Allegheny National Forest officials are looking at
decommissioning several recreational facilities on the forest due
to limited federal funding and the ongoing cost of operating and
maintaining the sites on both the Bradford and Marienville ranger
districts.

The U.S. Forest Service will now gauge interest in having
private concessionaires run some of the sites with more of a focus
being turned to developing sites around the Kinzua Reservoir.

Among those facilities on the proposed chopping block – Kinzua
Beach and the Tracy Ridge Recreation Area in the Bradford district
and the Twin Lakes Campground and Recreation Area on the
Marienville district, according to district ranger white
papers.

The recommendations were made as part of forest officials’ plan
to craft a Recreation Facility Analysis, which will help align
recreation funding with site usage. Similar analysis is ongoing on
forests across the nation.

“Difficult choices had to be made on how and where to reduce and
eliminate services or facilities to ensure that our financial
checkbook for recreation facilities is in balance,” Bradford
District Ranger Anthony Scardina said. “These choices will cause
internal and external conflicts, but it is my job as a leader and
manager to make choices that are in the best interest of the
federal government and the American taxpayer.

“Futhermore, I believe these choices will allow us to focus more
dollars on priority sites and help ensure we have better maintained
facilities and the opportunity to improve services in the future
that will meet the wants and needs of our visitors.”

Forest officials have reportedly indicated that if all the
proposals were implemented, there would be an expected savings of
,2.5 million for deferred maintenance, ,109,000 in annual savings
on operating costs, ,325,000 in maintenance, and ,436,000 in
managing parking areas.

All told, the Forest Service – which only receives about
,220,000 a year from the federal government to maintain the sites –
hopes to reportedly trim a total of ,3.4 million in deferred or
operating costs as a result of the proposed moves.

A majority of the Forest Service recreation site infrastructure
was built in the 1960s, and with current funding, national forests
are able to maintain about 25 percent of recreation facilities to
modern standards, including water systems increasingly failing to
meet quality standards.

According to forest spokeswoman Kathy Mohney, the Recreation
Facility Analysis will be used to develop a five-year program of
work to better manage and improve the quality of the recreation
sites.

“This allows us to know what running a recreation site costs,
the relative importance of that site and its condition,” Mohney
said. “This is an ongoing process. We want to provide healthy, safe
and well maintained recreation opportunities.”

According to the white papers for the Bradford district, among
the recreation facilities that are slated for full decommissioning
are: Dunkle Corners, Roper Hollow Boat Launch, Sugar Bay Dispersed
Area, Tidioute Overlook, Timbernoodle Flats Trailhead and the Tracy
Ridge Recreation Area.

Meanwhile, those up for partial decommissioning are: Dewdrop
Recreation Area, Kinzua Beach, Kinzua Point Information Center and
the Longhouse Dispersed Site.

“With limited finances for operations and maintenance and
deferred maintenance for existing facilities, priorities have to be
clearly identified and difficult choices have to be made,” Sardina
said. “The Bradford Ranger District offers many great recreational
opportunities and it would be my preference to continue to provide
them all at a high level of service.

“However, it is likely that we will continue to have flat or
reduced budgets to provide those services.”

Sardina said his focus for the Bradford district is to reduce
sites in close vicinity that provide similar services, make
reductions where they would have a real effect on reducing
maintenance costs, to retain as many facilities as possible around
the Allegheny Reservoir, reduce services or eliminate sites with
severely low occupancy levels and reduce the number of wastewater
facilities to a level that could be properly operated and
maintained with the current staffing and funding available.

In the case of Kinzua Beach – which has been identified as a
signature site – Sardina said the site is his top priority for the
Bradford district, noting forest officials will work with partners
and private businesses to fully reinvigorate the site for the
future.

Among the list of ailments at the facility includes a no longer
functional wastewater system and is beyond repair financially, the
report indicates. Plans call for removing the wastewater system and
to consider connecting it to the Wolf Run Marina system, along with
removing the main buildings at the site.

Sardina said forest officials would like to see the site
transformed into a new facility by the fifth year of the recreation
facilities plan, along with a change in operator.

The nearby Kinzua Point Information Center is the second highest
priority, officials said, adding its current condition doesn’t
justify the expenses needed to remodel the facility.

Meanwhile, the Kiasutha Recreation Area is slated for closure
pending completion of site improvements and until the U.S. Forest
Service no longer maintains and operates water and sewage systems,
according to Sardina’s report.

Forest officials are looking to private business partners to
operate and maintain the site in the future.

The report indicates there won’t be any change to such sites as
Elijah Run Boat Launch, Kinzua Wolf Run Marina, Rocky Gap Trailhead
and the Webs Ferry Boat Launch. Other sites will face a change of
operator – Hearts Content Recreation Area, Morrison Boat Launch
Campground, Red Bridge Recreation Area and the Willow Bay
Recreation Area.

