The National Parks Service recently announced a proposal to more than double entrance fees for 17 of the most visited parks in America.
This proposed change is not the perfect solution to the myriad of problems plaguing our national parks, but it is a necessary evil in response to budget cuts.
These 17 parks are headlined by massive tourist draws like Joshua Tree and Yellowstone, and each would feature a $70 entrance fee for a car, a $50 fee for a motorcycle and a $30 fee for anything else during their respective peak seasons, according to the National Park Service website. The proposed policy would supposedly increase revenue by $268 million at the most.
The original budget proposal for this year suggested a 12.9 percent cut in the service’s budget, resulting in more than $400 million in funds to be assigned elsewhere. The new policy would not come close to covering all of those losses, but it would be a necessity to keep the parks open.
Jonah Baker | Argonaut
The revenue from the proposed fee increase won’t cover the entirety of the budget cuts, but something has to be done to ensure the National Parks Service continues to function at some level to satisfy needs of the crowds visiting America’s national parks.
As the National Parks Service wraps up celebrating its 100th birthday, national parks around the U.S. are more popular than ever.
In spite of the looming cuts, attendance at the parks continued to rise in popularity with visitors. Each of the top 10 most visited parks saw an increase in visitors during 2016, and the NPS recorded 23.7 million more visitors in total than the previous year. America’s national parks received almost 331 million visitors in 2016, more than the entire population of the United States.
The raised entry fee is how the federal government proposes to balance out the budget cuts and deal with increasing demand. But, why would such a dramatic yet also insufficient price hike be a good idea with the very real possibility of stunting meteoric growth?
In the face of a decidedly anti-parks government, raising entry fees and other prices will be one of a very small number of feasible solutions. The parks themselves must be able to function as leaders in conservation and responsible tourism, and they will need to capitalize better off of customers in order to continue their work and existence.
Above all, the National Parks Service exists to preserve selected examples of America’s natural beauty. However, there is no shortage of issues standing in their way that are further exacerbated by a shrinking budget.
The biggest issue facing the National Parks Service is a longstanding backlog of maintenance deficiencies.
For years there has not been sufficient attention paid and resources dedicated to the parks’ upkeep. As recently as September of 2016, NPS reported a backlog of $11.3 billion in deferred maintenance costs. Simply put, this means scheduled maintenance for park facilities and infrastructure is deferred to a later date. That number is representative of the accumulative cost of delayed projects within the national parks. And, when there are more than 330 million different visitors to the parks over the course of a year, those facilities will deteriorate faster and the natural resources themselves will need further preservation efforts.
Although the parks are proving to be more attractive to visitors than ever, their integrity is being attacked from both sides. The increase in visitation causes a similar increase in deterioration of infrastructure, while a shrinking budget provides fewer and fewer resources to maintain those already-languishing facilities.
The service needs more money to handle growing demand and monumental backlogs while the federal government is actively trying to make things worse. The National Parks Service truly has no choice.
The government and citizenry are burning the candle at both ends, and a rise in prices is the only real way to combat these effects and try to maintain the important institution of America’s parks.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker