LOGAN, Utah — To win a rafting permit, Crystal Muzik usually enters five lotteries a year. She tries for the San Juan River and for Desolation Canyon on the Green River — both in Utah. Muzik enters to raft a section of the Salmon River in Idaho; the Salt River in Arizona and Oregon’s Rogue River.
“I have not won one single lottery,” Muzik said.
But she’s spent a lot to try.
“I actually did the math this morning,” Muzik said. “I would say at least over $300 over the years.”
Muzik’s lottery fees were among 10 million transactions last year on Recreation.gov. It’s operated by federal land agencies, including the U.S. forest and national park services and the Bureau of Land Management. Besides entering lotteries for permits, the portal allows users to book everything from a campsite in a national park to tickets for the White House Christmas Tree lighting.
In 2016, government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton won the bid to provide technical services for Recreation.gov with the company receiving some of the fees users pay.
Those fees have added up.
According to invoices made public after inquiries from FOX 13 News, Booz Allen billed the government for $140 million from October 2018 through November of last year.
That puts the company on pace to exceed estimates made when the contract was signed. Back then, the U.S. Forest Service, which administers the contract and provided the invoices, estimated the agreement to be worth $182 million over 10 years.
The U.S. Forest Service redacted documents which would show how much Booz Allen earns on each transaction, saying the company considers it proprietary information. But the contract specifies Booz Allen can receive fees for processing reservations even at sites Congress has said cannot charge for admissions, including the Washington Monument, the Liberty Bell and the USS Arizona Memorial.
Booz Allen can also keep the processing fees from Recreation.gov users like Muzik, who doesn’t win lotteries for hard-to-get permits.
Why couldn’t the government have crafted the contract so the vendor was paid a flat fee or hourly rate?
“So, we are simply using a model that is tried and true for the government,” said Janelle Smith, a Forest Service employee and spokeswoman for Recreation.gov.
The contract “really pushes the risk onto the contractor rather than onto the government,” she added.
Smith points out the vast majority of fees go to support public lands. Earlier estimates of the contract’s worth, she said, did not anticipate an increase in people recreating in the outdoors.
Booz Allen referred comment to the Forest Service.
The company has relied on a subcontractor for some work. In an October 2020 earnings call, an executive for the subcontractor, then-called NIC Inc., made clear his firm’s revenues were tied to how many people booked on Recreation.gov.
“Recreation.gov had a phenomenal quarter with revenues growing 93%,” said Steve Kovzan, then the Chief Financial Officer of NIC, according to a transcript of the call.
Kovzan added that NIC didn’t expect “this spectacular level of growth to continue in the fourth quarter” because Recreaton.gov users tend to book less in the fall and winter. Though he said the company hoped “the national parks and sites remain open as safe destinations during the pandemic.”
NIC has since been acquired by Tyler Technologies. A spokesperson for that company sent an email to FOX 13 News saying Kovzan left NIC in 2021; the Recreation.gov work represents less than 1% of Tyler Technologies revenue and the company does not set the fees.
Investor filings show Recreation.gov is a fraction of Booz Allen’s revenue. The contract is still something Booz Allen has safeguarded. Lobbying reports on OpenSecrets.org show the company has lobbied Congress to support Recreation.gov.
When Ben Friedland heard how much money Booz Allen has invoiced Recreation.gov, he replied, “Yeah, that's not cool.”
Friedland is a software engineer in the Bay Area who has tried to use the site to book campsites in California.
“Yosemite is, you know, one of the most amazing places on the planet Earth and it's in my backyard,” Friedland said. “And it's really, really hard to get access to it.”
Friedland's among the campers who have turned to third-party sites that send alerts when someone cancels a campground reservation. He and Muzik, who lives in Moab, contend there’s too many people trying to book or win lotteries for outdoor recreation.
Yet the Recreation.gov contract allows Booz Allen to come up with marketing plans. Users can sign up for emails that encourage them to book more on Recreation.gov.
Smith said the land agencies do not let Booz Allen encourage booking just so the company can make money. The land agencies approve any marketing plan and emails from Recreation.gov.
Adding more campgrounds and activities to Recreation.gov, she said, frees government employees who would have to take reservations from the public.
“Think about it in terms of that value,” Smith said.
A federal lawsuit filed in against Booz Allen in Virginia attempts to stop the company from charging its processing fees. One plaintiff camped at Tony Grove Campground, a Forest Service site near Logan, Utah. The suit says Booz Allen charged him what the plaintiffs call $8 in “junk fees.”
The plaintiffs contend the processing fees violate consumer laws and are being charged to groups who can enter national parks for free, such as veterans and disabled Americans.
Booz Allen has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. The company argues it’s the government that sets the fees. Also, money paid over Recreation.gov doesn’t go directly to Booz Allen. The company sends the government one of those invoices.
Congress last held an oversight hearing on Recreation.gov in 2016 just as Booz Allen was about to take over the contract. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, was then in the U.S. House of Representatives and sat on the committee that held the hearing.
“With rapid change in technology, it is likely that it is time for another oversight hearing of the systems the federal government uses to manage its resources,” Lummis’ office said in a recent statement to FOX 13 News. “We need to ensure the federal government is making good use of taxpayer dollars.”
The Forest Service said surveys showed Recreation.gov customer satisfaction increased from 2021 to 2022.
Muzik is not one of those satisfied customers. She would like the fees lowered and more done to discourage people from booking recreation and then deciding they don’t want to go.
“I've spent a lot of time and money using the system,” Muzik said.