U.S. to Raise Charges for National Park Visits

Visitor fees at more than 100 popular national parks and other recreation areas will rise sharply next year or be collected for the first time to help pay for repairs and improvements, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced Tuesday.

Higher fees will be imposed on visitors who travel by foot, car, kayak or snowmobile in selected parks. The steepest increases will be at four of the most visited national parks--Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Grand Teton--which all will cost $20 per vehicle for seven days of use.

Yosemite’s current fee is $5 per car. The other three parks have been collecting $10 each. Elsewhere in California, fees at Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Death Valley national parks will double from $5 to $10.

Northern California’s Redwoods National Park, which has been free, will impose a $20 charge on participants in ranger-led kayak trips. And portions of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in and around San Francisco will begin charging $2 entrance fees.

The new higher admission charges are part of a three-year pilot program announced by Babbitt that is expected to raise $30 million to $50 million for needed enhancements. It was the first fee hike at Yellowstone in 70 years, park officials said.

“While everything else has gone up in price over the past year, Yellowstone is still $10 per car,” said Babbitt. “Even with the pilot-fee increase, a family of four can enjoy a week’s visit for less than it costs to see a first-run movie.”

Approved with bipartisan support in Congress, the trial program will let parks keep 80% of the money they take in with the rest going to parks, recreation areas and wildlife refuges where fees are not being raised, said Roger Kennedy, director of the National Park Service.

Up to now, most fees collected from visitors have gone to the federal treasury. Government officials say polls suggest that visitors are willing to pay more if the money stays at their favorite parks.

“The increases are well within the range of public opinion surveys that indicate broad public approval so long as the money stays in the parks and the other places where it is generated,” Kennedy said Tuesday.

Officials said any effects of the new rates on visitation will be reviewed in three years.

“People need to pay more for this treasure, and Yosemite is worth it,” said park spokesman Scott Gediman. “Twenty dollars for a family of four to enjoy one of the world’s priceless treasures is not unreasonable.”

Paul Pritchard, president of the National Parks and Conservation Assn., said the new fees will give parks a financial shot in the arm that they sorely need.

“They will help the parks and, in the long run, visitors will benefit too. Even with the increases, national parks are still the best education bargain around,” he said.

Some environmentalists, meanwhile, were taking a wait-and-see approach, expressing concern that the higher fees could deter average Americans from visiting parks and other scenic treasures.

“You don’t want to make the parks the exclusive domain of the rich,” said Nobby Riedy, director of conservation programs for the Wilderness Society. “It’s going to be an adjustment. If it limits who can go there, we have to rethink it.”

The higher fees represent a move to pass on more of the costs of national parks to the users. Congress and the Clinton administration have been unable to agree on other ways to raise money for parks, including a program of corporate sponsorship and higher concession fees from hotel and restaurant operators.

In all, the fees will go into effect in 47 locations managed by the National Park Service, with new or increased fees expected to be announced at 50 more sites in January. Park Service officials said Tuesday that all of the fee adjustments will be in place by April.

For the first time, the Bureau of Land Management will charge daily fees for entrance and camping at 17 of the recreation sites it manages. In addition, 42 sites and refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will impose fees.

The new revenue will help the Park Service begin to chip away at a $4-billion maintenance backlog ranging from axle-busting roads in Grand Teton National Park to a leaky roof at the Grand Canyon headquarters building.

However, Kennedy cautioned that the added revenue will only begin to solve a problem that will require more controversial fixes.

“The fees are just part of the whole picture, which requires more donations as well as increased return from park concessionaires and strong budgets from Congress,” Kennedy said.

At Yosemite, officials said they intend to use the new fees to pay for a variety of improvements. Replacing a fleet of 10 diesel buses with electric vehicles, removing unnecessary structures and roads, restoring wilderness and improving 30-year-old restrooms and campgrounds are on the list.

Last year, 4.1 million visitors entered Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada, paying $2.8 million in fees. If visitation stays at the same level, the park will collect about $10 million under the new fee schedule, which will take effect at Yosemite on Jan. 15.

The last fee increase at Yosemite was in 1987, when the admission charge went from $3 to $5 a carload. Fees for tour buses will be announced later.

Jennifer Eisner, a spokeswoman for Sequoia and Kings Canyon, estimated that the $5 increase per vehicle there would generate $2 million a year. The money will pay for a new entrance station, maintenance of campgrounds and trails and removal of buildings threatened by unstable ancient trees in Sequoia’s Giant Forest Village.

In a rare show of harmony on an environmental issue, Republican and Democratic members of the 104th Congress hailed the increases.

“Tax dollars can no longer fully satisfy the demand for increased recreation opportunities and facilities,” said Rep. Ralph Regula, (R-Ohio) chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on Interior and related agencies. “This will provide much-needed financial resources for the areas collecting fees to enhance the visitor’s experience.”

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Cost per Car

Entrance fees will jump at 106 national parks and recreation sites under a plan passed by Congress and announced Tuesday by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Here are some per-car fees at popular national parks for seven-day visits, effective next year:

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NOW 1997 Yosemite $5 $20 Grand Canyon $10 $20 Yellowstone $10 $20 Grand Teton $10 $20 Death Valley $5 $10 Sequoia $5 $10 Glacier $5 $10 Olympic $5 $10

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