|
Allegheny National Forest officials look at decommissioning several recreational facilities on the forest due to limited federal funding, ongoing cost of operating and maintaining the sites on both Bradford and Marienville ranger districts
By MIKE SCHREIBER
Era Associate Editor
|
| Era photo by Alan Hancock |
|
|
| |
|
Allegheny National Forest officials are looking at decommissioning several recreational facilities on the forest due to limited federal funding and the ongoing cost of operating and maintaining the sites on both the Bradford and Marienville ranger districts.
The U.S. Forest Service will now gauge interest in having private concessionaires run some of the sites with more of a focus being turned to developing sites around the Kinzua Reservoir.
Among those facilities on the proposed chopping block — Kinzua Beach and the Tracy Ridge Recreation Area in the Bradford district and the Twin Lakes Campground and Recreation Area on the Marienville district, according to district ranger white papers.
The recommendations were made as part of forest officials’ plan to craft a Recreation Facility Analysis, which will help align recreation funding with site usage. Similar analysis is ongoing on forests across the nation.
“Difficult choices had to be made on how and where to reduce and eliminate services or facilities to ensure that our financial checkbook for recreation facilities is in balance,” Bradford District Ranger Anthony Scardina said. “These choices will cause internal and external conflicts, but it is my job as a leader and manager to make choices that are in the best interest of the federal government and the American taxpayer.
“Futhermore, I believe these choices will allow us to focus more dollars on priority sites and help ensure we have better maintained facilities and the opportunity to improve services in the future that will meet the wants and needs of our visitors.”
Forest officials have reportedly indicated that if all the proposals were implemented, there would be an expected savings of $2.5 million for deferred maintenance, $109,000 in annual savings on operating costs, $325,000 in maintenance, and $436,000 in managing parking areas.
All told, the Forest Service — which only receives about $220,000 a year from the federal government to maintain the sites — hopes to reportedly trim a total of $3.4 million in deferred or operating costs as a result of the proposed moves.
A majority of the Forest Service recreation site infrastructure was built in the 1960s, and with current funding, national forests are able to maintain about 25 percent of recreation facilities to modern standards, including water systems increasingly failing to meet quality standards.
According to forest spokeswoman Kathy Mohney, the Recreation Facility Analysis will be used to develop a five-year program of work to better manage and improve the quality of the recreation sites.
“This allows us to know what running a recreation site costs, the relative importance of that site and its condition,” Mohney said. “This is an ongoing process. We want to provide healthy, safe and well maintained recreation opportunities.”
According to the white papers for the Bradford district, among the recreation facilities that are slated for full decommissioning are: Dunkle Corners, Roper Hollow Boat Launch, Sugar Bay Dispersed Area, Tidioute Overlook, Timbernoodle Flats Trailhead and the Tracy Ridge Recreation Area.
Meanwhile, those up for partial decommissioning are: Dewdrop Recreation Area, Kinzua Beach, Kinzua Point Information Center and the Longhouse Dispersed Site.
“With limited finances for operations and maintenance and deferred maintenance for existing facilities, priorities have to be clearly identified and difficult choices have to be made,” Sardina said. “The Bradford Ranger District offers many great recreational opportunities and it would be my preference to continue to provide them all at a high level of service.
“However, it is likely that we will continue to have flat or reduced budgets to provide those services.”
Sardina said his focus for the Bradford district is to reduce sites in close vicinity that provide similar services, make reductions where they would have a real effect on reducing maintenance costs, to retain as many facilities as possible around the Allegheny Reservoir, reduce services or eliminate sites with severely low occupancy levels and reduce the number of wastewater facilities to a level that could be properly operated and maintained with the current staffing and funding available.
In the case of Kinzua Beach — which has been identified as a signature site — Sardina said the site is his top priority for the Bradford district, noting forest officials will work with partners and private businesses to fully reinvigorate the site for the future.
Among the list of ailments at the facility includes a no longer functional wastewater system and is beyond repair financially, the report indicates. Plans call for removing the wastewater system and to consider connecting it to the Wolf Run Marina system, along with removing the main buildings at the site.
Sardina said forest officials would like to see the site transformed into a new facility by the fifth year of the recreation facilities plan, along with a change in operator.
The nearby Kinzua Point Information Center is the second highest priority, officials said, adding its current condition doesn’t justify the expenses needed to remodel the facility.
Meanwhile, the Kiasutha Recreation Area is slated for closure pending completion of site improvements and until the U.S. Forest Service no longer maintains and operates water and sewage systems, according to Sardina’s report.
Forest officials are looking to private business partners to operate and maintain the site in the future.
