The National Park Service recently announced plans to increase entrance fees to certain parks during peak visitation season from May to September. It hopes to increase vehicle fees from $30 to $70. That’s a 133 percent increase – more than the typical American family can afford or expects to pay at a public park.
In Utah, the increase would affect Bryce Canyon, Zion, Arches and Canyonlands national parks. Increases would also affect Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Grand Teton.
Sure, it’s still less than the cost of one ticket to Disneyland. But for many families, especially working-class families, Disneyland isn’t even on the table. National parks will also soon be only for the wealthy few.
Which would be an utter shame.
There’s nothing better than a summer week camping and exploring the red rocks and hoodoos of southern Utah, or the bison and geysers of nearby Wyoming. For many families, such trips are the only vacations they enjoy.
Seniors, many of who just grabbed up lifetime passes for $10, will not be affected by these price increases. But just how many people can a family squeeze into grandma and grandpa’s car?
The price increase is not effective just yet. The park service is accepting public comment until Nov. 23.
The increase is meant to raise funds for deferred maintenance projects. But the fact that the park service is only implementing a fee increase in a few of the most popular parks seems to belie that proposition. Why not increase fees a little in all of the parks instead of a lot in a few of the parks?
Many believe the fee proposal is meant to curb increasing congestion in popular parks. The park service has been struggling to accommodate an increasing number of visitors over the last few years. But if congestion is the issue, a lottery or first-come-first-served policy would handle congestion in a more equitable way.
If the annual passes stay priced at $80, it will make more sense for a visitor to purchase an annual pass than a day pass. Congestion could actually increase as more people buy annual passes and visit multiple times.
No doubt there are repair backlogs throughout the system that the park service needs to address. There was an $11.3 billion maintenance backlog last year, including $62 million at Zion alone. But officials estimate the fee increase will only raise $68.6 million – hardly a drop in an $11.3 billion bucket.
We shouldn’t be sacrificing working-class Americans to solve a national park funding problem. There are better ways.
