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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2019)
A3 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2019 On public lands, visitors surge while funds decline By KIRK SIEGLER National Public Radio It’s the boom times in Mammoth Lakes, California, which is wrapping up a win- ter of record snowfall. Eager to take advantage of it, Donovan Sliman and his two young daughters are lumbering up a snowy trail on the outskirts of town, where the condos give way to national forest. “I like to get away from everybody else,” says Sli- man. “I like to hear the sound of the wind and the snow through the trees.” “We’re also going to go sledding,” adds Grace, one of his daughters. Mammoth is completely surrounded by protected fed- eral wilderness or U.S. For- est Service land. Its desti- nation ski resort operates on public land via a federal lease. The Slimans try to visit the Mammoth Lakes area from their home in Orange County at least a half dozen times a year. They’re not alone. Every year, more than 2 million people descend on California’s eastern Sierra region to camp, hike, fi sh, hunt and ski. This region, often dubbed “the wild side” of the state, only has about 50,000 residents across two sprawling counties roughly the size of Massachusetts. Visits up, funding down Across the western U.S., towns surrounded by public lands are facing an increas- ing bind: They’re seeing a huge surge in visitors com- ing to play in the forests and mountains surrounding them, which is leading to an economic boom. But, at the same time, federal funding to manage these lands has been drying up. “There are these dramatic increases in recreational uses of public lands, and at the same time dramatic declines in recreational bud- Kirk Siegler/National Public Radio Like most American ski areas, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area operates on U.S. Forest Service land thanks to a federal lease. gets,” says Megan Lawson, a researcher at the Mon- tana-based think tank Head- waters Economics. A recent analysis by the group showed that visita- tion to U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Man- agement land has risen by about 15 percent over the last decade, while budgets for programs that support rec- reation in those agencies has fallen by a similar amount. According to Headwa- ters, since 2010, the Bureau of Land Management’s rec- reation budget has fallen by 18 percent, or $14 million. The Forest Service’s recre- ation budget has fallen by 16 percent or $49 million in the same time period. Lately, more of that money has been shifted to pay for wildfi res in the West. Since 2000, for instance, the Forest Service budget for wildfi res and suppres- sion has increased by more than 100 percent. And, more recently, the Trump admin- istration has tried to devote more resources to fast-track logging and mining on pub- lic lands. It’s been a slow-mov- ing crisis, but lately has prompted local leaders like John Wentworth to warn of a future where public lands are loved to death. “Trailheads are trashed, bathrooms don’t work, trails aren’t maintained, people are parking all over the place,” he says. For Wentworth, the tim- ing couldn’t be worse. Towns like his have gone all in to promote their recreation economies and the ameni- ties they offer based on their access to federal public land. So they’re now forced to get creative to deal with the problem of shrinking reve- nues to take care of that land. A smaller federal presence A former mayor and cur- rent town council member, Wentworth loves to show off FLEET DEALS FOR EVERYONE * the wild lands surrounding Mammoth Lakes. There are the backcountry ski glades south of town, accessible by a short drive from his home. The hiking in the summer accessing the famed John Muir Trail and the Ansel Adams Wilderness is unpar- alleled. All these public lands are why people fl ock here and in some cases move here permanently, he says. On a recent snowy after- noon, he stopped his pickup at a popular U.S. Forest Ser- vice trailhead just south of town. Things had got- ten pretty lawless there during peak periods, he says, because the federal agencies just didn’t have the resources to keep tabs on the trail- head. This was especially apparent during prolonged government shutdowns in recent years. So the town stepped in, convincing vot- ers to approve a tax increase to help pay for maintenance and staffi ng at gateways to federal public lands. At the Mill City Trail- head, Wentworth shows off the new, big informational signs laying out the rules. There’s even a doggy bag bin. All of this is stuff the U.S. government might have paid for in another era. “It’s discouraging and a little frightening to see that federal presence go away,” Wentworth says. “But on the other hand, there are real opportunities for bet- ter management if it’s more localized.” ‘The envy of the world’ This was the theme of a summit Wentworth helped organize at a Mammoth ski lodge recently. The sum- mit drew local leaders and outdoor recreation busi- ness owners from around the West to strategize about cop- ing with federal budget cuts. They also swapped suc- cess stories: Vail, Colorado, is paying salaries for extra federal rangers to staff a popular summer hiking trail; volunteers in Montana are doing wildlife counts to help overworked wildlife biolo- gists; private money in Cali- fornia is building new moun- tain bike trails on federal land. Attendees like Allen Piet- rasanta were quick to cau- tion that their efforts were intended to supplement the federal government, not advocate a takeover of the land, as some western Republicans have wanted. “We are the envy of peo- ple in the world for our public lands,” Pietrasanta said.”We’re looking to keep the public in public lands and looking at creative, new ways to help manage them. And keep them healthy and vibrant.” Pietrasanta, who lives in nearby Bishop, Califor- nia, chairs a group called the Sierra Business Council, which helps struggling rural towns transition into outdoor recreation economies. It’s an increasingly lucra- tive business in the rural West. Another analysis from Headwaters showed that rural western counties with large recreation econo- mies are the only ones to not report population declines since the Great Recession. Today, the outdoor recre- ation and service econo- mies are generally far larger than more traditional econ- omies like mining and log- ging, though generally, wages tend to be lower than those in the natural resource sectors. Folks here said they’re tired of all the hand-wring- ing and waiting for solutions from Washington. So they’re doing what they can locally for now to handle the boom in visitation, among other things. “People are coming to America’s public lands and they’re coming by the mil- lions,” said Wentworth. “They love it, it’s free, it’s their legacy, and we’ve got to be ready for them.” BAY BREEZE BOARDING & GROOMING LLC •Overnight Boarding •Daycare •Full line of Pet Supplies •Grooming 1480 SE 9 TH S TREET , W ARRENTON (503) 861-9817 BAYBREEZE-BOARDING.COM shindaiwa-usa.com 20% OFF ALL SHINDAIWA UNITS* Pet friendly Easter Baskets! E Y A P STE P A H R MARK YOUR CALENDAR! April 8–13, 2019 Shindaiwa Fleet Week discounts apply only during the dealer promotion window date. 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