[Volunteers_fosm] Fwd: NEWS RELEASE Cibola National Forest adjusts Recreational Fees at Select Facilities

[Michael Madden]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: FS-Cibola PAO <SM.FS.CibolaPAO at usda.gov>
Date: Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 2:05 PM
Subject: NEWS RELEASE Cibola National Forest adjusts Recreational Fees at
Select Facilities
To:


*NEWS RELEASE*

[image: Forest Service Shield]

*Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands*

2113 Osuna Road NE

Albuquerque, NM 87113

(505) 346-3900

www.fs.usda.gov/cibola

www.facebook.com/cibolanf

twitter.com/cibola_nf


Cibola National Forest adjusts Recreational Fees
at Select Facilities



*Albuquerque, NM – April 29, 2024*. Starting in May of 2024, the Cibola
National Forest and Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands will begin
implementing a new fee structure at several developed sites on the Forest.
Increasing costs of maintenance and operations are driving the need for the
USDA Forest Service to increase fees for use at some developed recreation
sites. The new fee structure will be phased in from May 13, through
September 8, 2024.



In 2004, Congress passed the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act,
which allows the Forest Service to retain 95% of revenue collected at
recreation sites and use those funds locally to operate, maintain, and
improve these sites. Revenue is reinvested into forest recreation sites in
the form of trash collection, septic and vault toilet pumping, painting,
cleaning, addressing the backlog of deferred maintenance, conducting
patrols, maintaining high-use trails, campsites, and more.



The Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands (NF & NGs) conducted
public outreach from 2019 through 2022 seeking comments on the fee
proposal. The comments received were taken into consideration when
preparing the final fee change proposal. The proposed changes were based on
the level of amenities and services provided, cost of operations and
maintenance, and market assessments.



[image: Installation of vault toilet at Sandia Ranger District 9 Mile
Recreation site.]

Forest Service Photo: Installation of a new vault toilet at Sandia Ranger
Districts 9 Mile Recreation site.



The fee changes come after the Bureau of Land Management Northern and
Southern New Mexico Resource Advisory Council (RAC) approved the proposed
fee changes. The RAC members represent a broad array of recreation interest
groups to help ensure that the Forest Service is proposing reasonable and
publicly acceptable fee changes. The Southwestern Regional Forester
reviewed and approved the final fee changes which will be phased in over
time. Ultimately, new or increased fees will be implemented at 65 out of
174, or about 41% of developed recreational facilities on the Cibola NF&
NGs.



Mount Taylor and Sandia Ranger District’s fee changes will go into effect
on Monday, May 13, 2024.



Magdalena Ranger District, Mountainair Ranger District and Kiowa and Rita
Blanca National Grasslands are due to go into effect by September 8th,
2024.



Fees for recreation sites are posted to:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recmain/cibola/recreation.



Day use fees will be increasing from $3 to $5 per day, single family
campsites ranging from $5-$7 will increase to $10 per night and equestrian
campsites will increase from $7 to $12 per night. Some group picnic and
overnight areas may have increases, but prices will vary based on amenities
present as well as the site’s capacity.



Visitors are encouraged to check the status of sites on-line
<https://www.fs.usda.gov/recmain/cibola/recreation> or contact the
appropriate ranger district office ahead of time. Before heading out,
always check the weather <https://www.weather.gov> forecast, road
conditions nmroads.com <https://www.nmroads.com/mapIndex.html> and know
before you go <https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/know-before-you-go>.

Magdalena Ranger District Office: 575-854-2281

Mountainair Ranger District Office: 505-847-2990

Mt. Taylor Ranger District Office: 505-287-8833

Sandia Ranger District Office: 505-281-3304

Black Kettle NGs Ranger District Office: 580-497-2143

Kiowa and Rita Blanca NGs Ranger District Office: 575-374-9652

Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands Supervisor’s Office:
505-346-3900






This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely
for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message
or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law
and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete
the email immediately.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/volunteers_fosm/attachments/20240429/9387ca4b/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 7801 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/volunteers_fosm/attachments/20240429/9387ca4b/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 617871 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/volunteers_fosm/attachments/20240429/9387ca4b/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2024_04_29_CIB New Fee Imp NR.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 532921 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/volunteers_fosm/attachments/20240429/9387ca4b/attachment-0001.pdf>