration sites. These machines are similar to automated teller machines (ATM): Visitors can pay their fees with cash or credit cards, and the machine issues receipts showing the fees were paid. For example, the Grand Canyon National Park sells entrance passes at machines located in several areas outside the park, including in the towns of Flagstaff and Williams, Arizona, which are both along frequently used routes to the park and more than 50 miles from the park's south entrance. The park has dedicated one of the four lanes at its entrance station for visitors who have already purchased their entrance passes. Thus, visitors who use the machines outside the park can avoid lines of cars waiting to pay fees at the park's entrance station. At other demonstration sites within the Park Service, visitors can use automated fee-collection machines to pay for entrance fees, annual passes, or boat launch fees.

As part of the demonstration program, the Forest Service is looking for ways to make paying fees more convenient for the visitor and more efficient for the agency. In some instances, paying fees at a location inside a forest may not always be convenient for visitors--particularly if that location is not near where visitors enter the forest, according to a Forest Service headquarters official. Some sites have experimented with having businesses and other groups outside of the forest collect entrance and user fees from visitors before they come into the forest. The vendors of the entrance and user permits are frequently small businesses, such as gas stations, grocery stores, or fish and tackle stores, that are located near the forest. For example, 350 vendors sell passes to visitors for recreation on any of four national forests in southern California. By having vendors sell entrance and user permits, a forest can increase the number of locations where visitors can pay fees and can thereby make paying fees more convenient.

At Paria Canyon-Coyote Buttes in Arizona, one of BLM's demonstration sites, the agency is experimenting with selling hiking and camping permits via the Internet. Permits are required for overnight camping by up to a total of 20 persons per day in the Paria Canyon area and for hiking by up to a total of 20 persons per day in the Coyote Buttes area. BLM, working in cooperation with Northern Arizona University and the Arizona Strip Interpretive Association, has developed a website that allows visitors to obtain information on the area, check on the availability of permits for future dates, make reservations, fill out and submit detailed application forms, or print out the application forms for mailing.\1 In addition, visitors can pay for permits over the Internet using credit cards, although the agency is still in the process of developing the security protocols that are needed to properly protect the transactions. Visitors can also fax credit card payments or send payments through the mail.

Innovative Pricing Is Being Tried By Some Agencies

Besides innovating and experimenting to make paying fees more convenient for visitors, two of the agencies are also experimenting with various pricing strategies at demonstration sites. Pricing strategies being tried by the Forest Service and BLM are focused on charging fees that vary based on the extent of use or on whether the visit is made during a peak period--such as a weekend--or during an off-peak period. This concept is generally referred to as differential pricing and has resulted in greater equity in pricing at the sites where it has been tried.

For example, in Utah, Uinta National Forest and Wasatch-Cache National Forest have both experimented with differential pricing. At American Fork Canyon/Alpine Loop Recreation Area, within the Uinta National Forest, the forest began charging a new entrance fee under the demonstration program of $3 per car for a 3-day visit and $10 for a 2-week visit. Similarly, at the Mirror Lake area within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, visitors pay a new entrance fee of either $3 per vehicle for a day or $10 per vehicle for a week. Thus visitors to both the Uinta and Wasatch-Cache National Forests pay fees that vary with the extent of use. Fees that vary with use are more equitable than a single fee for all visitors regardless of use, as has been the traditional practice at many federal recreation sites.

The Forest Service and BLM have also experimented with charging fees that differ based on peak and off-peak periods. For example, at Tonto National Forest in Arizona, the entrance fees vary depending on the day of the week. The forest sells two annual passes for day use, including use of the boat launch facilities, at six lakes within the forest. One pass sells for $90 per year and is valid 7 days a week. The other pass sells for $60 per year and is valid only Monday through Thursday, the forest's off-peak period. Another example of peak pricing is at the Lower Deschutes Wild and Scenic River in Oregon, one of BLM's sites, where as part of the demonstration program, the agency charges a camping fee of $10 per site per day on weekends in the summer and a $5 per site per day fee midweek and during weekends in the off-season. By charging lower fees for off-peak use, these agencies are using fees as a management tool to encourage greater use when sites have fewer visitors. This practice can help to mitigate the impact of users on resources during what would normally be the sites' busiest periods.

