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Beginning more than 15 years ago, the recreation industry, led by the American Recreation Coalition began lobbying Congress for the creation of a universal public lands access pass that they called "The America the Beautiful Passport". Congress even introduced the ARC's preferred legislation in 1992, though the proposal received a cold reception and went nowhere.
Opposition to the ARC's passport never waned, but the political landscape of America shifted and in 2004 ARC's legislation was sneaked though Congress as an appropriations rider. After 15 years, the recreation industry got it's way, the "America the Beautiful Passport" was renamed the "America the Beautiful Pass" and the people of America must now pay the price.
Yesterday the government announced that the new public lands access pass would go on sale beginning January 1. What follows are excerpts from what was said today on the blogosphere The public is not amused. More to the point, the public is not buying the line our government is selling.
Scott
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From NationalParksTraveler
By now you've heard that the departments of Interior and Agriculture
have indeed made official what I told you last week: The $50 National
Parks Pass, the one that provided a direct revenue stream to the
national parks, is being replaced by the $80 "America the
Beautiful--National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass," one
that some fear in the long run could seriously jeopardize Park Service
revenues.
Washington dressed up the news with glowing comments, which isn't
unusual. But is it surprising only to me that the Interior Department's
comments came not from Secretary Dirk Kempthorne but from Deputy
Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett? It certainly is ironic, as Ms.
Scarlett's background includes a stint as president of the Reason
Foundation, an organization that long has called for replacing
tax-dollar support of the parks with user fees.... But this new pass
threatens to upset the apple cart when it comes to the National Park
Service and, in light of currently available pass programs, seems to be
a well-orchestrated maneuver by the Bush administration to further
starve the land-management agencies in general and, in this case, the
Park Service specifically. Am I a conspiracy theorist? Too cynical?
Read on and then let me know.
READ MORE
From ParkRemark
Hail, hail the federal land managers for introducing the new America
the Beautiful Pass (ATB), for recognizing that in the 'land of the
free' we needed more restrictive access to our public lands.
Hail, hail the ATB managers for recognizing that when compared to a
Disneyland day pass, the $50 for a National Parks Pass was a bargain
and that there was room to raise the price of admission to $80.
Hail, hail the National Park Service for recognizing that the burden of
an inadequate federal NPS budget should be borne by those who wish to
visit their national heritage. "Philosophically, Americans are happy to
support the national parks out of their income taxes," says Park
Service spokesperson David Barna. "But people who use more, should chip
in more."
Long live the America the Beautiful Pass. Long live entrance fees. Long
live the idea that public lands do not belong to the tax paying public,
but to those willing to fork out more income on a secondary visitation
tax.
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From Newwest.net
Lately, there has been a barrage of news and concern about new and
increased fees charged for access to public lands, particularly
national parks. I have suggested that high fees contribute to serious
declines in national park visitation, but instead of seeing fees as a
big factor, the agencies have, it seems, gone the opposite direction by
increasing fees, with special note to the introduction of the $80
American the Beautiful Pass for annual access to national parks and
other federal lands. Or is the perceived increase actually a decrease?
READ MORE
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- Land management 
