The National Park Service wants to more than double visitor fees for 17 popular national parks during the busiest times of the year as a way to pay for its long overdue maintenance backlog at many of America’s parks.
The entrance fee for the Grand Canyon and other parks would rise from $30 to $70 per vehicle under the proposed increases being suggested in a formal rulemaking process. Other park areas would see slightly higher increases from $25 to $70 during the busiest months of the year. Zion and Arches in Utah, for example, would impose those fees from May through September, while Maine’s Acadia and Virginia’s Shenandoah national parks would charge the higher prices in June through October.
The park service opened a 30-day public comment period Tuesday to begin hearing feedback. The Interior Department hopes to raise $70 million per year from the increase. The proposal looks to increase visitor fees for sites primarily in the West.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are already lashing back at the idea of more than doubling the fees to pay for maintenance. The fee increases are meant to address the maintenance backlog and need for infrastructure upgrades.
“While Secretary Zinke flies around on private jets using our taxpayer dollars, he is hiking up the fees all American families pay to enjoy our national parks,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, with direct oversight over the park service.
Cantwell raised the issue of Zinke using noncommercial, chartered aircraft to meet with former donors in Las Vegas. The flights are being probed by the agency’s inspector general. A number of Cabinet officials, including Zinke, had admitted to taking private flights amid increased scrutiny that they may have abused taxpayer funds.
Zinke called the concern a “little B.S.” just before Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign over the scandal.