Opportunities Remain For More Innovation--Particularly in the Park Service

While the Park Service has tried new methods for collecting fees, opportunities remain for the agency to further the goals of the demonstration program by being more innovative and experimental in its pricing strategies. While the agency certainly does not need to retool its program or use differential pricing arrangements at each of its sites, the Park Service could build on what it has already done. Specifically, it could look for ways, where appropriate, to provide greater equity in fees to give visitors incentives to use parks during less busy periods, thus reducing demand on park facilities and resources during the busiest times.

Because of the large numbers of visitors and the large amount of fee revenues generated, the Park Service has an opportunity to improve its pricing strategies. For the types of areas managed by the Park Service, entrance fees have worked well for the agency and are convenient for most visitors to pay. However, visitors to units of the national park system having entrance fees (about one-third of the 376 units) generally pay the same fee whether they are visiting during a peak period, such as a weekend in the summer, or an off-peak period, such as midweek during the winter, and whether they are staying for several hours or several days. A more innovative fee system would make fees more equitable for visitors and may change visitation patterns somewhat to enhance economic efficiency and reduce overcrowding and its effects on parks' resources.

For example, managers at several of the parks we visited, including Assateague Island National Seashore and Shenandoah National Park, discussed how during peak visitation periods, such as summer weekends, long lines of cars frequently form at entrance stations, with visitors waiting to pay the fee to enter the parks. The lines are an inconvenience to the visitors and the emissions from idling cars could affect the sites' resources. By experimenting with pricing structures that have higher fees for peak periods and lower fees for off-peak periods, sites might be able to shift more visitation away from high-use periods.

Our past work has found that increased visitation has eroded many parks' ability to keep up with visitors' and resource needs.\2 Innovative pricing structures that result in less crowding in popular areas would also improve the recreational experience of many park visitors. Furthermore, according to the four agencies, reducing visitation during peak periods can lower the costs of operating recreation sites by reducing (1) the staff needed to operate a site, (2) the size of facilities, (3) the need for maintenance and future capital investments, and (4) the extent of damage to a site's resources. As we already pointed out, the private sector uses such pricing strategies as a matter of routine--including when the private sector operates within parks. The private sector concessioner that operates the lodging facilities in Yosemite National Park in California, for example, employs peak pricing practices. Lodging rates are higher during the peak summer months and lower during the months when the park attracts fewer visitors.

Furthermore, most parks with entrance fees charge the same fee regardless of the extent of use. For example, Zion and Olympic National Parks both charge an entrance fee of $10 per vehicle for a visit of up to 1 week. This fee is the same whether visitors are enjoying these areas for several hours, a day, several days, or the full week. This one-size-fits-all approach is convenient for the agency but may not be equitable or efficient because visitors staying longer enjoy more benefits from a site.

At one park, the lack of an alternative to the 7-day entrance fee has contributed to the formation of a "black market" in entrance passes. According to recent media reports, some visitors to Yellowstone National Park are reselling their $20 1-week entrance passes--after staying only a few days or less at the park--to other visitors planning to enter the park. Since the passes are valid for 7 days, a family could sell its pass to another carload of park visitors for perhaps half price and reduce the cost of visiting the park for both parties. Even though the entrance pass is nontransferable and selling a pass is illegal and subject to a $100 fine, the park does not have an estimate of the extent of the situation. The park has not experimented with an entrance fee for visits of less than 7 days, a pricing option that would be likely to address the illegal resale of passes.

Park Service headquarters officials indicated that the agency had not tried differential pricing at demonstration sites because, in their view, it (1) would be difficult to conduct sufficient enforcement activities to ensure compliance, (2) would increase the costs of fee collection, and (3) may result in a decrease in fee revenues. While we acknowledge that it may be simpler to charge only one rate to visitors at demonstration sites, the agencies that are currently using differential pricing--the Forest Service and BLM--have been able to address the concerns raised by the Park Service. Given the potential benefits of differential pricing to both the agency and the visitors, an opportunity exists for the Park Service to experiment with such pricing at a small sample of demonstration sites.

