The Bureau of Land Management will move ahead with overnight camping fees at several BLM sites that lie in San Miguel County but is not implementing proposed day‑use fees for developed recreation sites at this time, BLM staff told the San Miguel County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 8.

“Those overnight camping fees will be used to go back into actually advance those sites,” said Dan Benhorin, a BLM field manager who presented the agency’s business plan to the commissioners. Benhorin said the agency finalized the plan after a public comment period that closed in September and that overnight fees drew relatively little opposition compared with proposed day‑use charges.

The BLM’s authority to charge recreation fees comes from the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, Benhorin said. Under that law, a site must offer a minimum suite of amenities before an agency may charge fees; Benhorin said BLM policy generally requires about five amenities (examples cited included fire rings, restrooms and trash pickup) before a developed campground can be converted to a fee site. Small, primitive campgrounds such as the Fall Creek site in the county would need infrastructure improvements before fees could be charged there, he said.

Benhorin told the board the agency published the business plan in the Federal Register last November; federal rules then impose a six‑month waiting period before implementation can begin, so the earliest possible start date would be May 2025. He said the agency also decided not to implement day‑use fees now—“we are not gonna be moving forward with the day‑use fees at existing developed recreation sites” —although that option remains in the business plan for possible administrative action later.

The agency said public feedback opposed day‑use fees in this region. Benhorin noted they remain a more common practice on the Front Range and in national parks but are a novel concept in much of western Colorado. He said the BLM remains interested in working with county and community partners to identify other funding and management approaches for maintenance and sanitation at popular sites.

Benhorin outlined how day‑use or camping fees might be collected if implemented: the BLM may use recreation.gov reservations, a “Scan and Pay” feature that requires a smartphone app, old‑style cash “Iron Ranger” drop‑boxes, or remote automated kiosks that can process credit‑card payments without cell service. He said the agency plans to honor the America the Beautiful (National Parks) pass if it ever implements day‑use fees.

On enforcement, Benhorin said the local field office has one law‑enforcement ranger covering roughly 1,000,000 acres and a handful of recreation rangers; he said the BLM relies heavily on visitors complying with rules and on limited ranger patrols. “We have 1 law enforcement ranger for the entire field office area,” he said.

The meeting also included a BLM update on Leopard Creek, the county’s main local public shooting site. Benhorin said initial soil testing at Leopard Creek found abnormally high lead levels and that the site is being treated as a hazardous‑materials cleanup. BLM hazardous‑materials staff are considering removing the topsoil to reduce lead in the area, but Benhorin said such remediation is likely to require restricting or closing the site afterward unless a suitable alternative shooting range is available.

“If we do clean it up, we’d likely need to have some kind of closure there,” he said, adding that closing the site without a nearby alternative could simply shift shooting to uncontrolled locations. Benhorin said the agency will coordinate with local partners to identify potential alternative shooting sites; he noted possible funding streams in federal legislation the BLM staff referenced, including what he called the Dingle Act and the recently passed Explore Act, which contain language on shooting‑site funding.

The BLM staff described community feedback about specific San Miguel sites: Fall Creek drew several phone inquiries from longtime users worried about future improvements and potential fees, and Benhorin said Electric Hills is among sites proposed as a developed campground. He stressed that dispersed backcountry camping would remain free; only developed, improved campgrounds would be subject to fees.

Commissioners and public commenters asked whether improvements to small developed campgrounds would be made given tight BLM budgets; Benhorin said the agency is seeking creative partnerships and that improvements would be required before charging fees. He also reiterated that implementation steps would include additional public outreach should BLM reconsider day‑use fees.

The BLM presentation closed after questions from commissioners and local stakeholders, and BLM staff said they would continue coordinating with the county and local groups if the agency pursues infrastructure improvements or shooting‑range alternatives.

The commissioners took no formal vote on the BLM business plan at the Jan. 8 meeting.