About Federal Parks & Recreation

WHAT WE COVER

• Conservation spending: This has been the signature issue in the park and rec field over the last two decades.  Bipartisan federal legislators have introduced bills called CARA and CARA-lite in the last few Congresses that would guarantee conservation spending of more than $1 billion per year.  The legislation would provide money to LWCF, UPAR, wildlife conservation, historic preservation and other programs with little or no input from appropriators.  However, the Bush administration and some Republicans would like to eliminate UPAR and LWCF.  We are in close touch for readers with both political parties on both sides of the Hill.  Federal Parks and Recreation is in close touch with administration policy makers.  And we are in close touch with the interest groups that operate behind-the-scenes.
  
  
• Park Service policy: The Park Service in 2006 wrote a comprehensive new policy for managing the national parks that attempts to balance protection of the parks with public enjoyment of the parks.  That’s not the end of the story because the administration and its critics have not settled site-specific issues, such as snowmobiles, PWCs and OHVs in parks.
  
• Surface transportation: The most recent highway law - the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU - provides a minimum of $1.5 billion per year for outdoor programs.  Much of the money goes to pedestrian and bicycle trails related to transportation.  But isn’t there always a catch?  Leading backbenchers from both the Democratic and Republican parties are demanding givebacks from SAFETEA-LU to provide money for other programs.
  
  
• Motorized uses: In settling lawsuits in favor of snowmobile and personal watercraft users the Bush administration has championed powered recreation uses in national parks and other federal lands.  In the most controversial example the administration is seeking to maintain snowmobile use in Yellowstone.  At the same time the administration has not supported all-terrain vehicle users in Big Cypress.  We provide readers with up-to-date, in-depth coverage of important developments.
  
• Heritage areas: Congress continues willy-nilly to establish national heritage areas that are one step back from federal conservation areas.  More than a dozen major NHA proposals are usually on the table at any one time.  But some legislators such as Sen. Thomas worry about the lack of national standards for such areas.  Federal Parks & Recreation is one of the few publications that reports consistently on this issue.
  
• Recreation policy act: A coalition of recreation interests is asking Congress and the Bush administration to support broad legislation that would boost recreation on the nation’s public lands and waters.  But the human-powered rec industry and conservationists worry that the measure could give private companies control of the public lands.  FPR broke this story and will continue to monitor it closely.
  
  
• Federal concessions: Large NPS concessioners say Congress should intervene to guarantee them equity in improvements they make to park facilities, so-called leasehold surrender interest.  And outfitters who operate on federal lands outside national parks say Congress should give them the same rights enjoyed by concessioners in national parks.  Yes, Federal Parks & Recreation knows what leasehold surrender interest means.
  
  
• Fee Demo: After years of stalling Congress in 2005 bit the bullet and made permanent for federal land management agencies a test entrance fee program called FeeDemo.  Just about everyone agrees that entrance fees work just fine in the national parks.  The program gets in trouble in national forests, with their expansive landscapes.  Now the heat is on federal agencies to implement the law, including a controversial new American Passport that would provide entry to all federal park and rec facilities, for a fee.
  
• Other: Federal Parks & Recreation keeps readers abreast of other breaking park and rec stories, such as designation of national monuments, new ORV policies from the Forest Service and BLM, administration plans to open national forest roadless areas, a new ocean policy, duck hunting regulations, administration rules that may allow communities to claim RS 2477 roads in parks and refuges, legislation to establish a national system of federal recreation lakes, transfers of surplus federal lands to communities, new rivers and trails, and more.

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WHAT YOU GET FOR YOUR MONEY:
Federal Parks & Recreation is now an on-line only publication. 
A subscription provides:

• E-mail of the newsletter every two weeks in PDF and DOC formats (up to three E-mail addresses per order) 24 times per year,
  
  
• E-mail of 10 or more bulletins per year as news breaks, in addition to the 24 newsletters.  The bulletins are effectively small newsletters,
  
  
• Access to our secure website where we post the current issue, archives of eight years of past issues, important court decisions, summaries of legislation, a boxscore of legislation, a conference calendar and more.

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PRICE:
A one-year subscription is $227 per year.
We do accept bulk subscriptions and multi-year subscriptions. 
Inquire at (703) 553-0552. 

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WHO SUBSCRIBES:
Our subscribers are a who’s who of the park and recreation establishment, and of those who carry out the establishment’s orders, to wit:

• Office of Management and Budget
  
• Most federal agencies
  
• Senators
  
• Senate committees
  
• House members
  
• House committees
  
• State officials
  
• Local officials
  
• NPS concessioners
  
• FS concessioners
  
• Recreation company leaders
  
• Scholars
  
• Environmental groups
  
• Conservation groups
  
• Attorneys
  
• Lobbyists

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HOW TO SUBSCRIBE:

We will accept your order:
1. From a phone call at (703) 553-0552 (Visa and MasterCard accepted);
2. By FAX to (703) 553-0558; or
3. From this website, (see Order Now item below)
As soon as we receive your order we will provide you with a user name and password to our secure website.

To Order Now or Renew Online click here.