New fees proposed by the Bureau of Land Management’s Uncompahgre Field Office mean visitors may have to pay to camp and recreate at select campgrounds and day-use sites in the area, including the Ridgway Area Trails.

A draft recreation business plan released in mid-August, outlines a fee structure which would raise revenue to pay for operational costs as the population of the Western Slope grows, increasing traffic to the recreation areas.

The proposal specifies nine day-use sites that would charge $4 per vehicle, including the Ridgway Area Trails in Ouray County.

Located off of County Road 10, the Ridgway Area Trails trail system is collaboratively built and maintained by the BLM and the RAT chapter of the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA), a nonprofit that advocates for mountain bike trails. At completion of an expansion project that began this summer, the recreation area will feature 30 miles of connected multi-use trails. The trails draw more than 30,000 users each year during the seven-month period they’re open, according to COPMOBA.

The COPMOBA RAT chapter declined to comment for this story. A representative of COPMOBA said the agency plans to submit a formal comment to the BLM later this week.

Other sites with proposed $4 fees are Lower Beaver, Specie Creek, Caddis Flats and Upper Beaver off the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic Byway along Colorado Highway 145; Buzzard Gulch and Lower Spring Creek west of Montrose; Rim Road northwest of Montrose and a proposed site in the Paradox Valley south of Naturita.

Eight overnight campgrounds will charge $12 per night: sites at Lower Beaver and Caddis Flats, Fall Creek near Telluride, Ledges Cottonwood and Ledges Rockhouse along the San Miguel River and proposed campgrounds in Nucla, Electric Hills Rim by Montrose and the Paradox Valley site.

The draft also outlines the option of a $20-per-year pass for all selected day-use sites.

This is the first time the Uncompahgre Field Office has proposed imposing fees.

Uncompahgre Field Office Field Manager Dan Ben-Horin said the agency is resorting to a fee structure because they have been unable to secure more funding from Congress.

“I feel like we have been asking for [more money for] over a decade now,” Ben-Horin said.

A first iteration of the plan came before the BLM Southwest Colorado Recreation Resource Advisory Council in 2022, Horin said. Since then the field office staff has been ironing out details such as setting prices and selecting the proposed camping and recreation sites.

The move to a fee structure is in line with what other recreation and camping sites across the Western Slope have done in the past 10 years, Ben-Horin said. And the price point of $12 per night is cheaper than comparable options, he said.

The sites were chosen because they already have select amenities — like bathrooms, picnic tables and fire rings — that make them eligible to charge fees, according to the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act, Ben-Horin said. Most of the field office’s camping and recreation space will remain free, he said.

Fee revenue would help fund and maintain such amenities and natural resource protection projects and increased park ranger and law enforcement capacity to manage a growing population, and therefore, rising visitation numbers.

The office currently has only one law enforcement office to cover its 800,000 acres, Ben-Horin said.

More staff, sites and amenities will help manage and prevent further impact on the land, such as visitors parking, camping and leaving human waste in undesignated areas.

Specifically, San Miguel River sites and non-motorized trailheads lack sufficient park ranger capacity, according to the draft document. Fees would allow for dedicated rangers and paid campground hosts to oversee the areas.

Fees would most likely be collected by a pay kiosk rather than a ranger, Ben-Horin said.

The BLM estimates it costs about $309,000 to operate these sites over a five-year period, with an additional projected $161,773 for increased staff and services outlined above.

Based on average visitation rates between fiscal year 2019 and 2023, the BLM estimates that if everyone who used these sites paid the fees, the agency would be able to cover the costs to maintain them and generate a profit of $249,768 in a year.

That additional revenue could then help establish new recreation sites – specifically to meet a demand for more non-motorized trail systems – and offset other BLM recreation costs in the state, according to the draft document.

The Uncompahgre Field Office is accepting public comment on the draft through Sept. 16 via the email address LM_CO_ UFO_Recreation@BLM.gov with the subject line, “Proposed Business Plan.” The office is also accepting mailed comments at this address: BLM Uncompahgre Field Office, Attn: Proposed Business Plan, 2465 S Townsend Ave, Montrose, CO 81401.

Following the public comment period, the Uncompahgre Field Office will submit the plan to the BLM Southwest Colorado Recreation Resource Advisory Council for formal review ahead of implementation. Ben-Horin said that the plan would roll out at earliest in spring 2025.

Lia Salvatierra is a journalist with Report for America, a service program that helps boost underserved areas with more reporting resources.