Cooperation and Coordination Among The Agencies Could Be Improved

The four agencies have implemented a number of multiple-agency fee demonstration projects. Although these efforts are few in comparison to the more than 200 fee projects that have begun so far, they demonstrate that multiple agencies with somewhat varying missions can form successful partnerships when conditions, such as geographical proximity, present the opportunity. While we found several examples of successful, multiple-agency fee demonstration projects, more could be done. At several of the sites we visited, opportunities existed for improving the cooperation and coordination among the agencies that would increase the quality of service provided to visitors.

Successful Cross-Agency Fee Projects Are Under Way

The legislative history of the fee demonstration program includes an emphasis on the participating agencies' working together to minimize or eliminate confusion for visitors where multiple fees could be charged by recreation sites in the same area. There are several areas that are now working together to accomplish this goal.

For example, a joint project was developed in 1997 at the American Fork Canyon/Alpine Loop Recreation Area in Utah between the Forest Service's Uinta National Forest and the Park Service's Timpanogos Cave National Monument. The monument is surrounded by Forest Service land, and the same roads provide access to both areas. Because of this configuration, the agencies generally share the same visitors and charge one fee for entrance to both areas.\3 The sites also have similar public service and resource management goals. Fee-collection responsibilities are shared between the two agencies, and expenditures are decided upon by representatives from both agencies as well as from two other partners in the project--the State of Utah Department of Transportation and the county government. Figure 4.1 shows the partnership's entrance station for the area. Since 1997,

fee revenues from the project have paid for the rehabilitation of several bridges in popular picnic areas (see fig. 4.2). Future fee revenues will fund the staffing and maintenance of entrance stations where fees are collected; the repair and maintenance of camping areas, trails, and parking areas; additional law enforcement services; and resource management projects.

Figure 4.1: Joint Entrance Station at American Fork Canyon, Uinta National Forest, Utah

(See figure in printed edition.)

Figure 4.2: Bridge Rehabilitation in Popular Picnic Area at American Fork Canyon, Utah

(See figure in printed edition.)

Agencies--federal and nonfederal--have worked together to improve visitor services and reduce visitor confusion as part of the fee demonstration program in other areas as well. Examples include (1) the Tent Rocks area in northern New Mexico (BLM and an Indian reservation); (2) recreation sites along the South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho (the Forest Service, BLM, state agencies, and county governments); (3) recreation sites in the Paria Canyon-Coyote Buttes area in Arizona (BLM, the Arizona Strip Interpretive Association, and Northern Arizona University); (4) the Pack Creek bear-viewing area in the southeast Alaska (the Forest Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game); and (5) the proposed Oregon Coastal Access Pass (the Park Service, BLM, the Forest Service, and Oregon state parks).

Through the partnership at the Tent Rocks area in north-central New Mexico between Albuquerque and Sante Fe, visitors get access to a unique geological area that BLM administers via a 3-mile access road across Pueblo de Cochiti, an Indian reservation. BLM's site, known as the Tent Rocks Area of Critical Environmental Concern and National Recreation Trail, features large, tent-shaped rocks that hug steep canyon walls. The area is surrounded by two Indian reservations.

The only access road for vehicles to Tent Rocks crosses land owned by Pueblo de Cochiti. In 1998, a cooperative partnership agreement gave visitors access to Tent Rocks, while specifying prohibited activities to preserve the tranquility of the pueblo community. The agreement also specifies resource preservation measures to protect the Tent Rocks area. Annually, Tent Rocks is visited by about 100,000 people. Under the terms of the agreement, BLM is responsible for collecting fees and shares $1 of the $5 vehicle fee with Pueblo de Cochiti. The pueblo provides interpretive talks, trash pickup, and road maintenance. As of July 1998, this interorganizational demonstration project was working satisfactorily, according to BLM officials.

