Linking Wilderness Research and Management: Volume 3 - Recreation Fees in Wilderness and Other Public Lands: An Annotated Reading List

The passage of the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program legislation in 1996 marked the beginning of recreation fee programs targeted for users of Federally designated wilderness in the United States. This legislation has different implications for wilderness management than for other recreation programs because wilderness as a recreation resource has unique management policies and directives that may affect whether and how to implement recreation user fees. Wilderness managers implementing fee programs are faced with a variety of decisions including whether to use fees, how to collect fees, set prices, spend revenue, and respond to potential negative visitor reactions to new fees, and how wilderness experiences may change as a result of fees. Research shows there have been both positive and negative responses to recreation fees. This reading list includes references relevant to planning for and monitoring the effects of wilderness fee programs.