“Must an area meet just one, several or all elements of the primary criteria for the pass to be required?” Hargrove asked. “Is there consideration given to whether the amount of recreation or agency resources required is significant?”
Hargrove’s new bill clarifies the term “recreation site or land” pertaining to DNR lands by including language recognizing the sites as “developed recreations sites, including campgrounds, trails and trailheads and the associated parking areas.” This language works to correct a move by DNR to include significant portions of their lands in areas covered by the Discover Pass requirement.
“The department’s designation of large blocks of their managed lands as a ’recreation area’, including undeveloped, remote and lightly recreated portions, is an overbroad reading of that term,” says Hargrove.
Sales of the Discover Pass have raised more than $5 million since it became a requirement to visit state recreational areas on July 1st. Hargrove says while that money is critical for keeping state parks open and for the upkeep of recreational land, the Department of Natural Resources should review its criteria for determining which areas are considered recreational, to ensure that lands are not wrongly included and to eliminate confusion.