Southern Forest Watch, an organization that has long fought to bring an end to backcountry user fees at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, lost its latest bid when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the group's appeal from a lower court.

In a 16-page opinion (attached below) handed down this week, the appellate court refused to overturn the summary judgment the U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee granted the federal government in the case. The appellate court also rejected Southern Forest Watch's argument that the district court erred by not agreeing to grant it discovery beyond what was contained in the park's administrative record established around the move to institute a nightly fee for backcountry travelers in the park.

Southern Forest Watch built its case on grounds that Great Smoky officials violated the guidelines for establishing new fees under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, failed to adequately get public participation in the discussions revolving around the fee, and didn't properly notify the public of the process. On each point the 6th Circuit panel disagreed.

Great Smoky officials started considering a backcountry fee in 2010, when the company that maintained their campsite reservation system announced it would no longer provide technical support. The need for a fee, then-Superintendent Dale Ditmanson explained, was an inadequate budget and the inability to charge an entrance fee for any of his roughly 9 million yearly visitors. The only way to improve visitor services and protect backcountry resources, he said in a 2012 interview with the Traveler, was to institute a fee for backcountry travelers.

New fees and higher fees in the park system are seldom popular, and so it wasn't surprising that when Superintendent Ditmanson proposed a fee for overnight use in the park's backcountry that it was met with some condemnation when the public was asked to comment on the proposal.

Part of the concern was that the proposed fees, which ranged from a low of $4 per person per night to a high of a $10 registration fee plus $2.25 per night per person, could eclipse front-country campsite fees, which ranged from $14-$20 per night, depending on how many were in your group. Other issues raised in the comments were complaints that day hikers would not be charged a fee, that those who traveled the backcountry by horse would not see a higher fee to help repair the damage hooves do to trails, that motorists traveling through the Smokies do so for free.

After taking those concerns into consideration, the park in February 2013 instituted a fee of $4 per night per person, with a $20 per person cap per trip.