R3 Recreation Site Alignment and Closure Conference Call 1/4/12

Recreation Closures and Realignment

The forest and Region are faced with significant reductions in maintenance (CMFC) and operations (NFRW) dollars. Initial allocations to the units prompted responses that would prevent the normal historical hiring, contracts, and agreements. In response to the reductions the some forests have proposed that significant number of sites be closed for FY2012. The Director of Recreation, Valenzuela, has advised the forests to work with the RO in development of plans to offer opportunities and services to their communities and the public. The forests have asked the RO for advice on the closure and communication framework.

This initial meeting was for brain storming, exploration, communication, and begins the framework development.

Notes for the team were taken by D. Garcia.

Forests:

  • Tonto: Sharon Wallace & Page Rocket
  • Santa Fe: Anne Apodaca

RO:

  • Mark Chavez
  • Cathie Schmidlin
  • Dennis Garcia
  • Francisco Valenzuela
  • David Clark

WO:

  • Allen Jaten
  • James White
  • Julie Cox

Sharon Wallace describes the Tonto’s experience:

Recreation site closures are not going to work for us.

If we got the money for state parks.???

If we can’t close sites then what can we do? What is discretionary?

  • Can we close down recreation special uses? Can we choose not to do SU activities?
  • This then becomes an office problem if we go to the field to operate the sites in-lieu of special uses.
  • Part of this plan will require recreation staffsto get the line officers to buy off on these actions.
  • There is a mixed response that we are hearing from the districts.
  • There is a huge dichotomy between the users on the Tonto. The communication messages between the users at rural vs. the urban one may put these groups at odds. So there may need to be a different message for each local area.
  • The rural ones are not expecting a lot. The RFA is telling us to close most of the rural ones.
  • This gutting of the program resulted in:
  • Rural areas can still operate with their limited staffs.
  • Urban sites cannot operate with the limited staffed.
  • We don’t have discretion in the short term. The only thing that they have discretion is in special uses.
  • All the special activity groups will be calling us on the activity that they participate in. They will want support for their activity.
  • At Pleasant Valley the only outside money they get is from the Recreation Driven visitors. In addition the local community expects their young adults and students to be employed in the summer in the District office.
  • Facilities funding is going to force the closure of the sites because we will not be able to continue operating as systems and other improvements fail.

Francisco Valenzuela (FV): RFA was more business oriented vs. Recreation Sustainability Framework which is more outcome oriented.

Santa Fe – Anne Apodaca

  • It is unfortunate that this has come at this time and such a fast manner
  • Some of the Rangers are not going to support opening sites and are going to tell us to close them.

The Cibola had closed Capulin Snow Play Area, except for 3.5 hours once per week because of budget shortfalls. The mountain received one a large amount of now and was in high demand. Local press and pressure from the County and users brought this issue forward. The result was the permanent employees were required to go operate the site and not do work in the office. The District recreation staff was faced with this dilemma and finally decided to serve the public and put off internal FS work.

Allen Jaten (AJ) WO:

  • The times are difficult for the Forest recreation staff officers.
  • The results of the RFA process are a POW.
  • There is a stewardship responsibility to complete the Program of Work.
  • The communities are very different, but they are very important to the local staffs.
  • The POW is laid out as a way to communicate with the public.
  • We may need to check back in with the communities.
  • The Rangers may need to act based on where they are: they need to be linked and talking to their communities.
  • The answer to getting along with communities is talking with them.
  • You may need to have public meetings to discuss what you are proposing.

Julie Cox WO

  • Francisco is an asset.
  • It is not the same old thing, it is a new package.
  • We hold the management so tightly internally that we corner our selves. As opposed to sharing the management and decision making with the community.
  • Start tuning this message and sharing it with the community.
  • This may be a short step that we have to take to get to the desired configuration.
  • What are the right things to do for this community?
  • If we remove this responsibility from the FS then share it with the community, let them help us figure this out.

FV - We need to think about this in the communication? What is going on with the other Regions? Cox said that she has not heard anything at the national level.

AJ – Construction and maintenance, CMFC, funding is way down.

FV:

  • Message that there will be some short term action but long term we will look at the future. There will be a need to work on this message. This is a key idea that Wallace point out.
  • We will not give up on stewardship responsibility.
  • We will not give up the standards for H&S.
  • We need to be pragmatic about the decisions that we are making.
  • What is the long term picture of the strategy and what path are we taking to get there?
  • We need to move in the direction for the greatest good for the public.
  • Figure out how we can use the resources across the nation.

What is the time frame for the communication to the public?

  • The Santa Fe says we need it now. We need to short term and long term.
  • The Tonto is not currently impacted until Easter.
  • Schmidlin said, being as transparent as we can. The districts need to start talking to the communities. Don’t take ownership that the FS is going to make the decisions.
  • Schmidlin some clear and consistent messages to the public.
  • Schmidlin we still have other issues with that we still need to communicate.
  • Page: We have to be careful that we don’t have different messages.
  • Page: Concerned that there is not any message or thoughts coming from the WO.
  • Mark: we need to brief the WO as soon as this happens, they need to know. (Do we brief our congressional staffers?)

Julie Cox & R3 Communication: Start framing what we would like to see from the office of communications?

  • Make sure that sustainable recreation is a part of this.
  • Start asking from the directorships for PAO and Recreation.
  • Is this group or some other group responsible?
  • Frame this request from the R3 group?
  • Why is this occurring and why is it occurring this now. Let’s answer these questions.
  • What is the link between sustainable recreation and the budget shortfall?
  • The Santa Fe needs the information right now if we are going to do public meetings now we need to schedule them.
  • The Tonto would like to have the RFA work tools updated.

I didn’t capture some thoughts at the end of the call. Here are some things that I remember. If you have any additional corrections or additions please let me know.

We did agree that the RFA work was important and that the Program of Work (POW) was something that we need to keep in mind. Some forests completed their POW and other may have not. This is one of the items that need to be reviewed and check. I think the message here is that we need to make sure we can answer questions related to the RFA and their action plans.

Jim white told us that the forests can ask the WO to assist with the update to their costing tool. Dennis and Jim will prepare a paper foradvice forest on the task and commitments to update them.

Clark said that the ARRA investments may have resulted in improvements that in sites that may be closed. This could be looked at negatively by the public. You built it and now it’s closed. Regionally forests were encouraged to use the RFA work as a priority for ARRA investments. There have been no reviews to see if this has been the case. From the trail program side, he said that it is ok for forests to use trail maintenance funds to maintain trailheads.

The next steps.

  • Julie Cox will work with the WO Office of Communications and see what they can do at the national level to assist the region.
  • Dennis and Jim will work with the forests and offer assistance and guidance with the updating of the RFA tools.
  • Dennis will provide information on the location and retrieval of the RFA tools and the final program of work.
  • Mark and Cathie will help with the development and recommended communication message to share with the Forests.
  • Dennis will work with our counsel to review our proposed actions.
  • Karen O’Leary, R3 Recreation Special Uses (SU) Program Manager, will work with Dennis and the group to review the SU component to this team. A final update will be provided at our next conference call.
  • Clark and Garcia will ask FV to see if there are some integration opportunities with other federal agencies. We will ask him to bring it to the attention of the AGO group for the Southwestern Desert Region.
  • The Forests, RO Recreation, and PAO staff will complete a request and statement of what they desire from the WO.

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