The Oregon Coastal Access Pass has been proposed for visitors to enter several adjacent federal and state recreation sites, each of which now charges a separate entrance fee. These include the Park Service's Fort Clatsop National Memorial, BLM's Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, the Forest Service's Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, and the state of Oregon's Department of Parks and Recreation. All of these sites currently charge separate fees, ranging from several dollars per person to over $10.

For a number of years, visitors to these sites have commented on the lack of government coordination over the numerous entrance and user fees these facilities charge. During the last 2 years, representatives from the federal and state agencies involved have held meetings to develop an Oregon Coastal Access Pass, which would be good for entrance and use at all participating federal and state sites along the Oregon coast. According to a Forest Service official, two issues need to be resolved before implementing the pass: (1) the estimation of the revenues from each of the facilities to determine the amount of anticipated revenues to be shared and (2) the development of and agreement on an equitable formula to share fee revenues among the federal and state sites. The pass could be implemented in 1999, according to a Forest Service official participating on this project.

Opportunities For More Interagency Coordination Exist

While some progress is being made to increase coordination among agencies, our work shows that there are still opportunities for improvement that would benefit both the federal government and visitors. Further coordination among the agencies participating in the fee demonstration program could reduce confusion for the visitors as well as increase the revenues available for maintenance, infrastructure repairs, or visitor services. Even at the few participating sites we visited, we identified three areas where better interagency coordination would provide improved services and other benefits to the visiting public, while at the same time generating increased fee revenues.

For example, in New Mexico, BLM administers a 263,000-acre parcel called El Malpais National Conservation Area. Within the BLM boundaries of this site is the El Malpais National Monument created in 1987 and managed by the Park Service (see fig. 4.3). Adjoining several sides of the agencies' lands are two Indian reservations. Interstate, state, and county roads cross and border the BLM and Park Service lands. Presently, neither parcel has an entrance or user fee.

Figure 4.3: Map of El Malpais National Monument and El Malpais National Conservation Area

(See figure in printed edition.)

In 1997, as part of the fee demonstration program, BLM proposed a $3 daily fee to the site. According to a BLM official, the proposed demonstration site was to be managed as a joint fee demonstration project with the Park Service, with the fee applicable to both areas. According to BLM, a demonstration project would not only increase revenues to pay for work needed at the site but also increase the presence of agencies' officials at the site, which would help deter vandalism and other resource-related crimes. Because it is difficult for visitors to distinguish between the two sites, a unified and coordinated approach to fee collection made good management sense and would avoid confusion among fee-paying visitors to the sites.

The surrounding communities endorsed BLM's proposal, but Park Service officials at the site did not. They told us that they believed that there would be low compliance with any fee requirements because of the multiple access roads to the site, that potentially delicate situations would arise with Native Americans using the land for ceremonial purposes, and that theft and vandalism would increase because of the proposed project's unstaffed fee-collection tubes. A local BLM official, however, said that the site could generate significant revenues (over $100,000 annually), that fee exemption cards could be developed for Native Americans using the land for traditional purposes, and that past experience in the southwest has not shown extensive damage to unstaffed fee-collection devices like those proposed for use at this site. As a result of the differing views between BLM and Park Service officials at this site, no coordinated approach has been developed. However, our work at the site indicated that experimenting with a new fee at the location would be entirely consistent with the objective of the demonstration program. As of August 1998, neither agency had documented its analysis of the situation, and BLM was considering deleting the site as a potential fee demonstration project.

In the state of Washington, we found another opportunity for interagency coordination. Olympic National Park and the Olympic National Forest share a common border for hundreds of miles and are both frequently used by backcountry hikers. For backcountry use, hikers are subject to two separate fees at Olympic National Park--a $5 backcountry hiking permit and a $2 per night fee for overnight stays in the park. In contrast, Olympic National Forest does not have an entry fee, a backcountry permit fee, or any overnight fee in areas that are not specifically designated as campsites. However, the forest does have a trailhead parking fee of $3 per day per vehicle or $25 annually per vehicle. As a result, backcountry users who hike trails that cross back and forth over each agency's lands are faced with multiple and confusing fees. Figure 4.4 shows an example of a backcountry hike from Lena Creek (Olympic National Forest land) to Upper Lena Lake (Olympic National Park land)--14 miles round-trip--where backcountry users would face such multiple fees. Table 4.1 lists the fees involved for the hike.

