News

Ag chief seeks $5 million for DuPont State Forest

By Bill Moss, Published: May 9, 2016

The state’s top agriculture official has submitted a wish list of $5 million for new personnel and capital improvements at DuPont State Recreational Forest in the wake of its scrapped plan to charge admission fees at the popular destination.

Last month, after lawmakers shot down a proposal by State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler to impose admission fees at DuPont, state Rep. Chuck McGrady suggested that the Agriculture Department should make a budget request for the needs that it proposed to cover with the fee schedule.
The department rolled out a fee schedule of $6 to $12 per car depending on the day and parking lot. The forest service calculated the cost at $2.31 per person based on average car occupancy and said that was in line with other fees charged by the U.S. Forest Service, private recreation areas and state parks.
“Charging fees is definitely a big initiative and it’s not going to be easy,” DuPont Forest Supervisor Jason Guidry told the Friends of the Forest on April 19. “But our problems are not easy. We have big needs, in my opinion millions of dollars worth over time.”
Those needs now have a pricetag.
Troxler submitted list that includes $1.5 million to pay for 14 additional positions at the forest plus other operating expenses, equipment and vehicles. Of the total, $980,604 would be a recurring annual expense for positions and operations, said Brian Long, public affairs director of the Agriculture Department. In addition, the department identified $3.5 million in capital needs, including restrooms, parking lot improvements and utility improvements.
“You’re talking about a popular place,” Long said. The number of rangers and other personnel for the number of visitors “is behind the curve. Certainly it appears that the number of visitors is far exceeding our staff capacity right now.”
The crowds have grown so large that they’re forcing the forest to shut down some of the popular attractions that draw people from far and wide. The 2,200-acre forest straddling the Henderson and Transylvania county line drew 683,000 visitors last year, nearly seven times the number that visited when it first opened in 2002. Just when the rush of popularity from the hit movie “Hunger Games” was dying down, a new nature fad popped up. Last spring, crowds seeking a look at the rare blue ghost fireflies overwhelmed forest trails, damaging the habitat that harbored the blue-glowing critters. The forest service announced last month that it was closing overused trails to prevent further damage.
Although the Friends of the Dupont Forest is officially on record in favor of the fee schedule, not all members see that as a positive precedent. The fees would almost surely go up, would be next to impossible to enforce and would likely cut visitation, said Dick Thompson, a Friends of the Forest member who opposes them.
State Rep. Chris Whitmire vows to oppose any fee schedule that does not keep free admission for local residents.
“I expressed certain concerns including the expectation that residents of Transylvania and Henderson County should be exempted from entry fees since their property taxes provide multiple essential services in the form of law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire department response, etc. and are already paying their fair share,” Whitmire said in a newsletter last week. “Furthermore, with some exceptions, the state’s long standing general philosophy of public use of state land is its residents have already paid for the property and should not be charged an entry fee to use what they already own.”
When he heard about the fee proposal on April 13, “I emphatically communicated that the fee structure was problematic and the justifications used to support it included several flaws, and that if implemented, I would seek legislation to nullify its authorization,” Whitmire said. “During this time, I continued to keep area legislators in the loop and given the sense of urgency, they weighed in promptly with the Commissioner of Agriculture, who in turn, withdrew the fee proposal from the Board of Agriculture’s agenda. For this, I commend the Commissioner for ‘taking pause.’”
Long said other ideas about state revenue — including whether the Legislature should make DuPont eligible for state Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grants — raise broader questions that are worth exploring.
“We would be interested in learning more about that,” he said. “Right now what we do know is we’ve been asked to provide what do we see as key resources we need for DuPont. We’re looking forward to working with Rep. McGrady and Sen. Apodaca to try to address those needs.”
Long noted that the Agriculture Department had submitted the fee schedule after the General Assembly authorized agencies to develop “dynamic pricing” to raise revenue for operations and improvements.
“It’s still something that we’re interested in in terms of looking long term for DuPont,” he said. As for the $5 million budget request, “These are the positions we feel are necessary,” he added. “When you submit a request like this you understand that what you request and what you get can be two different things.”