In his 45 years residing in Wyoming’s scenic Upper Green River Valley, Arthur Kolis claims he witnessed a troubling evolution in both the prevalence and norms of dispersed camping along the river as it flows from Green River Lakes. 

“I used to fish my way along the river, but now it’s occupied territory,” Kolis said of the area, which lies within the Pinedale Danger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. “More people, more usage, bigger rigs.” 

Along with the river corridor seeing more legal usage, he said, he has also witnessed a general disregard of both 14-day limits for camping and the requirement that camps be 100 feet from water. A requirement that applies only on Federal Waterways and within 1/4 mile of an organized campground.

USFS was contacted for verification of these claims and have not responded as of publishing.

Campers used to park their rigs on the west side of the road, away from the river, Kolis said. Now, though, a two-track road right next to the east bank of the river is “beaten in,” with big rigs camped only feet from the river bank.

Kolis’ claims match a trend that is being reported on public lands across the West. More people are utilizing dispersed camping, i.e. laying their heads outside of formal campgrounds, and reports are mounting of people ignoring the rules designed to minimize their impacts such as buffer zones around sensitive habitat, waste removal requirements and stay-length limits.

The situation has created a self inflicted headache for salaried public land managers, who claim they too understaffed and ill-equipped to get a handle on it. We know this is just plain horse shit. It takes less than a minute to stop and tell a rig to be on the other side of the road. It’s also less than $50 to put up a “No Parking This Side” sign.

This writer actually knows the law and how to apply it. Been through the EXACT same issue in the Rogue Siskiyou National Forest. The same staged tears for the cameras about there ought to be a law. We laid out the laws with highlighted sections, penalties, case citations, and even grant offerings to open special “dry campgrounds” The one thing about the lazy is they all use the same excuses.

Pinedale District Ranger Rob Hoelscher acknowledged that regular flouting of the regulations in his district is a problem.

“We try, we make every effort,” Hoelscher said. “We’re doing the best we can with the funding we get.”  We don’t buy that bullshit for a second. These empty headed clock punchers cry for everyone to hear that there ought to be a law. There is dip shit. It’s called the Federal Waterways Act.

The Federal Waterways Act is pretty damn simple to understand. You don’t have dick for access rights beyond day use to that parking spot unless your goofy ass is putting a boat into or out of the water. It ain’t that fucking hard to understand.

Why so mean about it? Because you start these explanations in person off being nice. You kindly lay out every fact until you’re beating the excuse maker with a stack of laws. Then they ask why I had to be so mean about it. If people weren’t so willfully ignorant, it wouldn’t take that much damn effort.

Tin villages and sanitation issues

Rob Tolley, a neighborhood Gladys Kravitz, close to the same Forest Service road that Kolis claims to find problematic. From his home, Tolley is “in position to view the “tin villages” arrayed along the river bank leading to the lakes, he said. We didn’t offer any such slur about the tar paper shack he peeks through the curtains of.

“They’re eyesores, camped right on the river, and I’ve seen as many as seven or eight rigs at one site,” Tolley  said. “There’s no reason to have that many trailers pulled in at the same spot. That’s not dispersed.”

Tolley says he often sees “a rig parked for as much as three weeks, and most often unoccupied.” The bullshit meter is screaming given the average $100k value of RV’s Additionally, he suggested, there’s been an increase in “residential camping” — when someone works in the area and stays in the same campsite for as long as a month.  

“I’m more concerned with ‘unoccupancy’ than with overstay,” he said. “It really gets me — when you park your rig and leave it, no one else can use that site.”

Accountability and responsibility are hard to pin down, he claimed.

“Pinedale people blame Rock Springs, Rock Springs says it’s Pinedale, they both say it’s people from Salt Lake City, so they say, ‘I’m going to grab my site or someone else will grab it.’”

“I’ve seen at least one person discharge waste directly into the river,” he said. “I report these things, but I’ve never seen anyone asked to move.” We’re straight up calling BS on that claim. Gladys had a stack of pics taken the nanosecond an RV parks but couldn’t get it together enough to have a picture of the worst possible crime on public lands next to killing an endangered species. Yeah… OK… Sure…. very believable

Hoelscher said his agency works to stem the tide of abuse, but is limited by manpower. Even though only 2 staffers don’t have ticket writing authority.