Figure 4.4: Hiking Trails Using Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest

(See figure in printed edition.)

Table 4.1 - Fees for Two Adults Taking a 3-Day, 2- Night Hike From Lena Creek in Olympic National Forest to Upper Lena Lake in Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park	Fee
Wilderness permit	$5
Backcountry fee, $4 per night for 2 nights	$8
Olympic National Forest	Fee
Parking fee, $3 per day for 3 days	$9
Total	$22

We discussed this situation with on-site managers from both agencies. They agreed that they should better coordinate their respective fees to reduce the confusion and multiplicity of fees for backcountry users. However, so far, neither agency has taken the initiative to make this happen. At the time of our review, no one at the departmental or agency headquarters level routinely got involved in these kinds of decisions. Instead, the decisions were left to the discretion of the site managers.

A third example of where greater coordination and cooperation would lead to operational efficiencies and less visitor confusion is in Virginia and Maryland at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Assateague Island National Seashore, administered by the Park Service. Although the sites adjoin each other on the same island (see fig. 4.5), they are not a joint project in the fee demonstration program--each site is a separate fee demonstration project.

Figure 4.5: Assateague Island National Seashore and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

(See figure in printed edition.)

During our review, we found many similarities between these two sites that offer the possibility of testing a single entrance fee for both sites. Both sites charge a daily entrance fee ($5 per vehicle), cooperate on law enforcement matters, and run a joint permit program for off-road vehicles. In 1997, according to Park Service officials, the two agencies together issued 5,000 annual off-road vehicle permits at $60 each. By agreement between the two agencies, the permit revenues are shared, with one-third going to the refuge and two-thirds going to the Park Service. The Park Service already provides staff to operate and maintain a ranger station and bathing facilities on refuge land.

Despite these overlapping programs and similarities, the units still maintain separate, nonreciprocal entrance fee programs. This situation is continuing even though officials at the refuge told us that visitors are sometimes confused by separate agencies managing adjoining lands without any reciprocity of entrance fees. For example, during a 7-day period in July 1998, refuge officials counted 71 of 4,431 visitor vehicles as wishing to use their vehicle entrance passes for Assateague to gain admittance to Chincoteague. Similarly, during the 7-day period of July 31 through August 6, 1998, Assateague officials counted 40 of 4,056 visitor vehicles as presenting Chincoteague entrance passes to gain admittance to Assateague. In both instances, visitors needed explanations about the entrance fee policies and practices of the two sites. Refuge and seashore officials have discussed this issue, but the matter remains unresolved.

CONCLUSION

While there are many notable examples of innovation and experimentation in setting and collecting fees at demonstration sites, further opportunities remain in this area. Innovation and experimentation were one of the objectives under the demonstration program's authority and could result in fees that are more equitable, efficient, and convenient and could also work toward helping the agencies accomplish their resource management goals. Congressional interest in encouraging more interagency coordination and cooperation was focused not only on seeking additional revenues but also on developing ways to lessen the burden of multiple, similar fees being paid by visitors to adjoining or nearby recreation sites offering similar activities. Successful experiences with interagency coordination and cooperation have produced noteworthy benefits to the agencies and to visitors. Additional coordination and cooperation efforts should be tested at other locations to get a better understanding of the full impact and potential of the program.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We recommend that the Secretary of the Interior require that the heads of the Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service take advantage of the remaining time under the fee demonstration authority to look for opportunities to experiment with peak-period pricing and with fees that vary with the length of stay or extent of use at individual sites.