“The public’s desires and demands are always changing,” Mohney
said. “We need to make sure we are focusing on the right
recreational opportunities to meet the demand.”

Sardina believes the focus needs to turn to highly developed
recreation sites on the Allegheny Reservoir along with developed
and dispersed recreation facilities along the Allegheny River,
Kinzua Creek, Tionesta Creek and other popular streams as part of
an effort to find a “niche” for recreation on the forest.

“I believe the focus on facilities around the reservoir are
closely in line with the preferences of the local communities
associated with the ANF, as well as people that visit the ANF from
outside the local communities,” Sardina said.

Forest officials said they are open to additional development
along the reservoir, including lodges, cabins, restaurants, boat
launches, beaches, communications technologies, interpretive sites,
observation sites and other attractions.

However, those facilities will need to be designed, built and
operated by private businesses or through partnerships.

Word of the problems surrounding the recreation systems is just
one of the major issues surrounding the management of the forest.
Also on the table is a fight over oil and gas drilling and the
darkening outlook over the fate of the Secure Rural Schools and
Self-Determination Act, which provides revenue to local
municipalities and school districts in the forest from timber
receipts.

U.S. Rep. John Peterson’s, R-Pa., Communications Director
Patrick Creighton said the congressman will continue to fight for
forest issues.

“We think it’s a tragedy these district rangers are having to
make these recommendations on behalf of the federal government,”
Creighton said. “These directives are coming right from Washington.
The regional forester has taken the money out of the Eastern Forest
and sent it out west.

“The Allegheny National Forest shouldn’t be slighted because of
some bureaucracy in Washington. The forest is not only an area of
recreation, but an economic engine for northwestern
Pennsylvania.”

While the Allegheny is one of the only profitable forests in the
entire national forest system, the timber receipts have steadily
declined over the past few years, with this year’s expectation
being 20 million board feet.

“If the ANF were able to retain those forest receipts instead of
sending them to the U.S. Treasury, we wouldn’t be in this
situation,” Creighton said. “The congressman won’t let this go down
easily and will continue to fight for the ANF’s fair share.

“We all agree that folks have to tighten their belts, but the
ANF, as profitable as it is – for every dollar going in, they get
five dollars going out – shouldn’t be forced to cut services.”

Meanwhile, campers and site management companies aren’t pleased
with the proposed decommissioning of the sites.

Ron and Ginny Ward, area supervisors with the Cradle of
Forestry-Pennsylvania, which has an office at Kiasutha on the
forest, said Tuesday it would be a shame if the sites are
decommissioned.

“We get people that come in here and tell us ‘they raised their
children here and bring their grandchildren back to enjoy it,'”
Ginny Ward said. “Maybe if they (Forest Service) get enough people
to lobby Congress for some funding, these areas might be able to be
saved. I don’t think people are aware of the problems they (Forest
Service officials) are facing.”

Ron Ward said their group has headquarters in North Carolina and
oversees numerous recreation sites and campgrounds on the forest,
including Kiasutha, Twin Lakes and Kinzua Beach, among others.

“We are volunteers and a non-profit and are strictly here for
the people of the ANF,” Ron Ward said. “We try to work hand and
glove with the Forest Service on repairs (to the sites). We are
getting ready to pressure clean all the buildings, but if they are
going to tear them down, why do it?”

Ron Ward said individuals from their headquarters, along with
those on the local level, will be meeting with Forest Service
officials in the coming days to discuss the situation.

“Preserve our forest,” Ginny Ward said, noting she and her
husband live in Florida. “You have a beautiful resource here and
don’t let it go.”

Mohney said the recreation facility analysis process has to be
completed by the end of the year, adding a 30-day comment period is
currently ongoing. The deadline to make comments is July 28.
Comments can be made in writing to the Bradford District Ranger
Station by mail or through the forest Web site.

“We want to hear from the people that recreate here and try to
get them to understand the reasoning behind these moves,” Mohney
said. “We welcome their comments and suggestions.”

Marienville Ranger District to be affected by proposed
recreational cuts

The three developed campgrounds in the Marienville Ranger
District of the Allegheny National Forest all operate well below
capacity during the summer months, prompting an uncertain future
for the facilities.

According to Marienville District Ranger Robert Fallon’s white
paper on Recreation Facilities Analysis action recommendations,
fewer visitors come to the sites – Twin Lakes, Beaver Meadows and
Loleta – between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The Marienville District offers more motorized trails and
dispersed camping – with visitors coming from as far away as
Pittsburgh, Butler, Erie and parts of Ohio – than its counterpart,
the Bradford Ranger District, which features more developed
recreation.

