{"id":4165,"date":"2023-02-01T10:43:46","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T18:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=4165"},"modified":"2023-06-04T10:59:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T17:59:32","slug":"las-padres-nf-concessionaire-to-share-in-fee-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2023\/02\/01\/las-padres-nf-concessionaire-to-share-in-fee-hikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Padres NF concessionaire to share in fee hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fee increases went into ef\u00adfect this year affecting 33 developed campgrounds and one day-use site operated by a concessionaire in Los Padres National Forest.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source of this article, the Condor Call, February-March 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are more than 50 unde\u00adveloped campgrounds in the Forest that are free to public use along with camping opportunities available at https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/lpnf\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Forest Service said the fees at campgrounds and day-use sites have been unchanged since 2016 when the Forest authorized this concessionaire permit.<\/p>\n

Individual campsite fees will in\u00adcrease $10 per night and group camp\u00adsites between $25 and $50 per night. Day-use sites on Los Padres will re\u00admain at $10 per day. An additional $2 per night increase for reservations on weekends and holiday periods was also authorized.<\/p>\n

Forest officials said the fee in\u00adcreased are necessary to offset rising operational costs, inflation-related price spikes, fuel costs, and the jump in California’s minimum wage from $10 an hour in 2016 to $15 an hour. The state minimum wage is set to in\u00adcrease again on January 1, 2023, to $15.50 an hour.<\/p>\n

The additional fees collected will provide for facility improvements and fund ongoing maintenance.<\/p>\n

But that’s not the whole story, according to Los Padres ForestWatch:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>“Parks Management Company – a privately-owned corporation that now operates most campgrounds and day use areas in Los Padres National Forest \u2014 requested the fee increases. ForestWatch is opposed to the priva\u00adtization of public lands and requested a copy of the company’s proposal, but the Forest Service has refused to pro\u00advide it because the company marked it as ‘Confidential Internal Proprietary Information’ to evade public disclo\u00adsure,” wrote LPFW Director Bryant Baker on its website.<\/p>\n

Last year, the agency refused a ForestWatch request to reign in the extreme prices that the concessionaire charges for firewood and other camp\u00ading necessities such as propane, water, and first aid supplies, some of which are up to three times the normal retail price, Baker wrote.<\/p>\n

“ForestWatch filed a lawsuit in Washington DC, seeking to compel the Forest Service to release the requested records. That lawsuit is await\u00ading a final ruling by the judge,” he concluded.<\/p>\n

In December 2022, ForestWatch filed a suit seeking to compel the For\u00adest Service to release public docu\u00adments relating to its controversial plan to log trees and remove vegetation across extensive areas of Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara, Ven\u00adtura, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and Kern counties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fee increases went into ef\u00adfect this year affecting 33 developed campgrounds and one day-use site operated by a concessionaire in Los Padres National Forest. Source of this article, the Condor Call, February-March 2023. There are more than 50 unde\u00adveloped campgrounds in the Forest that are free to public use along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,22,53,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget-and-spending","category-southern-california","category-us-forest-service","category-ventura-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4167,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165\/revisions\/4167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}