[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 159 (Thursday, November 11, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FOREST SERVICE FEES

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                           HON. MERRILL COOK

                                of utah

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 10, 1999

  Mr. COOK. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation that will 
direct the Forest Service to set fees in a fair, honest manner for 
forest lots on which families and individuals have built cabins for 
seasonal recreation. A companion bill is being introduced in the Senate 
by Senators Craig and Thomas.
  The Forest Service recreation residence program is the oldest of the 
formal undertakings by Congress to provide American families with 
rustic settings for leisure and for physical and emotional renewal. 
Authorized in 1915 under the Term permit Act, more than 15,000 of these 
forest cabins remain today, providing generation after generation of 
families and their friends a respite from urban living and an 
opportunity to regularly reconnect with nature.
  Approximately 20 years ago, the Forest Service saw the need to 
modernize the regulations under which the cabin program is 
administered. Acknowledging that the competition for access and use of 
forest resources has increased dramatically since 1915, both the cabin 
owners and the agency wanted a formal understanding about the rights 
and obligations of using and maintaining these structures.
  New rules that resulted nearly a decade later reaffirmed the cabins 
as a valid recreational use of forest land. At the same time, the new 
policy reflected numerous limitations on use that are felt to be 
appropriate in order keep areas of the forest where cabins are located 
open for recreational use by other forest visitors. Commercial use of 
the cabins is prohibited, as is year-round occupancy by the owner. 
Owners are restricted in the size, shape, paint color and presence of 
other structures or installations on the cabin lot. The only portion of 
a lot that is controlled by the cabin owner is that portion of the lot 
that directly underlies the footprint of the cabin itself.
  The question of an appropriate fee to be paid for the opportunity of 
constructing and maintaining a cabin in the woods was also addressed at 
that time. Although the agency's policies for administration of the 
cabin program have, overall, held up well over time, the portion 
dealing with periodic redetermination of fees proved in the last few 
years to be a failure.
  As the results of actual reappraisals on the ground began reaching my 
office in 1997, it became clear that the Forest Service was out of 
alignment in determining fees for the cabin owners.
  At the Pettit Lake tract in Idaho's Sawtooth National Recreation 
Area, the new base fees skyrocketed into alarming five-digit amounts so 
high that a single annual fee was nearly enough money to buy raw land 
outside the forest and construct a cabin. Many cabin users in my 
district faced increases of several hundred percent.
  At the request of the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture 
in 1998, the cabin owners named a coalition of leaders of their various 
national and state cabin owner associations to examine the methodology 
being used by the Forest Service to determine fees.
  It was learned that the Forest Service, contrary to their own policy, 
was appraising and affixing value to the lots being provided to cabin 
owners as if this land was fully developed, legally subdivided, fee 
simple residential land not a highly regulated lease.
  I urge each of my colleagues to be in contact with cabin owners in 
their state during the congressional recess.
  There are more than 15,000 families out there who fear that the long 
tradition of cabin-based forest recreation is nearing an end because 
the fees have made the program unaffordable for all but the wealthy. I 
along with the American Land Rights Association and the National Forest 
Homeowners welcome your whole-hearted support and your co-sponsorship 
of this important legislation. Protect these cabin owners from 
bureaucratic zealots. Don't let the Forest Service tax Americans out of 
their log cabins.

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