Public hearing held at library on a refuge use fee

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials with the Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuges Complex (SELA) held a public input session Wednesday at the Franklin Branch of the St. Mary Parish Library.
The meeting was in reference to a proposed fee program for use of the refuges, and a proposed alligator tag lottery.
It was a brainstorming session, of sorts.
SELA officials explained that they are in difficult financial straits these days, and within the last few years have had to cut their staff, discretionary spending, and maintenance and upkeep, significantly, and have a backlogged list of $6 million in deficiencies to be addressed at the refuges.
It was proposed that since 1997, the Service has had authority to collect fees under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which was established to provide funding for recreation program improvements. They just haven’t used that authority, yet.
A fee analysis was reportedly conducted by SELA resulting in the proposed fees being based on rates which were similar to those requested on nearby public lands.
The fee rates proposed are as follows:
—$20 annual public use permit for Bayou Sauvage, Big Branch Marsh, Bogue Chitto and Delta National Wildlife Refuges. (Ages 18-59)
—$5 daily public use permit for Bayou Sauvage, Big Branch Marsh, Bogue Chitto and Delta National Wildlife Refuges.
—$20 annual public use permit for Bayou Teche, Cat Island and Mandalay National Wildlife Refuges. (Ages 18-59)
—$5 daily public use permit for Bayou Teche, Cat Island and Mandalay National Wildlife Refuges.
—Youth 17 years-of-age or younger use the refuges for free.
—$5 annual senior public use permit for all refuges. (60 years-of-age or older)
—$40 lottery alligator tags on Atchafalaya, Bayou Sauvage, Bayou Teche, Bogue Chitto, Delta and Mandalay National Wildlife Refuges.
Of the alligator lottery tags, SELA officials said, “The legal harvest of surplus alligators is a useful tool for managing these renewable wildlife resources. SELA is proposing a lottery alligator harvest program, very similar to the lottery alligator harvest program on public lakes and State Wildlife Management Areas.”
Shelley Stiaes, refuge manager, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Greater New Orleans Area, said of the proposed programs, “If we start doing this, these fees will help us to maintain public use facilities such as boat launches, parking areas, boardwalks; we will be able to expand our public use program, and depending on what is collected, we may be able to hire temporary staff, increase public use opportunities on additional lands, and further support wildlife habitat projects, like restoration projects.”
A rebuttal from Director of the St. Mary Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director David Naquin challenged that statement.
He asked how many people visited the Bayou Teche refuge each year, and was told the figure is 198. Naquin said, “If you see 200 people this year at Bayou Teche, let’s say you will collect $1,000 from Bayou Teche, what’s $1,000 going to get you? You can’t lay limestone, you can’t hire anybody. I understand what you are trying to do, but I don’t think you are going to collect enough money to do anything.”
Though he stated that he is not against the proposed fee collections, Naquin continued on to say he estimated that the collection of daily permits would probably outnumber the collection of annual permits, likely making the annual total of permits collections significantly lower than that of his thought experiment.
SELA officials nodded.
Stiaes said, “We are just proposing right now. We are just bouncing ideas off each other; because, we (SELA) think a certain way. We all look at it from this side. So, please comment and tell us.”
Naquin offered, “Do you want to make some money? Ya’ll ought to auction a bear hunt. Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries killed four bears last month. They each weighed 350 (lbs.) to 425 (lbs.). I’m telling you that I know what people pay to go to Canada and shoot a black bear. If you want to raise a lot of money, that’s what you do. And it’ll be more than $1,000 trying to sell a $5 fee to somebody.”
On a separate point, Donovan Garcia, with Friends of the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge group, said SELA’s proposed fee collections were doomed to failure due to the unwieldy amount of permits and licenses a refuge visitor would be required to keep track of, as well as that the competition it would create with enthusiasts such as himself, who already charge to bring guided tours through the refuges, tours which he urged are not for profit.
In the end, it was agreed that the meeting had given everyone much to think about, and both Garcia and Naquin grabbed a fistful of public comment cards to mail back to SELA to be sent on to their Atlanta office as official public record of the feedback process.
For more information on providing your own public comment concerning the SELA proposals, submit you written comments to:
Project Leader, Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuges Complex, 61389 Hwy 434, Lacombe, LA 70445.
SELA reports that “all relevant comments and additional information will be reviewed and considered before a final decision is made on the implementation of the proposed fee structure and permit processing. All comments and recommendations, including names and addresses, will become part of the public administrative record.”