Ski Hill Resources for Economic Development Act

• Local National Forest units that collect ski-area rental charges would receive 80% of fees collected at that unit for local uses. Seventy-five percent of that local share would go to administration, permit processing, visitor services, fee collection costs, staff training, and planning or reducing wildfire risk near recreation sites while 25% would fund repairs, maintenance, parking, law enforcement, avalanche information, search and rescue, and related visitor access projects.
• Twenty percent of deposited fees would be available for use at any unit of the National Forest System for the same recreation and safety activities. The bill lets the Secretary reduce the local percentage to no less than 60% if a covered unit has more fee revenue than reasonable needs, with the excess distributed agency-wide.
• Funds in the Ski Area Fee Retention Account would be available without further appropriation and remain available for four fiscal years. The bill prohibits using Account funds for wildfire suppression or land acquisition and preserves Granger-Thye cost-sharing rules for ski areas.

*The bill would create a dedicated Treasury account to let the Forest Service retain and spend ski-area permit rental fees directly for ski-area operations and recreation projects.*