The report indicates there won’t be any change to such sites as Elijah Run Boat Launch, Kinzua Wolf Run Marina, Rocky Gap Trailhead and the Webs Ferry Boat Launch. Other sites will face a change of operator — Hearts Content Recreation Area, Morrison Boat Launch Campground, Red Bridge Recreation Area and the Willow Bay Recreation Area.
“The public’s desires and demands are always changing,” Mohney said. “We need to make sure we are focusing on the right recreational opportunities to meet the demand.”
Sardina believes the focus needs to turn to highly developed recreation sites on the Allegheny Reservoir along with developed and dispersed recreation facilities along the Allegheny River, Kinzua Creek, Tionesta Creek and other popular streams as part of an effort to find a “niche” for recreation on the forest.
“I believe the focus on facilities around the reservoir are closely in line with the preferences of the local communities associated with the ANF, as well as people that visit the ANF from outside the local communities,” Sardina said.
Forest officials said they are open to additional development along the reservoir, including lodges, cabins, restaurants, boat launches, beaches, communications technologies, interpretive sites, observation sites and other attractions.
However, those facilities will need to be designed, built and operated by private businesses or through partnerships.
Word of the problems surrounding the recreation systems is just one of the major issues surrounding the management of the forest. Also on the table is a fight over oil and gas drilling and the darkening outlook over the fate of the Secure Rural Schools and Self-Determination Act, which provides revenue to local municipalities and school districts in the forest from timber receipts.
U.S. Rep. John Peterson’s, R-Pa., Communications Director Patrick Creighton said the congressman will continue to fight for forest issues.
“We think it’s a tragedy these district rangers are having to make these recommendations on behalf of the federal government,” Creighton said. “These directives are coming right from Washington. The regional forester has taken the money out of the Eastern Forest and sent it out west.
“The Allegheny National Forest shouldn’t be slighted because of some bureaucracy in Washington. The forest is not only an area of recreation, but an economic engine for northwestern Pennsylvania.”
While the Allegheny is one of the only profitable forests in the entire national forest system, the timber receipts have steadily declined over the past few years, with this year’s expectation being 20 million board feet.
“If the ANF were able to retain those forest receipts instead of sending them to the U.S. Treasury, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Creighton said. “The congressman won’t let this go down easily and will continue to fight for the ANF’s fair share.
“We all agree that folks have to tighten their belts, but the ANF, as profitable as it is — for every dollar going in, they get five dollars going out — shouldn’t be forced to cut services.”
Meanwhile, campers and site management companies aren’t pleased with the proposed decommissioning of the sites.
Ron and Ginny Ward, area supervisors with the Cradle of Forestry-Pennsylvania, which has an office at Kiasutha on the forest, said Tuesday it would be a shame if the sites are decommissioned.
“We get people that come in here and tell us ‘they raised their children here and bring their grandchildren back to enjoy it,’” Ginny Ward said. “Maybe if they (Forest Service) get enough people to lobby Congress for some funding, these areas might be able to be saved. I don’t think people are aware of the problems they (Forest Service officials) are facing.”
Ron Ward said their group has headquarters in North Carolina and oversees numerous recreation sites and campgrounds on the forest, including Kiasutha, Twin Lakes and Kinzua Beach, among others.
“We are volunteers and a non-profit and are strictly here for the people of the ANF,” Ron Ward said. “We try to work hand and glove with the Forest Service on repairs (to the sites). We are getting ready to pressure clean all the buildings, but if they are going to tear them down, why do it?”
Ron Ward said individuals from their headquarters, along with those on the local level, will be meeting with Forest Service officials in the coming days to discuss the situation.
“Preserve our forest,” Ginny Ward said, noting she and her husband live in Florida. “You have a beautiful resource here and don’t let it go.”
Mohney said the recreation facility analysis process has to be completed by the end of the year, adding a 30-day comment period is currently ongoing. The deadline to make comments is July 28. Comments can be made in writing to the Bradford District Ranger Station by mail or through the forest Web site.
“We want to hear from the people that recreate here and try to get them to understand the reasoning behind these moves,” Mohney said. “We welcome their comments and suggestions.”
Marienville Ranger District to be affected by proposed recreational cuts
The three developed campgrounds in the Marienville Ranger District of the Allegheny National Forest all operate well below capacity during the summer months, prompting an uncertain future for the facilities.
According to Marienville District Ranger Robert Fallon’s white paper on Recreation Facilities Analysis action recommendations, fewer visitors come to the sites — Twin Lakes, Beaver Meadows and Loleta — between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The Marienville District offers more motorized trails and dispersed camping — with visitors coming from as far away as Pittsburgh, Butler, Erie and parts of Ohio — than its counterpart, the Bradford Ranger District, which features more developed recreation.
“The district rangers already make difficult choices on where to allocate our limited resources, and this has resulted in deferring maintenance required to keep facilities up to standard, reducing season and hours of operation and/or level of service, and fewer personnel on the ground,” Fallon said.
