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Start down the trail by reading through this online discussion. It is about National Park passes, discounted Promo Codes, mailing fees, and the benefits of buying your NPS pass (and a whole lot of gear) at ones local REI store. http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=31463

Then have a look at this weblink  paying attention to the top banner and the reference to the Outdoor Industry Foundation. https://buy.nationalparks.org/default.asp?ref=oif

... then read this page from the Outdoor Industry Foundation's own website
http://www.outdoorindustryfoundation.org/programs.parks.html .


It appears that if you purchase a National Park pass at the buy.nationalpark.org webpage that sports the OIF logo, as contrasted with purchasing your pass at a national park or from the NPS, instead of the National Park System getting all of the $50 you pay, they get just $40. OIF and the National Park Foundation get $10 of YOUR money with which to promote themselves and their programs.

Here's an second example of a "Targeted" website for buying a pass.
http://buy.nationalparks.org/default.asp?ref=target

Here's another
http://buy.nationalparks.org/default.asp?ref=xanterracl

There are, in fact, quite a few buy.nationalpark websites, each one having a different sponsor and each one potentially offering different deals!

Here's what you get it you type the Orwellian phrase "MyFord" into the
promo code line
http://forums.dealofday.com/showthread.php?t=117771

If you type myford into the promo code line, apparently you don't pay $50 and you don't pay the shipping and handling fee either. You pay just $40 and someone else pays the shipping.

There is, however, a problem with all of these promo deals.

The purpose of the National Park Pass has always been to generated money for the parks. It was never intended to serve as the basis of advertising campaigns for retail stores or car companies. It does not exist to enrich trade associations. Yet the fee program now does all of these things --- and the story gets even worse. It appears that these deals and promos may run directly afoul of the law;  the relevant portions of which I've quoted here:

http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/therat.htm
     (A) RETENTION OF REVENUES- Not less than 80 percent of the recreation fees and site-specific agency pass revenues collected at a specific unit or area of a Federal land management agency shall remain available for expenditure, without further appropriation, until expended at that unit or area.

     (3) OTHER AMOUNTS- Other amounts collected at other locations, including recreation fees collected by other entities or for a reservation service, shall remain available, without further appropriation, until expended in accordance with guidelines established by the Secretary.

      (c) Administration, Overhead, and Indirect Costs- The Secretary may use not more than an average of 15 percent of total revenues collected under this Act for administration, overhead, and indirect costs related to the recreation fee program by that Secretary.

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Consider the examples I've provided above and then relate those example to the requirement of the law.

I suggest that the corporate promo deals make it difficult to comply with provision (3), extremely difficult to comply with provision (A), and surely violate the requirement of provision (c).

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