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Judge: Recreation fees justified for Mt. Lemmon visitors

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Visitors to Mount Lemmon will continue to be charged a $5 recreation fee after a federal judge ruled last week that the fee is justified by the amount of improvements in the area.

The fee has been in question since September 2005, after Tucsonan Christine Wallace received two $30 tickets for failing to pay the fee when she parked and then hiked on parts of Mount Lemmon.

Federal law allows the U.S. Forest Service to issue a recreation fee if an area has designated parking, permanent restrooms, trash bins, an interpretive sign or kiosk, picnic tables and security officers.

Wallace, a legal secretary, had argued that the fee shouldn't apply to uses of undeveloped areas of the mountain, such as picnicking along a road or a trail, parking along a road or camping outside a developed campground.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge John M. Roll said there is no limit on the size of an area the U.S. Forest Service can classify as a "HIRA" — which stands for "high-impact recreation area" — as long as it meets the requirements of federal law. Thus, a recreation area can include developed and undeveloped sections.

Federal Magistrate Charles Pyle upheld Wallace's position last September, dismissing her tickets while also putting the recreation fee in limbo.

Roll, however, dismissed Pyle's ruling as impractical.

"Under defendant's interpretation, Mount Lemmon HIRA patrons would be able to avoid paying a recreation fee for the nearby services by parking in undesignated areas, e.g., the side of the winding mountainous road that leads up through Mount Lemmon," he wrote. "This would leave the (Forest) Service with no option but to constantly patrol every area that provides amenities."

While Roll acknowledged that much of the mountain has no improvements, "there are many sites within the HIRA that have considerable amenities which are provided as a result of substantial federal investments."

The user fee requires visitors driving up the Catalina Highway to pay either $5 per day or $20 for an annual pass if they park at picnic areas or hike on trails or any other part of the national forest along the road.

There are exceptions. Drivers don't have to pay if they don't stop along the road. They also don't have to pay if they stop at private cabins, at businesses in the mountain village of Summerhaven, or at scenic overlooks. Those who ride bicycles or horses up the mountain also are exempt from the fee.

Wallace said she was surprised by the ruling and would file a motion for Roll to reconsider. She said she is prepared to file an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Congress enacted this law and put certain language in it, which limited the Forest Service as to where they can collect fees," she said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

A user fee has been collected on Mount Lemmon since 1997, and Wallace, an avid hiker, paid it through about 2002. After listening to guest speakers at her church, she said, she became opposed to the fee.

"It should be funded by our tax dollars," she said regarding improvements in the forest.

With Roll's ruling, her two $30 tickets were reinstated. Wallace said she is prepared to go to trial over them, but she wasn't sure how their status would be affected by her plans to file a motion to reconsider and possibly to file an appeal.

In the Tucson region, the Forest Service also charges fees at Sabino and Madera canyons.

Although he said he could not comment on the ruling, Larry Raley, district ranger for the Santa Catalina Ranger District, said the fees generate between $600,000 and $800,000 a year for Sabino Canyon and Mount Lemmon. Although the status of the fees has been in limbo, Raley said no one else has refused to pay them.