Similar to the recommendations laid out by Bradford District Ranger Anthony Scardina, Fallon provided three tenets to guide management of the current resources — public health and safety, clean facilities and service to and contact with the recreating public.
The recommendations were made as part of forest officials’ plan to craft a Recreation Facility Analysis, which will help align recreation funding with site usage. Similar analysis is ongoing on forests across the country.
Fallon wrote forest officials are reaching a point where deferred maintenance on the facilities is compromising the U.S. Forest Service’s ability to meet its goals consistently across the forest.
“This is not meant to be a bureaucratic plea for more public dollars — the recreation budget for the ANF has been relatively stable for the past ten years — but costs have increased and the buying power of that budget has been reduced appreciably,” Fallon said, adding forest officials are working with less funding now than in previous years.
The situation has reached such a point, Fallon writes, that the choices for the future include, among others, keep spreading a thinner layer of budget over the facilities currently in place, at least until the deferred maintenance reaches a point where the Forest Service would have to close some of the facilities; proactively close some facilities at key locations; and/or seek to develop private-public partnerships to enhance the ability to operate and maintain those key locations.
At the Twin Lakes Campground and Recreation Area, Fallon suggests decommissioning the water and wastewater systems and removing associated buildings due to high operations and maintenance and deferred maintenance costs.
Officials said the site is popular with residents in Kane and Wilcox, particularly for fishing and swimming in the lake. However, its use might have diminished, according to Fallon, due to the implementation of a day use fee.
“Reducing the services available at this site affects convenience, but retains the elements that make this site attractive to local and non-local alike, and could be grounds to drop the (day use) fee,” Fallon said, adding the campground may hold less appeal for visitors because of the reduced services.
According to Fallon, full-service camping is available north of Kane at Red Bridge Campground and through local private vendors near Sheffield and Lantz Corners.
Twin Lakes averaged 44 percent of capacity between 2003-06, Fallon said, noting the site ranks fourth highest occupancy of the full service campgrounds on the forest, behind Buckaloons, Dewdrop and Kiasutha.
Fallon said given the attraction of the Allegheny Reservoir as a more likely location for full-service campgrounds, Twin Lakes became a candidate for a reduction in services.
The Allegheny Reservoir is the focus of Sardina’s recommendations for the Bradford District in an effort to find a “niche” for recreation on the forest.
Meanwhile, Fallon said Loleta and Beaver Meadows are in close proximity to each other near Marienville. Fallon said figures indicate that even in July — the busiest month of the season — all the campers using both sites could stay in the Loleta campground, and it would still only account for about 70 percent of capacity.
“This has been the trend for several years, and would seem to indicate that one Forest Service campground in the vicinity of Marienville can more than meet the demand,” Fallon said, adding with its features, Loleta provides the more compelling case for retention.
In regards to Beaver Meadows, Fallon recommends closing and decommissioning the campground and to recycle the toilet buildings and gravel to other recreation areas. The site would also maintain the day use recreation area, including the parking lot, toilet building, picnic tables and boat launch.
For Loleta, Fallon recommends decommissioning the drinking water and wastewater treatment systems, adding camping would be relatively unchanged.
The removal of the wastewater and water systems at Twin Lakes and Loleta may occur over a longer time period, between four and five years.
Officials said the trend for visitors seems to be switching to dispersed camping, particular near water sources. In the Marienville District, that includes the West and East Branches of Tionesta Creek, Spring Creek, Salmon Creek, Millstone Creek, Big Mill Creek, Bear Creek and Bloody Run.
“These trends in dispersed and developed camping indicate a need for fewer developed sites offering fewer services, and greater emphasis on managing dispersed camping,” Fallon writes in the white paper. “To effect the latter, this may mean restricting dispersed camping along streams to designated sites only, and then improving the access and erosion controls on those sites so that camping does not continue to diminish the water quality that draws the campers in the first place.”
Officials are also looking at continuing to assess and move forward with steps to manage dispersed recreation along the Clarion River; no such plans are under way for enhanced recreation management along the Allegheny River, according to the white paper. However, officials will assess the need for such activity in the future and will instead focus more on the river’s health.
Fallon said that action may also mean more Forest Service patrols to enforce the forest rules.
Other recreation and campground sites in the district would see either no change — including the various Timberline all-terrain vehicle trails — or relatively minor changes.
The white papers can be viewed on the Allegheny National Forest Web page under Items of Interest.
 printer friendly version
 e-mail this story
Reader Comments
There are No comments posted. comments to this story.
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of bradfordera.com.
Submit a Comment
We encourage your feedback and dialog, all comments will be reviewed by our Web staff before appearing on the Web site.
|
