The Interior Department is looking to back off proposed admission price hikes at 17 national parks after a deluge of public protest.
Interior officials said the agency is not planning to scrap the increases altogether, but will be looking to reduce them significantly after the agency received tens of thousands of public comments protesting the changes.
The agency shared the comments with the Washington Post on Monday, with officials telling the newspaper it now plans to modify the proposal.
“We’re working to respond to those … thoughtful and well-put comments,” one Interior Department official said. “Our ultimate goal when it comes to entrance fees is to make sure the parks get 80 percent of that revenue … but we also don’t want to put a burden on our visitors. We believe there is room to increase the fees and the annual passes.”
The Interior Department had proposed nearly tripling the admission fees for some of the 17 national parks. For example, Joshua Tree National Park in California would see admission rise from $25 to $70.
“$70 is insane! What the hell?” one of the comments read. “You need to go to Congress, get them to fund [the park service], and then get our president to actually sign it.”
The fee increases were Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s proposed solution for the $11 billion maintenance backlog at the National Park Service.
“I know if I were considering a trip to one of these parks and suddenly found that the trip would incur an exorbitant entrance fee, I would not … repeat not take my family on this trip,” read another of the comments.
The Interior official would not say what the revised rate structure would be, but said the goal is a more modest adjustment, noting that the admission rates haven’t been increased in a decade.
One idea is enacting a straight 10 percent fee across all parks, not just the 17 in the original October proposal. It’s also looking at raising the annual senior lifetime pass fee by $20 to $100, according to the newspaper. The Park Service in August raised the cost of the pass from $10 to $80.
The agency is also contemplating raising rates for tour buses or creating an individual passenger bus fee.