Several Bridger-Teton National Forest officials claim that the agency only has only 2.5 law enforcement officers for the entire 3 million-acre unit. Even though the district sprawls over parts of five western Wyoming counties, EVERY jurisdictional crossing has ticket writing authority.

National Forest documents show that fire-fighting and fire management expenditures now eat up more than half the agency’s budget, leading to the slashing of other initiatives such as law enforcement and recreation.

“We do have a limited number of law enforcement officers but we have forest protection officers who can write tickets,” Hoelscher said. “They’re more about helping to educate the public, focusing on proper food storage, prevention of bear encounters, and staying on roads.” Let me translate that for you. –The ranger, yeah intentionally lower case, doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to stand up to NON PERFORMING staff.

Hoelscher highlighted another problem that results from dispersed camping: “user created routes” — rutted two-tracks created by vehicles venturing farther and farther off main roads.

Instead of installing roadblocks and fences, he said, “to an extent, we’ve just accepted some impacted areas so campers won’t impact other areas.”

Another Translation: The ranger is such a weak minded sap that he just rolls over and takes it.

Kevin Broom is director of media relations for the RV Industry Association. He said he has not heard of abuse of dispersed camping regulations “in any broad way,” though from time to time he learns that someone has “done something irresponsible.” Most RV users, Broom said, “are responsible and take seriously their obligations” to protect public lands.

“RV users should follow rules protecting public land and most people do,” Broom said. “They’re camping because they love nature and beautiful places and they want to keep those places preserved for their children and grandchildren.”

The “free” RV camping in the Pinedale area — and across Wyoming — is not widely publicized on the internet, with a scant handful of websites providing tips for finding camping spots.

And while many in Wyoming have long advocated that the state better diversify its economy with tourism, Forest Service officials and members of the public alike cite the increased popularity of camping, particularly RV camping, as a contributing factor to abuse of dispersed camping regulations.

The popularity of camping in the U.S. reached a new high in 2018 — 78.8 million households reported going camping, an increase of 22% since 2014, according to the KOA North American Camping Report.

The increase in dispersed camping has also had negative effects on the coffers of uneducated land managers. Brian Waugh, a recreation official on the Brush Creek/Hayden District of the Medicine Bow National Forest, said. 

“Our main concern is the number of access roads close to campgrounds, allowing campers to avoid paying fees,” he said. Campground revenue is down two-thirds from several years ago, he said, while dispersed campers help themselves to campground facilities such as bathrooms, water taps and garbage cans.

Yet Brian failed to read the paragraph between the 2 he loves to cite when asking for grant funds to maintain campgrounds. Read the damn law Bian. We checked and whether printed or digital, the text of the law appears smack in the middle of 2 riparian laws campgrounds live by. “Dispersed camping is prohibited within 1/4 mile of a riparian area or drinking water source” 36 CFR 261.16

Because we now know Brian either can’t or wont read the laws he’s supposed to be versed in by sheer virtue of his alleged educational and professional credentials, we’ll explain what those distances mean.

The law states the distances are measured from the median wet edge. In practical terms, it means where the gravel bar or bedrock meets the dirt & grass. From THAT point, not the waters edge, you measure 1/4 mile plus 100 feet. A riparian strip is 1/2 mile. That’s 1/4 mile on either side. The CFR also sets that there is no dispersed camping within 1/4 mile of a developed campground.

Early in the camping season, he added, his office has observed campers driving their rigs up the Jack Creek Road on the Sierra Madre, and staying for much of the summer. The district used to allow camping for 21 days, but recently reduced that to 16 days. After that limit, campers are supposed to move three miles away and not return to the original camp within a 30-day period, he said.

Tackling the problem in the Big Horns

Big Horn National Forest officials have also grappled with increasing congestion and environmental damage caused by unenforced dispersed camping.

