Ashley National Forest announced on Tuesday a proposal for new and increased recreation fees at various recreation sites on the forest. “Recreation fees help ensure that our outdoor recreation opportunities and facilities remain available and well maintained,” says forest supervisor Kristy Groves. “It has been more than twenty years since a forest-wide proposal for fee changes have been made at most of our recreation sites on the forest. This proposal will help address the increase in costs of maintenance and operation since many of the fees were put into place in 2005.” The announcement also shares that not all recreation sites on the forest require a fee with over 40 percent of developed recreation sites on the forest still not requiring a recreation fee. The forest will continue to honor all nationally recognized fee-free days and forest-specific fee-free days at day use sites across the forest. The proposed fees by site can be found on the Ashley National Forest website at fs.usda.gov/sites.