We also recommend that the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture direct the heads of the participating agencies to improve their services to visitors by better coordinating their fee-collection activities under the recreational fee demonstration program. To address this issue, each agency should perform a review of each of its demonstration sites to identify other federal recreation areas that are nearby. Once identified, each situation should be reviewed to determine whether a coordinated approach, such as a reciprocal fee arrangement, would better serve the visiting public.

Agency Comments And Our Evaluation

Two agencies within the Department of the Interior commented on this chapter. The Park Service raised concerns about experimenting with differential or peak-period pricing. The agency said that experimenting with fees could result in complex fee schedules, increased processing times at entrance stations, confused visitors, and more difficult enforcement. In addition, the agency took exception to the draft report's comparisons to the differential pricing practices used at amusement parks, golf courses, and ski areas, noting that the agency's purpose is different from the purposes of such operations. However, we disagree that these concerns are reasons not to implement different pricing policies at some parks. We recognize that the Park Service's current fee schedule has been successful but question whether the agency has responded sufficiently to one of the intents of the recreational fee demonstration program: that agencies experiment with innovative pricing structures. If done well, experimenting with differential pricing at Park Service demonstration sites need not result in complex fee schedules, delays at entrance stations, confused visitors, or significant increases to the cost of collection. It is in this context, that we provided the examples of golf courses, amusement parks, and ski areas--recreation activities that routinely use differential pricing to which the public is already accustomed. In many cases, these fee systems are equitable, easily understood by the public, and do not cause delay or confusion.

Furthermore, the Park Service comments on this point are not consistent with the January 1998 report to the Congress on the status of the fee demonstration program, which was jointly prepared by the Park Service, the Forest Service, BLM, and the Fish and Wildlife Service and transmitted by the Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture and an Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior. In that report, the four agencies noted that among the lessons learned up to that point was that differential pricing could be used to maximize resource protection or to minimize infrastructure investment. The report states that "higher fees on weekends, summer months, or other [periods of] traditionally-high recreation use, might reduce the peak loads on resources and facilities . . . . Reductions in peak loads can directly reduce the cost to taxpayers associated with operating the recreation sites, providing services to these sites, and any attendant damage to the resource."

The Park Service also raised concerns about the draft report's discussion of the potential for a joint fee demonstration site between the Park Service and BLM at El Malpais National Monument and El Malpais National Conservation Area. (BLM did not comment on this point.) The Park Service said that (1) a cost-benefit analysis showed it was not worth collecting fees and (2) collecting fees would affect the use of the area by five neighboring Native American tribes. It was clear from our work that there was disagreement among Park Service and BLM officials over whether El Malpais was a suitable site for inclusion in the demonstration program and that this disagreement continues. The boundaries of the agencies' land make it unlikely that the project could succeed without a joint effort. We disagree with the Park Service's concerns raised on this point and question their accuracy since the analysis showing that fee revenues would be low, referred to in the Park Service's comments, has not been completed. We obtained a draft of that analysis which, according to Park Service staff at El Malpais National Monument, was the most recent analysis available as of October 15, 1998. The draft analysis contains no information on anticipated costs or revenues from charging fees at this site. Furthermore, we disagree with the Park Service's assertion that fees would affect Native American use of the site. According to the Park Service regional fee demonstration coordinator, at park units where similar situations existed, local managers were able to resolve cultural issues with the Native Americans using the sites.

The Fish and Wildlife Service commented that there may be opportunities for the agency to experiment with off-peak pricing, but such opportunities would be limited to those sites where there is sufficient visitation to create crowding and provide an incentive for off-peak use. We agree. In fact, crowded parking at one refuge was a big enough concern that managers were considering measures to better handle visitation during peak periods.

The Fish and Wildlife Service also commented on the need for greater coordination among the agencies. The agency noted that cooperative fees have been tried in many instances where they are appropriate and that some of these have resulted in moderate success. We encourage the agency to continue to look for opportunities to coordinate since it would generally increase the level of service provided to the visiting public.

The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service agreed with the recommendation for the agencies to look for opportunities to coordinate their fee programs.

(end of Chapter 4)