PUBLIC LANDS: House panel to mark up measure setting cabin fees, leaving aside contentious bills
Phil Taylor and Jessica Estepa, E&E reporters
E&E: Tuesday, June 17, 2014
The House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday will mark up a bill to simplify fees for owning cabins on national forestlands along with several other public lands and water bills.
But noticeably absent is a sweeping bill by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) to overturn the Forest Service's travel management rule and another two bills by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) to address concerns surrounding federal management of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.
Walden's and Smith's bills were among eight measures considered a week ago by the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation. Four of those measures, which involve national parks and wild and scenic rivers, are on Thursday's docket.
A committee spokesman did not say whether the bills would be taken up at a later date.
The Walden bill drew significant opposition from environmental groups and the Obama administration, which last week warned it could impair public safety, increase costs for taxpayers and potentially harm the environment (E&E Daily, June 11).
Walden said H.R. 4272 was a response to the Forest Service's decision to close 4,000 miles of roads on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in 2012, a decision he called "an assault on good process and rural traditions." The bill was also backed by Union County Commissioner Steve McClure, who called the 2012 plan "a study in the wrong way to do" travel planning.
The bill would both prohibit the agency from implementing the nationwide 2005 travel management rule, which requires regulation of off-highway vehicles, and require county commissioners to sign off on changes to OHV access.
It is yet to be endorsed by some key off-highway vehicle groups.
One prominent bill on Thursday's docket by committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is known as the "Cabin Fee Act of 2014." The bill is the latest effort by the congressman to simplify fees assessed to cabin owners on national forestlands. While Hastings has already introduced similar legislation this Congress, H.R. 1159, that passed the committee last year, this new measure specifies that it would apply to fees for certain units in the National Forest System.
