With each passing day, another news article announces another increase in the entrance fee charged at yet another National Park,  monument or historic site.

Even with park after park after announcing its intended fee increase for 2008, this important news story is only dribbling out piece meal.

WHY hasn't the NPS simply come right out and explained to the media, and thus to the American People, what they are doing!? Why are they dragging this thing out and feeding us the bad news one tiny bite at a time??

Through the power of the Freedom of Information Act and help from my friends, I have come to possess a table of scheduled entrance fee increases. This official National Park Service document is titled, "Summary of Entrance Fee Rates (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)" — and it can now be read online as a PFD image file .

Here's what this stunning document reveals.

Of the 147 NPS-managed sites at which entrance fees are currently charged, fee increases  are proposed for 88 sites in 2008. 

Restating this another way  —  at fully 60% of all NPS fee-sites, in 2008, either the cost per vehicle, and/or the cost per person, and/or the cost of an annual pass, is staled to increase. In some cases costs are set to double, or even triple compared to what is currently charged.

So next time you chance upon another announcement for another entrance fee being increased at yet another National Park or Monument, understanding that dozens upon dozens of additional fee increases are planned and have yet to be publicly announced. Also know that just about every entrance fee-charging park or monument that is NOT slated to increase fees in 2008, is scheduled to raise fees in 2009. 

The schedule is available for all to see.

Oh, by the way, this planning didn't just happen. The process got underway in 2001. In fact, the National Park Services fee analysis was performed for the agency by private contractors representing private interests. Here's where you can find the beginning of this particular story as I wrote it up a little more than five years ago.

As to the end to the story,  there is absolutely nothing stopping you from creating a different ending than the one that has already been planned.

Scott

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. -John F. Kennedy

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