PORTLAND OREGONIAN
SEPTEMBER 5, 1997
US Forest Land Rents Will Go Up – WAY UP! |
| Because of revaluations, some leases for parcels holding cabins will cost as much as 40 times more effective January 1, 1998 |
By PETER SLEETH of The Oregonian staff
The fortunate few who own cabins within national forests are being ordered to ante up more money for their land leases, part of a growing trend for those who play on federal lands to pay more for the pleasure.
The holders of Sawtooth National Forest land leases for l82 central Idaho cabins were notified this week that rents will skyrocket, some by as much as 40 times, on Jan. 1.
In Oregon and Washington, contracts to reappraise the land leases are being prepared now. On the Mount Hood National Forest, where 557 cabins are located, fees are expected to double or triple.
Cabin owners lease the land from the US Forest Service but own the cabins they build on the land.
"Very few people have gotten their letters yet, so we can't say what the reaction will be," said Bob Swinford of the Forest Service’s Intermountain Region, which includes Idaho. "But the Forest Service feels this establishes a fair return."
About 15,600 recreational residence tracts exist on national forests nationwide. The leases were let beginning early in the 20th century to encourage a city-bound Public to use the national forests. In recent years the leases have been viewed as an exclusive use of the forest by the Forest Service, which stopped granting new leases.
Now, with federal timber harvests a shadow of what they were a decade ago, the Forest Service wants to draw more money from those who use the forests the most. An experimental fee program for hikers began this year and will expand to more forests next year, including the Mount Hood National Forest.
The decision to dramatically increase lease payments that have averaged less than $1100 a year to $20,000 and higher resulted from regulations negotiated in the late 1980s and early 1990s with leaseholders. The agreement called for the first appraisal of the lots since 1978 and reappraisals every 20 years afterward. That will be completed in five years, Swinford said
In Oregon and Washington, the new lease rates will take effect in 200l, said Paul R. Norman, a recreation planner with the Mount Hood National Forest.
"We are expecting an increase around here, but we’re not expecting an increase like you saw on the Sawtooth," he said.
The rent is 5 percent of the land’s appraised value, adjusted annually to reflect changes in a calculation called the gross domestic product price deflator. The value of the cabins and homes - often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars - is not included in the appraisals.
The General Accounting Office reported late last year that undervaluation of the federal lots was costing the government and counties tens of millions of dollars a year. Even though values were adjusted annually to reflect inflation, they failed to keep up with escalating land prices during the past two decades.
If the Forest Service appraisals on the Sawtooth forest hold, annual revenue will jump from less than $100,000 a year to $800,000. On the Mount Hood forest, cabin lease revenues will total $363,000 this year and could climb to nearly $1 million five years from now.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.