‘Bargain’ Park Fees for Movie Makers Blasted

The Reagan Administration, which wants to hike national park visitor fees, is renting public land to movie and TV commercial producers at bargain-basement rates, a House subcommittee chairman said today.

Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.) said that not only has the Bureau of Land Management skirted a 1976 law requiring such rentals to carry at least fair-market prices, it sometimes goes below its already-low posted prices.

Synar said that on their way to a $168-million gross, the makers of the box-office smash, “Return of the Jedi,” paid $8,620 for the use of BLM property in California’s Buttercup Valley for 243 days in 1981.

Synar cited a fee schedule used by California for filming on state lands. Under that schedule, 243 days rental costs a minimum of $145,800.

Areas Denuded

In a letter to Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel, Synar said that areas of the valley were denuded and that, contrary to the BLM permit requirement, trash “was burned on the site and buried in the sand.”

“Not only were no penalties imposed, the film maker was undercharged $17,580 for the use of the land, even at BLM’s bargain-basement rates,” said Synar, basing his letter on a study by the congressional General Accounting Office.

“Now that you plan to ask American taxpayers to pay more when they visit national parks, it is reasonable that they, in turn, will expect the department to do a better job of collecting rents and costs from those who benefit commercially,” Synar said.

Lee Laitala, chief of the branch of land resources at BLM, said he thought “some of the information (in the letter and report) is dated. There has been substantial corrective action taken in the last year.

“I can’t tell you what the (current) fees are,” he said. “I know they’re up. . . . My understanding is we’re much closer to getting fair market rentals than we were in the past.”