The Brookings City Council has voted unanimously and Mayor Jake Pieper has penned a letter to the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Service to request a two-year delay in the implementation of new recreational use fees proposed for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
In the letter, addressed to our U.S. Senators Merkley and Wyden, Congressman DeFazio, Governor Kate Brown, and other government officials, Mayor Pieper acknowledges that the U.S. Forest service first posted notice of the new fees in July and August 2017, which was at the height of the Chetco Bar Fire.
Mayor Pieper highlights in the letter the fact that the Chetco Bar Fire devastated 191,000 acres of forestland and continues to disrupt recreational use with closures of areas in the National Forest and Wilderness.
Mayor Pieper goes on to say that the City recognizes the importance of periodically increasing user fees to sustain the maintenance of recreational facilities and services, the proposed fee increase is untimely as these fees would go into effect just as the area is trying to attract recreational visitors back to Brookings and adjacent forest lands. Mayor Jake Pieper goes on to request on behalf of the City of Brookings that the new fee scheduled not be implemented for the RVSNF until at least 2020.
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