“The district rangers already make difficult choices on where to
allocate our limited resources, and this has resulted in deferring
maintenance required to keep facilities up to standard, reducing
season and hours of operation and/or level of service, and fewer
personnel on the ground,” Fallon said.

Similar to the recommendations laid out by Bradford District
Ranger Anthony Scardina, Fallon provided three tenets to guide
management of the current resources – public health and safety,
clean facilities and service to and contact with the recreating
public.

The recommendations were made as part of forest officials’ plan
to craft a Recreation Facility Analysis, which will help align
recreation funding with site usage. Similar analysis is ongoing on
forests across the country.

Fallon wrote forest officials are reaching a point where
deferred maintenance on the facilities is compromising the U.S.
Forest Service’s ability to meet its goals consistently across the
forest.

“This is not meant to be a bureaucratic plea for more public
dollars – the recreation budget for the ANF has been relatively
stable for the past ten years – but costs have increased and the
buying power of that budget has been reduced appreciably,” Fallon
said, adding forest officials are working with less funding now
than in previous years.

The situation has reached such a point, Fallon writes, that the
choices for the future include, among others, keep spreading a
thinner layer of budget over the facilities currently in place, at
least until the deferred maintenance reaches a point where the
Forest Service would have to close some of the facilities;
proactively close some facilities at key locations; and/or seek to
develop private-public partnerships to enhance the ability to
operate and maintain those key locations.

At the Twin Lakes Campground and Recreation Area, Fallon
suggests decommissioning the water and wastewater systems and
removing associated buildings due to high operations and
maintenance and deferred maintenance costs.

Officials said the site is popular with residents in Kane and
Wilcox, particularly for fishing and swimming in the lake. However,
its use might have diminished, according to Fallon, due to the
implementation of a day use fee.

“Reducing the services available at this site affects
convenience, but retains the elements that make this site
attractive to local and non-local alike, and could be grounds to
drop the (day use) fee,” Fallon said, adding the campground may
hold less appeal for visitors because of the reduced services.

According to Fallon, full-service camping is available north of
Kane at Red Bridge Campground and through local private vendors
near Sheffield and Lantz Corners.

Twin Lakes averaged 44 percent of capacity between 2003-06,
Fallon said, noting the site ranks fourth highest occupancy of the
full service campgrounds on the forest, behind Buckaloons, Dewdrop
and Kiasutha.

Fallon said given the attraction of the Allegheny Reservoir as a
more likely location for full-service campgrounds, Twin Lakes
became a candidate for a reduction in services.

The Allegheny Reservoir is the focus of Sardina’s
recommendations for the Bradford District in an effort to find a
“niche” for recreation on the forest.

Meanwhile, Fallon said Loleta and Beaver Meadows are in close
proximity to each other near Marienville. Fallon said figures
indicate that even in July – the busiest month of the season – all
the campers using both sites could stay in the Loleta campground,
and it would still only account for about 70 percent of
capacity.

“This has been the trend for several years, and would seem to
indicate that one Forest Service campground in the vicinity of
Marienville can more than meet the demand,” Fallon said, adding
with its features, Loleta provides the more compelling case for
retention.

In regards to Beaver Meadows, Fallon recommends closing and
decommissioning the campground and to recycle the toilet buildings
and gravel to other recreation areas. The site would also maintain
the day use recreation area, including the parking lot, toilet
building, picnic tables and boat launch.

For Loleta, Fallon recommends decommissioning the drinking water
and wastewater treatment systems, adding camping would be
relatively unchanged.

The removal of the wastewater and water systems at Twin Lakes
and Loleta may occur over a longer time period, between four and
five years.

Officials said the trend for visitors seems to be switching to
dispersed camping, particular near water sources. In the
Marienville District, that includes the West and East Branches of
Tionesta Creek, Spring Creek, Salmon Creek, Millstone Creek, Big
Mill Creek, Bear Creek and Bloody Run.

“These trends in dispersed and developed camping indicate a need
for fewer developed sites offering fewer services, and greater
emphasis on managing dispersed camping,” Fallon writes in the white
paper. “To effect the latter, this may mean restricting dispersed
camping along streams to designated sites only, and then improving
the access and erosion controls on those sites so that camping does
not continue to diminish the water quality that draws the campers
in the first place.”

Officials are also looking at continuing to assess and move
forward with steps to manage dispersed recreation along the Clarion
River; no such plans are under way for enhanced recreation
management along the Allegheny River, according to the white paper.
However, officials will assess the need for such activity in the
future and will instead focus more on the river’s health.

Fallon said that action may also mean more Forest Service
patrols to enforce the forest rules.

Other recreation and campground sites in the district would see
either no change – including the various Timberline all-terrain
vehicle trails – or relatively minor changes.

The white papers can be viewed on the Allegheny National Forest
Web page under Items of Interest.