Forest Service project pitches seek state partnership dollars for campgrounds, dispersed‑camping management and Pine View upgrades

Federal and state forest staff used the commission meeting to seek state partnership funding for a slate of recreation projects across Utah.

Dan Childs of Fish Lake National Forest described four Fish Lake projects. He framed Meeks Mesa as a new campground site adjacent to Capitol Reef National Park intended to replace user‑created dispersed camping that is causing resource damage and safety problems along Highway 24. Childs said the Forest Service’s engineer estimate is $4,500,000; he also described a Forest Service proposal figure in the presentation materials. The project is in an environmental assessment (NEPA kicked off in 2022, with cultural inventories and tribal consultation under way) and would require traffic and geotechnical studies before design and bidding; construction could occur as early as 2026 if funding is secured. Childs said the Forest Service has secured $379,000 for traffic and rockfall mitigation work and that partners (BLM and Wayne County) have committed in‑kind or planning support.

On Bowery Creek (Fish Lake Basin) Childs said the campground (57 sites) needs modernization; the Forest Service secured $6.7 million in Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) funding in 2019 that will cover work on adjacent campgrounds but leaves a funding gap for Bowery Creek. He requested $3,100,000 to update roads, spurs and furnishings.

Childs also described smaller requests: roughly $500,000 to finish Kents Lake campground upgrades (Beaver County) and $700,000 for a dispersed‑camping management project in the Tuscher Mountains/Buck Ridge area to place boulders, stabilize campsites and realign road segments to protect sensitive meadows and reduce unauthorized OHV impacts.

Cody Clark (Dixie National Forest recreation program manager) presented projects in the Dixie forest complex, including Duck Creek (requesting $2,000,000 to complete a $3.5M project already under contract), Spruces (request $412,000) and Navajo Lake (request $1,400,000). Clark said these projects are largely shovel‑ready, with NEPA and design work complete in many cases, and noted that American Land and Leisure is the current concessionaire operating many of the Dixie campgrounds.

Renee Flanagan (Wasatch‑Cache National Forest recreation and land staff officer) presented the Pine View Recreation Complex multi‑phase plan. She described Phase 2 as design and reconstruction of the top priority sites and said the total reinvestment needed across phases 2–5 is about $54,000,000, with Phase 2 construction estimated at $22,600,000; she said $7.5 million has been secured and $1.75 million has already been spent on surveys and designs. Flanagan said five sites are shovel ready, the work would retire approximately $9,000,000 in deferred maintenance at Pine View, and the plan includes bilingual signage and a Job Corps partnership for kiosk fabrication. She framed outdoor recreation as an economic driver, saying that, using national visitor use monitoring and per‑user benefit estimates, outdoor recreation contributes nearly $1 billion in economic benefit statewide (presenter’s calculation based on 11.8 million annual users).

Commissioners pressed presenters on details: Who pays operating costs; whether fees are differentiated by in‑state/out‑of‑state visitors (Forest Service: no); expected occupancy and nightly fees (presenters gave rough estimates, e.g., $15–$20 per night and ~50% seasonal occupancy for some sites); partner contributions (Wayne County equipment/materials, BLM parallel projects, concessionaire in‑kind work); and the limitations of federal funding streams for new infrastructure under current GAOA guidance (GAOA currently emphasizes deferred maintenance rather than new‑build projects).

Several presenters emphasized projects that are shovel‑ready or nearly so, and staff asked commissioners for direction about prioritization criteria (safety, economic benefit, regional equity, scalability). Commissioners asked staff to circulate presentation slides and suggested metrics ahead of the January meeting so the commission can rank requests and consider phased commitments.

Quotes from presenters in the meeting transcript included Dan Childs saying of Meeks Mesa: “This is not an existing campground. This is a need for a brand new campground,” and Renee Flanagan framing Pine View reinvestment: “Phase 2 through phase 5, we're looking at about $54,000,000 for all the sites around Pine View.”

Next steps: presenters asked the commission for guidance on prioritization and potential state partnership funding; staff will share slides and draft prioritization metrics and return to the commission in the January meeting packet for ranking and further discussion.