National Parks to Rethink Plan to Hike Entrance Fees After Widespread Anger

By Jimmy Tobias, Guardian UK

08 April 18

Public comment period saw more than 100,000 messages, many condemning proposal to raise fees as high as $70

he Department of the Interior said on Tuesday that it planned to revise a controversial proposal to drastically increase entrance fees at some of the most popular national parks in the country.

The interior department press secretary, Heather Swift, said the Trump administration decided to rethink its proposal after Americans flooded the National Park Service (NPS) with more than 100,000 comments, many of them sharply critical of the proposed surge pricing scheme.

In October, the interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, announced a plan to hike entrance fees as high as $70 at 17 different parks – including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone and Glacier – during peak visitation season. Zinke justified the fee increase as a way to raise revenue and help the NPS tackle its roughly $12bn deferred maintenance backlog.

“During the public comment period, the National Park Service received more than 109,000 comments on the original peak-season fee proposal,” Swift wrote in an email. “We’ve taken the public’s suggestions seriously and have amended the plan to reflect those.”

Swift would not comment on the details of the changes under consideration, writing that the plan was “still being reviewed and not yet finalized”. The Washington Post, which first reported the story on Monday, said there was fear inside the interior department that a steep fee increase might cause visitation to drop.

“It seems to be par for the course at the interior department to shoot first and ask questions later,” says Aaron Weiss, media director at the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation organization based in Colorado. “We are glad that interior is realizing what a terrible idea it would be to hike entrance fees by that amount. It would hurt American families and have a harmful effect on overall attendance at national parks.”

Prominent public interest organizations and conservation groups, including the National Parks Conservation Association, the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club, staunchly opposed the proposed fee increase. Last November, meanwhile, a bipartisan group of attorneys general from 10 different states and the District of Columbia wrote a letter to the NPS denouncing the idea.

“We cannot let the most popular and awe-inspiring national parks become places for the wealthy,” they wrote. “As Americans, we are all public landowners.”

Many Americans shared that sentiment and in public comments urged the interior department to forgo the fee increase.

“So the NPS would **more than DOUBLE** the current entry fee for peak season?” argued one such commenter. “Is this intended to drive down total visitorship?”

“I am opposed to the fee increases for park fee entrance,” wrote another. “I raised my son as a single mother and set money aside to take him camping/visiting in our National Parks. The fees that you suggest would have hindered our visits.”

The National Parks Conservation Association, or NPCA, conducted a statistical analysis of the public comments and said it found that approximately 98% were opposed to the fee increase.

“Americans did not like this ill-conceived proposal from the administration and they spoke out,” says Emily Douce, the NPCA’s director of budget and appropriations.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, for their part, hailed the interior department’s change of heart on Tuesday.

“The people have made their voices heard and the Trump administration seems to be listening,” said Raúl Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the House natural resources committee. “It was completely ludicrous to propose that the American people should have to pay higher entrance fees at our top national parks all so that the Trump White House could make big cuts to the park service’s budget. The good news is that we now have confirmation that the majority of people agree with us.”