Ensign has concerns over BLM's use of Red Rock fees

Entrance fees to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area are earmarked solely for funding improvement projects to the area, say Bureau of Land Management officials.

The $5 fee, which has been in place since Nov. 12, is mandated by Congress to be used to improve the recreation area for visitors, but Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., is concerned that funds may be supplementing employee salaries.

"When Congress gave the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) the authority to collect entrance fees at Red Rock it was with the intention that the generated revenue remain at Red Rock for improvements that would directly benefit those visitors who paid the entrance fees," Ensign wrote in a letter to BLM Director Pat Shea.

If the fees are being misused, according to Ensign, constituents should know and the practice should be put to a stop.

BLM spokesman Phillip Guerrero said that he knows of no wrong doing by the BLM in regards to the spending of the fee monies.

"We are bound to obey the laws that Congress passes down and our thought process is that we've done that," Guerrero said. "If there is a misinterpretation we need to get smart about it."

Guerrero said the only money from the fees that goes to employees is in the event that an employee is doing labor to improve Red Rock.

"Obviously the improvements to the area don't get done by themselves," Guerrero said. "Our understanding is that the fees are to improve the area and pay the people that are making those improvements. It takes people to dig a new trail or bulldoze a new road."

In February the question of fee expenditures by the BLM was brought up by Randy Harness, conservation chairman of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, a non-profit conservation group. Harness and others questioned a proposed budget that included a 25 percent cut from entrance fees that would fund other BLM functions in the canyons.

"That was resolved when that budget was changed," said Dave Wolf, BLM conservation area manager. "Not one penny from fees goes to anything other than maintaining and improving the area for the guests."

Wolf said that the park does employ five rangers and five law enforcement officers, but they receive no salary money from the fees unless they are on an improvement job for the park. Once in awhile, Wolf said, one of the rangers may work for a couple of days on an improvement project but it very rarely happens because of their already busy schedules.

"The invitation is extended to Congressman Ensign to come to the recreation area anytime and take a look at all the improvements that have been made," Guerrero said.

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