Let’s have the private sector manage Capulin Snow area

Recently, the National Forest Service announced that the Capulin Snow play area in the Sandias would be open for only 3.5 hours per week. The problem, of course, is supposed federal budget cutbacks. I don’t understand how you can’t afford to hire some minimum wage, temporary help to stand around and supervise a bunch of sledders for a few months when the budget has doubled since Clinton’s last year in office, but that’s another story.

Leaving all that aside, however, what if the bureaucrats at the National Forest Service got creative (ha, ha, creative bureaucrats, I know) and outsourced management of the play area to a private company for the winter? People who want to bring their kids to sled ride or play could pay $1 a head and more than pay for the necessary staff. Similar ideas have worked at parks elsewhere as our friends at PERC (the Property and Environment Research Center) have pointed out.

With all of the federally-funded boondoggle programs out there (ostensibly for the children here and here), it is high time for the feds to leverage the private sector to get our kids out of doors in the mountains.