Veterans new benefit!

[dubob]

Sorry Bob, I wasn’t very clear. To share a little bit of a conversation that I had with the forest service worker at Pineview. He stated that they didn’t want to honor discounted passes to vets and seniors even in the off season because of the high demand. I also know that it is an option like you stated for the concessionaire to make the choice. Many times at strawberry I’ve been charged and many times I’ve had my launch fees or camping fees waived, or discounted when showing the federal pass. I was more mentioning that why is it at the state can waive fees, but the federal agencies can’t regardless of concessionaire. I get that it’s a law, however, laws are meant to be challenged and broken.

Basically, there 8 different America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes available to the general public.  The passes are valid at more than 2,000 Federal recreation sites where Entrance or Standard Amenity Fee(s) (Day use fees) are charged by the following agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM - http://www.blm.gov), Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation - http://www.usbr.gov), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS - http://www.fws.gov), USDA Forest Service (USDA FS - http://www.fs.usda.gov), National Park Service (NPS - http://www.nps.gov), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE - http://www.usace.army.mil).  Not all Federal recreation sites charge entrance fees; Not all Federal recreation agencies participate in the program. For example, the Tennessee Valley Authority site does not issue the passes, yet they might honor the Senior and Access Passes for camping discounts. (inquire locally); Some facilities and activities on Federal recreation lands are managed by private concessionaires.  Pineview & Strawberry are two such properties managed by a concessionaire.  The concessionaires charge for their services as any private company does.

Camping fee discounts using the passes does work even when the venue is concessionaire managed, but only reduces the basic camping fee.  It does NOT reduce the additional fees charged for hook-ups such as electrical service.  I haven’t camped at Strawberry in 2 years, but I have always been able to launch my boat at any of the several launch ramps without paying any additional fees while I was camping there.  The concessionaire campground host always gave me a pass to place on my windshield that allowed launching my boat without paying an additional launch fee.

As to the forest service worker you spoke with, I would have to call BS on his comments.  Local workers don’t have the authority to change Federal policy.  It doesn’t matter if they want to or not.  If the USFS is actually managing a property, they are bound by Federal law to honor any of the benefits offered the pass holder.  There are a couple of exceptions to this – for example, no pass will get you into the Mount Rushmore venue.  A concessionaire does NOT have to honor those benefits if their contract gives them full management control on those issues.

I have conversed with my federal representatives several times over the years regarding this issue.  I get the same response from the fence posts in my back yard – crickets.