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National Park visitation has been declining for about a decade. Only recently have the National Park Service and park interest-groups acknowledged this reality and begun to speculate as to the cause.
Almost invariably, declining visitation is attributed to things externals to the parks --- things such as 9/11, gas prices, excessive video gaming by today's youth and changing cultural norms. Rarely has the decline been attributed to anything actually happening within the National Park system. Rarer still is for anyone to so much as suggest that declining visitation may be correlated to escalating entrance fees. If fees are mentioned, it is generally to praise them and then discount the possibility that they might, somehow, be involved.
The appended article is the rarest of all. It quotes a park superintended saying "Visitor numbers have been dropping for all the attractions of the park since 1999 when the fee was introduced..." and then quotes him saying "we had a hard look at the numbers and decided to eliminate the fee."
So here's a question. If declining park visitation correlates to increasing fees in one park, is it possible the same may be true in other parks??? Is it possible the declining visitation on US Forest Service lands may also be related to increasing fees???
Scott
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http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060701/COMMUNITIES32/607010341/1203
July 1, 2006
Jockey Hollow entrance fee dropped
Charge eliminated because of lower visitor numbers, park superintendent says
BY VIDYA PADMANABHAN - DAILY RECORD
HARDING -- Nature lovers can soon enjoy the storied grounds of Jockey Hollow park free of charge.
Starting Tuesday, entrance fees to the park will be eliminated, though
visitors 16 and older will still have to pay the $4 to enter
Washington's Headquarters, another unit of the Morristown National
Historic Park.
Crisscrossed by 27 miles of color-coded foot and horse trails, Jockey
Hollow park makes up 1,200 of the 1,700 acres of the Morristown
National Historic Park. The Jockey Hollow encampment, one of several
spots in the Morristown park area where Gen. George Washington's men
made camp, is marked by five reconstructed soldier's huts. Jockey
Hollow park also comprises Wick House, the headquarters of Gen. Arthur
St. Clair.
Visitor numbers have been dropping for all the attractions of the park
since 1999, when the fee was introduced for Jockey Hollow park, said
Randy W. Turner, superintendent of the Morristown National Historic
Park.
After peaking at 900,000 for the bicentennial year in 1975-76, visitor
numbers settled at 500,000 to 600,000 until 1999, when it started
declining, hitting 304,000 last year. Though declines have been noticed
at parks nationwide, "we had a hard look at the numbers and decided to
eliminate the fee,"Turner said Thursday.
In the past, the fees have gone toward funding an education program for
fourth- and fifth-grade students, an archaeological survey of the
Pennsylvania Brigade embankment area, maintenance of the hiking trails
and improvements to the Jockey Hollow visitors' center.
Along with the elimination of the fee at Jockey Hollow, the Park
Service also hopes to attract visitors with an expanded, renovated
Washington's Headquarters museum scheduled to open in summer 2007. The
museum is currently closed, but tours of the Ford Mansion, which served
as Washington's headquarters, are available daily.
In 2008, as part of the National Park Service fee revision, the daily
fee will go up to $5, and the annual park fee will go up from $15 to
$20.
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Vidya Padmanabhan can be reached at (973) 428-6610 or
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- Land management 
