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Recreation Facility Analysis (RFA)

Background

Many of the developed recreation sites in California's national forests were built 30-50 years ago. Since then, visitor preferences and demographics have changed. Some sites no longer serve projected recreation demand; some facilities are in poor shape and do not meet visitors' expectations.

To respond to these conditions and national direction, national forests in California and throughout the nation, are implementing the Recreation Site Facility Master Planning (RFA) process for developed recreation sites.

The result of RFA is a proposed program of work with a list of prioritized actions to more effectively manage recreation sites on each national forest.

What is RFA?

RFA is an analysis tool developed nationally to help forests align their developed recreation sites with the unique characteristics of the forest, projected recreation demand, visitor expectations, and revenue. RFA is driven by six strategic goals:

Provide recreation opportunities best suited to each national forest;
Operate and maintain recreation sites to meet national quality standards;
Eliminate/reduce recreation-site deferred maintenance.
Be financially sustainable.
Be evironmentally sound.
Contribute to community stability.

A seven-step process is used to evaluate and prioritize sites for action. The results are contained in proposed 5-year programs of work. Public feedback is sought to ensure that these actions are sound and responsive to visitor needs. Annually, phases of the programs of work are implemented; additional public participation is conducted at that time. The national deadline for preparing programs of work for implementation is December 31, 2007.

Recreation Niche

Part of the Recreation Facility Analysis is to determine a recreation niche that best defines the experiences or benefits that the Lassen National Forest can provide. It’s what makes the Forest special, and it focuses on providing quality recreation opportunities vs. quantity. We can’t be all things to all people. The Lassen’s niche statement was developed by our recreation officers and the Forest leadership team. This niche provides the umbrella or context for all the recreation programs and services we offer. It helps us match up what is most important with what we can realistically provide. Our overarching goal is to provide ecologically sustainable recreation and quality customer service within the resources we have available.

To date, Forest Service staff has completed steps 1-4 of the recreation facility analysis process. We evaluated each developed recreation site using established national criteria. Recreation sites were ranked according to those criteria and preliminary recommendations were made on how each site should be managed in the future. The Lassen National Forest has recently completed a five year action plan. This plan will list a variety of management activities and proposed dates of completion to reduce the deferred maintenance at developed recreation sites and improve customer service. Management options to increase our efficiencies include: raising visitors fees, reducting the operating season, replacing expensive facilities with ones that have lower costs to maintain, enlisting more volunteers, advertising for a concessionaire to operate some fee campgrounds, decommissioning sites, and other possibilities.

RFA is not a tool to get rid of recreation sites. Many factors, including public input, will be considered as we continue the RFA process. Some people have very strong attachenments and memories of a particular recreation site on the Forest. The Lassen is always seeking public comment on our efforts to enhance recreation experiences across the forest. Please send comment to Christopher O'Brien, Public Services Officer, 2550 Riverside Drive, Susanville, CA 96130.