Infrastructure on Public Lands

The Key Principles:

• Tourism is a major contributor to the quality of life and the economic, social, cultural and environmental fabric of the western states. It is a major economic driver in the West, employing nearly 2 million Americans.
• Tourism and public lands in America’s West have mutually evolved, each affecting the other and each contributing mightily to the wealth and greatness of our nation.

The Situation:

• In the later half of the nineteenth century, as we experienced unbridled western expansion, tourism played a pivotal role in awakening the public’s awareness and support for our emerging national forests, parks, wildlife refuges and public lands.
• The designation of our first national parks could not have occurred without the support of the railroad industry which saw tourism as a tool for garnering public favor and support for western expansion.
• Ever since the designation of Yellowstone as the world’s first national park in 1872, we have struggled with the problem of how we can provide the infrastructure necessary to support adequate access, use, protection and development of our public lands.
• Infrastructure is critical for the American public to reap the immense benefits to be derived from the tourism potential and the natural and cultural resource potential of these lands.
• Studies have shown that the West is perceived to represent the closest to the ideal destination in the United States. When you include National Parks as a destination, they are perceived to be as near ideal as the West.
• Most of the National Parks and nearly 93% of all the public lands in the U.S. are in the West.

The Challenges:

Problems facing infrastructure on public lands primarily center around:

• Providing adequate facilities to meet growing, unprecedented demands. Our public lands are victims of their own popularity. National park visitation increased 25% from 1984 to 1994 with 308 million visitors expected in 1999. Highway travel increased 30%, revenue passenger miles on US airlines have increased over 60% and cruise passengers through US seaports have increased over 100% during this decade. The aging infrastructure, largely built in the thirties, forties and fifties, is literally crumbling under the strain.
• Repairing and restoring currently aging facilities, and providing for on-going maintenance. Tight fiscal policies have forced land managers to defer major repair and restoration of aging facilities. Historically, meager authorizations of construction dollars have far outstripped the agencies’ authorizations for operations and maintenance. Visitors’ experience has been impacted. Federal agencies face a backlog of over $5 billion in infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation needs.
• Securing adequate funding. Money to pay for major construction, rehabilitation and maintenance for all forms of infrastructure has been infrequently and sporadically provided. Major infusions came with the depression era Civilian Conservation Corps program (1933-1943) and again in 1964 with the Land and Conservation Fund (LWCF) matched by state and local governments. The present Congress has limited LWCF to one of its lowest levels since 1965 -- one ninth the amount authorized by the LWCF legislation.
• Defining public and private roles. Concessionaires, as regulated monopolies, have provided visitor services by operating such things as hotels, lodges, restaurants, stores, service stations, campgrounds, marinas, riding stables and downhill ski slopes. Problems have arisen over the degree to which the government agencies or the concessionaires are responsible for capital improvements, renovations and repairs.
• Creating sustainable developments that can coexist and harmonize with environmental and natural resource restraints. The very attractiveness of our western public lands has been shaped by extremes of climate, temperature, precipitation, elevation, remoteness and catastrophic natural disturbances. It is inherently more expensive to develop infrastructure that can tolerate such extremes. The very remoteness and wildness that makes these lands so attractive to travelers also makes these lands home to an abundant, but sometimes sensitive, variety of fish and wildlife species. Often developers and investors from distant urban areas have little understanding of environmental sensitivity. They are often unaware of the fact that introducing too much development may compromise the very natural attributes that form the basis of their attractiveness for paying tourists.

Policy Recommendations:

• Increase Congressional appropriations for parks, recreation and related activities on federal lands. Fee reform is imperative, however, the long-range objectives of the tourism industry incorporate vigorous support for the budgets of the public lands agencies as they are affected through the appropriations process in Congress.
• Appropriations Bills – The stakeholders should exert a more unified voice to support appropriate levels of authorization and appropriate levels of spending.
• Dedicated Funds – Existing dedicated funds need to be re-authorized and allowed to support development and maintenance of infrastructure for tourism on public lands.
• Special Use Fees and Levies – Improved legal authorization is needed to collect special use fees and levies. A mechanism is desperately needed to enable user fees to be returned to the collection unit for the protection and enhancement of the resource.
• Evaluate public land concessions policy to seek more common administration among agencies. Ensure a competitive process for the favorable balance of service to users, quality of facilities, economic stability of the concessionaire, and return to the government.
• Concessions contracts and special use permits -- The various land management agencies need to strive for consistency in how the tourism industry is treated in concession contracts and special use permits. Issues concerning tenure, renewal, vested interests and ownership need to be resolved.
• Locate private and public facilities together to benefit a stronger partnership and provide more cost effective services to the public
• Re-authorize the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991.