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Show vironmental quality to an acceptable level at their own expense. Flexibility must be given to the administrators to include specific reasonable conditions in permits and contracts. In other chapters of this report we recommend means of implementing this recommendation with respect to uses that are known to have potential impact on the environment. Furthermore, we emphasize that the measures required of the user, and the type of rehabilitation required, be made known before the user enters into a contract with the government, and that they then be made part of the agreement so that the user has a clear understanding of what is expected of him before he initiates his use of the public lands. The cost of maintaining a quality environment thereby becomes an element in determining the economic feasibility of an enterprise. In some instances, where the production of a commodity or the furnishing of a service is desirable to meet a national need, it may not be possible for private enterprise to undertake the activity if the full cost of avoiding adverse impact or of subsequent rehabilitation is charged to the user. We, therefore, recommend that on a pilot basis, Federal departments and agencies be authorized to share in those costs after a formal finding that there is an urgent requirement for the proposed use, and that the level of rehabilitation should be higher than could reasonably be expected from private enterprise alone as in the case of oil shale development (see Chapter Seven). In the situations not controlled by contractual relationships, we recognize that there will be greater difficulty of enforcement. Nonetheless, we believe statutory liability of the user must be established and some efforts be made to shift from the Federal Government at least some of the cost of restoring damage caused by noneconomic users. Excluding the cost of cleaning up litter and garbage, the Inter-mountain Region 20 of the National Forest Service alone spent over $220,000 in fiscal year 1969- almost 8 percent of the total allocated for the maintenance of recreation areas-to undo what is termed vandalism damage. Nationwide, throughout the Forest Service, over $2 million of such damage was caused in fiscal year 1969. As more and more people utilize the open multiple-use lands under the management of the Bureau of Land Management for picniking, camping, hunting, 20 The Intermountain Region encompasses all of Utah and Nevada, a portion of western Wyoming and southern and central Idaho. Off-road vehicular use must be controlled in public land areas that are easily erodible. 85 |
