04/10/08

None of us like to think about the price of things going up but we can't really avoid it. The forest service wants to raise overnight user fees for one campground in the South Hills.

Lower Penstemon Campground has ten camp sites just north of Magic Mountain. The U.S. Forest Service says the Rock Creek Corridor is one of the most popular places for local residents to beat the summer heat in the Sawtooth National Forest.

Recreation and Natural Resource Officer Terry Clark says, "Trying to bring the fee at that site, six dollars, into line with the other campground fees that are in that area. Most of them are eight dollars a night, and that would bring it up to that same level. We'll be able to collect about a thousand dollars more a year."

Clark says if the two-dollar fee increase is approved, the money raised would help keep the Lower Penstemon camp site clean and the toilets pumped out, as well.

Clark says, "When we collect information is between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which is when we're open and when we charge the fee. We have about 6000 people a year that use that site."

Clark says the Twin Falls District's Recreation Resource Advisory Subcommittee seems to approve of the proposed fee increase. But it has one more hurdle to get over before it officially goes into effect on Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial beginning of the summer camping season.

Clark says, "These guys make a recommendation to the regional forester, and then he makes a final decision."

Jay Michaels, KMVT News.