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Great Smoky Mountains National Park To Implement Backcountry Fee In February

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Planning to backpack through Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Beginning February 13 you'll need to pay for the privilege as the park implements a user fee to help cover costs for managing its backcountry program.

The cost will be $4 per night per person, a cost some find unreasonable but which the park moved forward with after a lengthy public involvement process. Park officials say they'll use the fee money to provide increased customer service for backcountry trip planning, reservations, permits and the backcountry experience.

A park-specific reservation and permit system, to which users will have 24/7 access, will go live on February 13. It will allow backcountry campers to make reservations and obtain permits online from anywhere Internet access is available. Reservations may be made at any time up to 30 days in advance, allowing maximum flexibility for those making last minute plans.

Appalachian Trail thru-hikers may obtain a permit through the reservation system up to 30 days in advance of the date they anticipate being in the park and are required to carry a paper copy with them while they are hiking through the park. Their permit is valid up to 38 days from the date they obtain it.

Thru-Hikers have eight days (7 nights) to get through the park, and a break to rest or resupply in a nearby town does not negate one’s standing as a thru-hiker. There is a $20 cost for the Thru-Hiker Backcountry Permit.

"It is important to note that to qualify for an AT Thru-Hiker Permit, a person must begin and end their hike at least 50 miles from outside of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and only travel on the AT while in the park," park spokeswoman Molly Schroer said. "Anyone who does not meet these criteria will need to get a General Backcountry Permit."

Backcountry users will no longer be required to call the Backcountry Office to obtain reservations. Reservation and permit requests will also be accepted in person at the Backcountry Office, which is located at the Sugarlands Visitor Center.

Backcountry Office hours will be expanded with additional staff available to provide trip planning assistance both over the phone and in person. In addition, the park will expand its backcountry ranger presence to better protect park resources through enforcement of food-storage and other regulations and improved visitor education regarding Leave-No-Trace principles.

For more information about the changes, please visit the park’s website and follow the "Management" link on the left side of the page, or call the park’s Public Information Office at 865-436-1207. For general backcountry information or backcountry reservations, call the Backcountry Office at 865-436-1297.

Comments

From the outset this entire "fee implementation" has been embroiled in deceptions and controversy. A quote from above is a prime example,

"The cost will be $4 per night per person, a cost some find unreasonable but which the park moved forward with after a lengthy public involvement process.".

Notice the last phrase, "after a lengthy process", I presume this is a reference to the time allowed for public comments either in support or opposed to such fees. This was actually as i understand it, an abbreviated process in that it was shortened and the comments in opposition ran at a rate of 11 to 1, against. Later those "in charge" misrepresented this situation and spoke of the overwhelming support for the fees....support that does not in reality exist as can be documented on paper.

As has already been mentioned, these fees are just the start. One comment above mentions something to the effect of since other parks charge such fees, it is only reasonable for the Smokies to be just like other parks and charge fees. The GSMNP, was never intended to "be just like the others"...it was bought by private and public donations and intended to remain free for public access and use. IMHO, these fees for backpackers are simply a trial baloon and there will be others to follow, after all greed knows no bounds.

Let me encourage those inclined to support such fees, to at leasst search out the truth surrounding them, check out the information acquired by this organization through the "Freedom of Information" requests they have made for documents associated with these fees from the NPS, quiet eye opening! http://www.southernforestwatch.org/

Mike


First, I am not in favor of Backcountry fees.

Next: Owen Hoffman, you may be right about the others, but the last time I drove the Blue Ridge, I was charged $10.00 to get on at Front Royal. The rangers said the pass was good for (I think) the remainder of the year, but it was still an entrance fee.

Next: Kurt Repanshek, That was not a legislative action. That was an agreement made by the government with the property owners who volentarily gave up their homes so the park could be formed. That agreement was that there would never be an entrance fee for this park.


Freehiker, according to the park website, "When the state of Tennessee transferred ownership of Newfound Gap Road to the federal government, it stipulated that 'no toll or license fee shall ever be imposed…' to travel the road. ... Action by the Tennessee legislature would be required to lift this deed restriction if Great Smoky Mountains National Park ever wished to charge an entrance fee."


Freehiker@ Front Royal is the entrance to Shenandoah National Park. Shenandoah does charge an entrance fee. The Blue Ridge Parkway, like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, does not.


John you are not the only "true backcountry" camper out there. Buck up, buttercup. It's of my opinion that the park is long due for it to also have a entrance fee as well. 9 million people go through it. Highway 40 has long since taken over as the main commercial and freeway route for 441. 441 is now pretty much seen as the going-to-the-sun road of the Smokies.

Things evolve, and societies change. The main goal of a national park service is to protect the mountains and the wildlife. Which last time I checked, is becoming more and more fragmented in the east. The smokies are becoming a rare respite, and it needs better protection. 4.00 for a weekend out isn't going to kill you. It's obvious that you like to take advantage, but not provide for it's protection. You remind me of having the mindset of a freeloader.


I'm all for this fee. To have two fulltime park rangers patrolling the parks backcountry will be a benefit to all but those that set out to break the rules. I can't tell you how many times i've ran into people hiking their dogs through this park, people tossing tents at Greggory Bald during the azalea bloom, shelters along the AT stuffed with people many of which don't have a permit. Horses being in areas they shouldn't. Even the sounds of dogs being ran through the park to hunt bears illegally.These sort of things will start to get minimized over time if there is better protection with rangers in the backcountry.

Anyone that has spent a lot of time in the west hiking the parks out there has paid fees. I've spent years hiking in Yellowstones backcountry, and I always paid 25 to enter, and 25 to hike. This small contingency of whiners that obviously haven't been outside of the south, need to just buck up.

Most of these people will whine out of one side of their mouths about how beard cane, which got hit with an F4 tornado and is filled with tree fall and dangers is not getting fixed an hour after the storm, then in the same breath say that fees aren't needed. If they have revenue coming in these problems get solved much quicker. But then again, fixing a trail with that much dangerous tree fall isn't an easy task, to all but super skilled super heros like "the world's greatest smokies backpacker".


Hey SmokyMountainMan,

Welcome to the NPT forum. I see you have been active for a day and seem to have some insight, however misguided, about the fees and lies used to push them. Explain to me how, for instance, that fees that are designated for a reservation system and a reservation system only will solve trail issues?

I don't expect an answer but will gladly point you in the direction of the park's own memorandums which stipulate that very thing. It will all come out in the lawsuit very soon. As for providing for the park, I am a park volunteer. Are you? I will be glad to produce copies of the hours of volunteer work I have done in the Smokies. I'd say put up or shut up, Kevin. Whereas you were paid to freeload in the park, I give back.


Oh, and do you really think that two rangers patrolling 800 miles of trails would make any kind of impact? By the time you "called" one from Gregorys bald, providing you got cell service, the offender would be gone.(I've spent considerable time up there and fail to see all those violations mentioned, guess I just picked the "right" times to be there, goes hand in hand with being local and in touch with the environment. Time to live in reality and not a fantasy that all of life's ills are cured by taxes and the government. True mountain folks are independent and have no need of outsiders and your opinions about how locals should lean on the federal government.

Of course this entire discourse is predicated upon the fallacy that this fee will fund backcountry rangers when we have documents clearly stating that the backcountry tax will go for the purpose of a reservation system and a reservation system only. More disinformation perpetuated by disingenous folks with dubious motivations. Makes me realize that we are striking at the heart of darkness and causing great discomfort in the halls of Sugarlands.

That is the smell of victory.


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