Think Tank Contends Federals
Do Poor Job Of Managing Land

BOZEMAN, Mont. —(AP)— A Bozeman free-market think tank says federal land managers lose $711 million annually managing their western holdings while state land managers turn a profit, because state managers are more willing to levy fees.

In a report released recently, the Political Economy Research Center said the losses are incurred by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management on 456 million acres of land.

By contrast, PERC said, 10 Western states studied make money through user fees on lands they manage.

"They're actually held accountable to generate maximum profits," PERC economist Holly Lippke Fretwell said. "That's the watchdog over state land."

PERC advocates market solutions to environmental problems.

She said that between 1994 and 1996, 10 Western states earned a combined average of $5.56 for every dollar spent managing state trust lands.

She recommends federal land managers raise their own budget dollars through user fees, rather than relying on general tax dollars.

Federal land managers said the study failed to consider the different missions of state and federal lands.

"State trust lands have very different responsibilities and very defined missions — state finances," said Celia Boddington, a BLM spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. "We're trying to balance many, many different things. We do collect, right now, mineral fees and oil fees, but we share those with the state where those lands are located."

"By law, the Forest Service is to balance issues, not maximize revenues," said Jan Lerum, a Gallatin National Forest spokeswoman.

The Forest Service is participating in some test projects involving user fees, Lerum said. For example, money collected from the Rendezvous Cross Country Ski Area near West Yellowstone goes back into the trails taken by fee payers.

PERC said the Forest Service collected $8.7 million in user fee programs in fiscal year 1997, which ended last Sept. 30. But its study also cites recreation as the biggest money loser on federal lands.

Together, the Forest Service and BLM got no return on $355 million the agencies spent on average for recreation each year from 1994 to 1996, according to PERC. The federal government lost $290 million to timber and $66 to grazing.

Combined, the agencies offer the public 140,000 miles of public trails, 6.4 million acres of lakes and reservoirs, and more than 24,000 developed recreation sites.

Montana, with its $10 recreation fee imposed on state land users since 1995, earned more than $1.10 for every dollar spent, according to PERC.

Minerals were the only commodity from federal lands cited by PERC as generating a profit, about $6 for every dollar spent. Nine of the states studied, however, earned $35 for their dollar investment on minerals.

The states cited in the report were Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Washington.