Forest jobs and cabin fee bills pass key committee
Two bills dealing with Forest Service lands backed by Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus recently cleared a key Senate committee and will head for the full Senate.
The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Dec. 19 with bipartisan support. The bill creates new wilderness in Montana but also mandates logging on about 100,000 acres of timberland.
About 564,000 acres of wilderness would be established in the Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest and adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands, and an additional 30,000 acres of wilderness would be established at Roderick Mountain on the Kootenai National Forest.
The bill also would add 83,000 acres of wilderness to the Bob Marshall and Mission Mountain wilderness areas. About 10,000 acres of wilderness that would have been located in the Pioneer Mountains was dropped from the bill.
According to Tester, the bill is intended to create jobs by putting Montanans to work in the woods and reduce the threat of wildfire by treating forests and removing hazardous fuels. It is also intended to support Montana’s $6 billion outdoor economy.
Since introducing the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act in 2009, Tester has traveled around Montana and met with local stakeholders to strengthen his bill.
“This is great news for Montana jobs, our economy and the treasured places we want to preserve for our kids and granddads,” Tester said. “It’s also an historic day for compromise. The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act is the result of folks from all over the political spectrum coming together to hammer out a deal that moves everyone forward. This is a good day for Montana.”
The Cabin Fee Bill also passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, with unanimous bipartisan support. Seven senators co-sponsored the bill, which is aimed at making fees for cabins on Forest Service land more affordable and predictable.
Annual fees for the 14,000 cabins on national forest lands across the U.S. skyrocketed in the 1990s because the fee was based on market values and the value of recreation land soared. In one often cited case, a lot was appraised at $660,000, so the annual cabin fee went to $33,000 per year.
Congress passed the Cabin User Fee Fairness Act in 2000 to address the problem. The goal of the act was to address the “inconsistency” of appraisal procedures, but the act was not implemented until 2009.
Recognizing that many Western families have owned cabins on leased Forest Service land for generations but have been forced to abandon the cabins because of the high fees, Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus and five other senators introduced the Cabin Fee Act of 2013 on July 23.
The act, which is also supported by the Forest Service, assigns annual user fees according to an 11-tier “cabin value” system, ranging from $500 to $5,500.
“Forest Service cabins provide an affordable place to enjoy Montana’s outdoors,” Tester said. “This bill will make sure that cabins remain affordable so Montana families can continue to hunt, fish and recreate on the same land they have for generations.”
Tester recently received an award from the National Forest Homeowners association for of his work to reduce cabin fee increases.