Its dark when I show up at the lake and prep the boat for launch. I usually go through a short mental checklist before backing into the water as my thoughts then shift to which spot will be my first stop of the day. It’s usually not until I have parked my truck and am walking down to the ramp that a thought occurs to me “Damn, I forgot to put my pass out!” I run back to the truck, grab a pass out of my glove box and throw it on the dash. After a full day of fishing while on my way home, there lies that unmarked pass on my dash. It is so tempting to simply put it back into the glove box, since it is not marked. Sound familiar? With all the recent news from the Tonto National Forest that they simply do not generate sufficient funds and are looking at different ways to raise their fees, it got me thinking about their fee structure. While at Apache Lake for 5 days, I had my required day pass on my dash, unmarked. The same pass sat there for all 5 days, even though I had another 6 in my glove box, which I subsequently disposed of when I returned home, after all, I did in fact use the facilities. I spoke with several other anglers who did the same thing. So this got me thinking, how much revenue is TNF losing because of uncollected fees, so I sent my thoughts to a TNF manager running the lead on the proposed rate increase discussion. I shared my experience, and he was not surprised when I offered my observations about fees lost at the lakes. His belief is that they could be losing up to 40% of their fees due to non-compliance. Wow!
Of course I was unable to offer TNF much of a solution to the problem, but the dash passes sure seem like an antiquated system. As for enforcement, I occasionally see a TNF employee driving through the camp loop or parking lot, looking for blue passes, but unless he actually walks up to my vehicle there is no way to determine if my pass has been properly marked for the day of use. It is likely that his schedule for the day simply does not afford him the time of walking to each vehicle, as he probably has a thousand other tasks to tend to before his day is done.
So my point is this, these dash passes rely largely upon an honor system, and the monies derived from the passes are used to maintain and improve our facilities so that we can continue to enjoy them. So when we don’t pay the appropriate fee, in reality we are only hurting ourselves. So even if you have forgotten to scratch that pass, throw it away for after all, it is not an unlimited pass.
Of course I was unable to offer TNF much of a solution to the problem, but the dash passes sure seem like an antiquated system. As for enforcement, I occasionally see a TNF employee driving through the camp loop or parking lot, looking for blue passes, but unless he actually walks up to my vehicle there is no way to determine if my pass has been properly marked for the day of use. It is likely that his schedule for the day simply does not afford him the time of walking to each vehicle, as he probably has a thousand other tasks to tend to before his day is done.
So my point is this, these dash passes rely largely upon an honor system, and the monies derived from the passes are used to maintain and improve our facilities so that we can continue to enjoy them. So when we don’t pay the appropriate fee, in reality we are only hurting ourselves. So even if you have forgotten to scratch that pass, throw it away for after all, it is not an unlimited pass.
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