Visitors to the expansive Los Padres National Forest who were hoping to see an end to experimental recreation fees are out of luck - at least for the next decade.

In October, President Bush signed into law the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior to create recreation-fee programs for the next 10 years.

Locally, the Adventure Pass program has already been in place in the Los Padres National Forest since 1996, when Congress gave authority to the Forest Service to try out the recreation fees.

"It is really important. I can't overstate how underfunded the recreation program is in general, and certainly our budgets are not going up as far as appropriated funds," said Valerie Guardia, assistant director for recreation with the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico.

"Demand for recreational facilities is definitely on the rise and we can't keep up with it today, and so the fee revenue has been really important."

However, fees have been met with criticism by various groups.

Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, a group that has been working on issues for low impact, undeveloped recreation, has been campaigning hard against the Adventure Pass and other demonstration fee projects.

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He said the fee experiments, across the board, were introduced in the 1980s to allow the Forest Service and other agencies to make up lost revenue. However, he said, this is part of a larger agenda to "starve the beast" until the public service is unfunded and completely depends on user fees.

"The fee program is the effort of the recreation industry ... to bring the profit motive to public lands recreation," Silver said. "It's the corporate takeover of nature."

Alasdair Coyne, with the Ojai group keep the Sespe Wild, said he has no problems with fees as long as they are for areas that have obvious maintenance needs.

Officials are reviewing how well the Adventure Pass system and other existing fee programs comply with the new federal act, said Kathy Good, spokeswoman for the Forest Service at the Los Padres National Forest.

"We don't know yet what the guidelines for the national forest will be," she said, referring to changes that might occur due to the new law.

She noted that officials hope to have the fee-program guidelines by the summer season.

In the meantime, she said, the national forest will continue to use the Adventure Pass, which costs $5 per day or $30 annually, and the Golden Eagle and Golden Access passes.

Golden Eagle passes can be used by seniors in lieu of an Adventure Pass and cost $10. A Golden Access pass can be used by disabled persons and is free, she said.

Nationally the fees have generated roughly $170 million a year for the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior and 80 percent of the fees are returned to the site of collection, officials said.

In Los Padres National Forest, $250,000 was generated from October 2003 to September 2004. That money helped pay for repairing camp sites, picking up 1,582 cubic yards of trash, removing graffiti from 30 locations, and repairing 21 miles of trail. The money also pays for environmental education and information programs, and helps the Forest Service keep a presence in the field, such as staffing the Wheeler Gorge Visitors Center, Good added.

"Many of the things the money is used for are not visible to the public because you don't expect to see litter or graffiti," she said.

Adventure Passes are required in most of the 2 million acres that make up Los Padres National Forest, which stretches from Big Sur to the Ventura County and Los Angeles County lines, Good said. However, the forest's Monterey Ranger District, which includes the area between Carmel Valley and the border of San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties, remains free of charge she added.

The Adventure Pass allows parking while in the forest, Good said, and must be displayed in a vehicle. There is no charge for people who just drive through the forest.

Those caught without an adventure pass are issued a Notice of Noncompliance, and that requires a person to buy a pass, officials said. Once the pass is purchased, the notice and proof of purchase are sent to officials and the notice is removed.

If someone has a chronic problem of receiving notices, he or she can be forced to appear before a federal magistrate, officials said.

* The Associated Press contributed to this report. Staff writer Malia Spencer can be reached at 739-2219 or by e-mail at mspencer@pulitzer.net.

Jan. 30, 2005