49 



We would appreciate hearing from you. Where we get our infor- 

 mation is from you folks so all of those things apply to every panel. 

 Mr. Staveley, we will start with you. We are going to recognize 

 each person for five minutes. We would appreciate it if you would 

 watch the lights. The time is yours. 



STATEMENT OF GAYLORD STAVELEY, VICE PRESIDENT, 

 NATIONAL FOREST RECREATION ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Staveley. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, my name is Gay- 

 lord Staveley. I am Vice President of the National Forest Recre- 

 ation Association. NFRA is a national association of private sector 

 businesspeople who construct and operate facilities and services 

 that help visitors use and enjoy the national forests. 



Most forest-related concession businesses are small companies 

 and in many cases, family owned. They include developed sites 

 such as resorts, marinas, and lodges. They include concessioners to 

 operate Forest Service campgrounds for the Forest Service. They 

 also include trail-based or river-based activities such as pack trips, 

 hunting trips, trail rides, and scenic and Whitewater river trips. 



NFRA applauds and supports the nine stated goals of the sub- 

 committee's proposed concession reform legislation. As to conces- 

 sions authorizations, we feel there should only be one class of con- 

 cessions authorizations, and those should be concession service 

 agreements. 



The reason is that all concessioners, regardless of the size of 

 their investment, regardless of whether that investment is inside 

 a park or forest or outside a park or forest, have invested in a con- 

 cession business because an agency of the Federal Government se- 

 lected them to provide facilities or services for the public use or en- 

 joyment of those lands. 



Concession service agreements should be 10 years in duration 

 with the Secretary authorized to write longer agreements where a 

 longer term is in the public interest or is necessary due to the cap- 

 ital investment required and the time needed to recover that in- 

 vestment plus a reasonable profit on it. 



Commercial use licenses should be issued by the agencies in the 

 way the Park Service presently uses them; that is, to authorize 

 commercial uses of Federal lands on an infrequent or a non- 

 competitive basis. 



As to the selection process, presently H.R. 2028 provides that the 

 concerned Secretary would obtain a pool of the most highly quali- 

 fied bidders and then award the opportunity to whichever of them 

 bids the highest fee above the specified minimum. 



That makes fee bidding the ultimate criterion, and we would sug- 

 gest instead that the Secretary first establish a pool of timely and 

 responsive applicants; second, establish qualification points for all 

 eligible applicants; third, establish performance points for the ex- 

 isting concessioner; and then, fourth, establish higher fee points for 

 new applicants in all of this. 



Because resource protection and the quality and the continuity 

 of visitor services is said to be more important than the commission 

 the government receives on them, there would be two parameters. 

 There would be an upper limit on the higher fee add-on points, and 

 this add-on should be lower than the performance points add-on. 



