The Price of Fishing Just Went Up...

I've heard people use the line in this post's title in refernce to goods from the Orvis company, but today, it applies to one of the humbler amenities of my outings...state forest campground fees. Michigan's state forest campgrounds offer a tent sites with picnic tables and communal water pumps and outhouses. I nearly always stay in them, or in comparable national forest facilities, on my overnight trips. Starting today, that priveledge is going to cost more.

When I first started camping in these in 1991, I paid $6 a night. That went up to $10 a few years ago, and as of today, it will be $15. That's still cheap relative to more developed campgrounds or to motels, but it will add a notable bump to the price of an outing. I never gave a thought to camping fees when they were $6 a night; I choked a bit at $10, but $15 is going to feel like a major pinch, probably as much for psycological as for financial reasons. I can afford it. But it will make me more conscious of how much I spend on my trips, and that may not be such a bad thing.

That's the personal side of this. Beyond that, the fee increase is part of a larger story of a state budget squeeze and a reduction in funds available for maintainence of recreational facilties. State parks and other DNR operations (including fishing and hunting law enforcement) have been steadily trimming personell for the last few years, and would have had to forgo hiring 1,300 seasonal employees this year had the department not received a special exemption from a state government hiring freeze. More than a few visitors and staffers have observed that the condition of facilities at state parks has been deteriorating during this time. Just how thinly can we spread our resources before public conservation and recreation assets can't be effectively maintained or managed?

I don't expect taxpayers to pick up the bill for me to continue rustic camping on the cheap. And I can live with the substantially higher fees (now close to $30 a night) to stay in a modern campground in a state park. But these fee hikes are just band aids on a gaping wound. They will ease the DNR budget crunch, but they won't eliminate it. Things will limp along for a few more years, and then what?

I hope that a state banking on tourism as a path to economic recovery will have a good answer.