Visitors to the Tonto National Forest in eastern Arizona may soon be paying more to camp and boat in the area. Officials plan to use the additional revenue to upgrade aging infrastructure.
The proposed fee increases would help the forest deal with a $2 million budget shortfall.
Greg Schuster is a recreation program manager with the Tonto National Forest. He said, right now, the forest service is having to choose between funding daily operations and long term deferred maintenance.
"And so by modifying our fee structure and bringing some of these prices up, we feel that we will be able to address both challenges equally," he said.
Schuster said, the Tonto National Forest has one of the largest recreation programs in the country.
The public has until mid-October to comment on the proposal.