Deschutes National Forest moves to year-round fees
Due to continuing year-round use of many recreation sites and visitor’s desire to have sites maintained outside of the summer season, the Deschutes National Forest announced Monday it is making a change to its recreation site fee and pass requirements.
Beginning October 1 , sites that require a fee payment or pass for use of Deschutes National Forest facilities will now require fee payment or pass year-round while the facility is open and accessible to users. This is a change from the previous required fee or pass from May through September.
Officials said this will allow the forest to continue providing services, such as toilet cleaning and trash collection, as long as the weather allows access to facilities for their planned season of use.
Across the forest, fee revenue is used for projects that improve the visitor experience such as restrooms and their upgrades, trash bins, trail maintenance and development, campground and visitor center improvements, historic structure enhancements, education and interpretation programs, site accessibility improvements as well as maintenance of the safety and security of sites and visitors.
The Deschutes National Forest offers 61 recreation fee sites, including trailheads, day-use sites, boat launches and other recreational opportunities.
In addition, the forest offers 104 free (non-fee) sites, more than 80 concessionaire operated sites (such as campgrounds) and a wide variety of dispersed recreation opportunities.
Visit www.fs.usda.gov/deschutes for more information about recreation on the Deschutes National Forest. Passes are available at the Sisters, Bend-Ft. Rock and Crescent Ranger Stations as well as the Cascade Lakes Welcome Station and Redmond Air Center. Passes are also available on-line (goo.gl/7EpQQk ) and at many retail locations (goo.gl/haVXzL).
The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act ( PL 108-447) authorizes the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to establish, modify, charge and collect recreation fees at federal recreation lands and waters as provided for in the Act.
