Oregonian: Private company will manage Bagby Hot Springs in the Mount Hood National Forest

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/02/private_company_will_manage_ba.html

March 1, 2012
By Eric Mortenson

A California company that manages hundreds of western campgrounds will operate Bagby Hot Springs in the Mount Hood National Forest.

California Land Management Services Corp., doing business as Mount Hood Recreation, won the concession to manage Bagby and 27 other facilities, Forest Service spokesman Rick Acosta said. He said some details, such as the percentage of revenue that will be turned back to Forest Service, are not publicly available at this time.

The decision does not sit well with Bark, a Portland environmental group that monitors development and conservation issues in the national forest. The group opposes what it considers the "privatization" of the forest, and Program Director Olivia Schmidt said an appeal is planned.

Acosta said the Forest Service will oversee the private operators, and said the arrangement will ensure facilities are safe, clean and well-maintained. Tight budgets have increasingly caused the Forest Service to consider private operation of public facilities, but the practice is not new, he said. A private company has operated historic Timberline Lodge for many years, he noted.

Activists and longtime Bagby users, however, have numerous concerns about the arrangement.

Schmidt, of Bark, said the Forest Service did not give proper consideration to complaints about private management and questionable behavior by campground hosts. She questions the long-term impact on the agency's commitment to recreation in the forest.

She and others predict the management company will impose a day-use fee. Soaking at Bagby is free now, except for a $5 daily forest pass required to park at the trailhead.

Eric Mart, president of California Land Management in Palo Alto, said a fee is likely. "We can't operate it without revenue," he said.

Mart said the company is a 32-year-old family business that operates several hundred campgrounds and other facilities in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. The company managed two dozen campgrounds in the Mount Hood National Forest before winning the most recent concession agreement.

Bagby, named for a prospector who stumbled upon the hot springs about 1880, is 40 miles south of Estacada, in Clackamas County. Reaching the hot springs requires a 1.5 mile walk from a parking area, with the trail cutting through spectacular old growth timber. It has rustic shelters and soaking tubs, fed by 136 degree water. Although enjoyed by many, Bagby over the years has been plagued by bouts of rowdy behavior, drinking and vandalism.