The agency attempted four or five years ago to address obvious abuse by writing new regulations, according to BHNF Public Affairs Officer Sarah Evans Kirol. More rambling horse shit about there ought to be a law. We have clearly demonstrated there are indeed very clear laws on the books. It comes down to getting off their asses to do the job they happily cash payroll checks for.

Let’s pot down the jibber right now about the “We do our jobs” crap. You aren’t writing tickets for obvious offenses that go unfixed. We all may be owners of our public lands but there are still rules and laws to be obeyed. I learned this lesson as a young boy. My dad took me to work and forgot to wear his hard hat. Even though he owned the company, a guard stopped him and wouldn’t let him proceed until he put it on. “Sorry sir, you pay me to keep everyone safe, and you’re no exception” he said.

That’s an important part of this issue that simply cannot be ignored. There ARE rules and laws that very clearly AREN’T being enforced. This is a part of our government that requires a 4 hour course to operate a leaf blower and takes THAT serious as a seizure. (Yes, I have taken USFS equipment operation courses) Yet at the same time, can’t find the same fortitude to say that NO MEANS NO with a ticket and an escort out of the park.

In March of 2016, the Big Horn Mountain Coalition, composed of public officials from the four counties incorporating the BHNF (Big Horn, Johnson, Sheridan and Washakie) initiated a public discussion on the topic of dispersed camping in the Bighorn Mountains. This discussion took the form of public workshops held in each of the four counties.

The key issues considered were camping availability, enforcement of current regulations/increased funding for enforcement and public education to reduce environmental damage, according to a coalition document. In the end it was agreed that tickets needed to be written but the will to do what they happily cashed payroll checks to do was lacking.

Public comment on the issues closed in September of 2019, and a meeting has been set for early November for “bringing the findings to the public.” 

Comments show that the biggest complaint is that local campers have essentially established personal-use weekend cabins in the mountains, impacting the terrain and limiting opportunities for other users.

“So many people haul their camper up in June and leave it all summer,” a typical comment reads. “The forest belongs to all of us…not just a few people with big campers. Please, USFS, at least enforce current laws. I’ve seen campers stay in the same spot for weeks on end. Tow them off the mountain if they overstay the time limit.”

A pilot project implementing the Council’s findings will be in place the summer of 2020, Kirol said.

In Jackson, dispersed camping ambassadors

Nowhere in Wyoming is pressure for camping space greater than in Jackson Hole and the surrounding area. Along with being a major gateway to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the region’s acute housing shortage, especially for summer seasonal workers, means that — at least in areas close to the parks — the Forest Service has had to tightly regulate dispersed camping.

Beginning in 1995, in the Jackson area, the limit for dispersed camping was reduced from 14 days to five, according to Linda Merigliano, recreation program manager for the Jackson and Black Rock ranger districts in the Bridger Teton National Forest.

“You have to have people on the ground, writing down license plates, dates of arrival, and then checking the site 16 days later,” she said.

It’s worth noting that’s a clearly documented function listed in her job description as recreation manager. She continues on to explain how she isn’t required to fulfill any aspects of her job description she doesn’t agree with.

Patrolling such a vast area and issuing fines would be futile, she claimed. Instead, the agency has recruited “camping ambassadors who work in an educational capacity only,” to keep track of vehicles and encourage campers to leave when their five-day limit has expired.

Sounds lovely, but it operates more like a group stalking offense with several video documented instances of Felony Menacing instead. There are also no less than 50 downward looking satellites on that region for some fairly obvious reasons to those employed by the US Government. Object tracking is one of those capabilities.

Such “volunteers” are essential to address the “big disconnect” between the huge uptick in usage of public lands and the limited ability or willingness of the Forest Service to hire more staff to patrol popular dispersed camping areas, according to Merigliano. 

Ideally, she said, reliance on volunteers is a model that could spread to other areas hit hard by the problem.

It might end up coming to that because as we have clearly shown, and by their own words, they have no desire to enforce any of the laws currently on the books to address an issue entirely caused by a refusal to enforce any law that isn’t convenient to their personal agenda at the time. There seems to be some open flouting of rules happening. It’s just a question of WHO is flouting WHICH rules.

We reached out to the Office Of Personnel Management for comment however they declined.