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 National Parks Conservation Association has long been a supporter of National Park entrance fees and, more specifically, a staunch advocate for the retention of these fees by the agency. That said, on April 6th, NPCA issued the Position Statement which appears below. In it, NPCA expresses new and serious concerns with the current NPS fee program. Wild Wilderness is delighted that NPCA has taken this important first step.
That said, Wild Wilderness opposes the legislative authority which made it possible for National Park entrance fees to skyrocket and for those new and higher-priced fees to be retained by the agency. We are staunch opponents of fee retention — specifically because of the reasons why this authority was created and what this new authority is expected to accomplish.
The concept of fee retention was first proposed in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan's Office of Management and Budget and is strongly supported by Libertarian ideologues such as the Deputy Director of the Department of Interior, Lynn Scarlett.
For 25 years, efforts to authorize NPS fee retention was DIRECTLY coupled with efforts to defund the National Park Service and to starve them of public funding. The ideological PURPOSE for permitting land management agencies to keep entrance fees has, for more than two decades, been to shift the method of park funding FROM tax-dollars TO user-fees. Click here to learn more.
Wild Wilderness is delighted to see NPCA starting to move in the right direction and we are thankful that, in their small way, they are challenging the course upon which Reagan set the National Park System and its funding. Perhaps it is not yet too late to prevent the worst of that agency's long-planned commercialization, privatization and motorization.
Scott
"A journey of a thousand miles
must begin with a single step."
-Lao Tzu
--- begin quoted ---
POSITION STATEMENT
Issue: The new Interagency Pass and increased entrance fees for national parks
Last Updated: April 6, 2007
Contact: Craig Obey, Vice President for Government Affairs
National Parks Conservation Association
202-454-3392
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NPCA's Position:
NPCA encourages Congress to reconsider allowing the
Park Service to sell the annual National Parks Pass for national parks.
We believe that fees charged at national parks should be affordable,
and that any pass should not be priced so high that it excludes
Americans from their national parks. Over-reliance on fees alone as a
funding source would in all likelihood result in national parks
becoming prohibitively costly for average income families. We firmly
believe that revenue from the new Interagency Pass and entrance fees
should be used to supplement federal appropriations, not supplant them.
Appropriations from Congress must play the principle role in restoring
the financial health of our parks in time for the Park Service
Centennial, especially in light of the $800 million annual funding
shortfall for the parks and the fact that this amount is more than five
times the annual revenue generated from the fee program.
Background:
Prior to 1996, the Park Service was unable to retain
proceeds from national park entrance fees and other visitor fees. What
fee money that was collected was deposited into the U.S. Treasury. The
creation of the experimental Recreation Fee Demonstration Program
(Fee-Demo) set a new precedent by allowing the Park Service and other
public land agencies to retain entrance and other recreation fee
revenue on-site. NPCA supported Fee-Demo for the Park Service because
it provided a valuable source of revenue for the parks. For example,
the Park Service collected $128 million from entrance fee revenue and
$19 million through the sale of the national parks pass in 2005.
In 2006, the Park Service began implementing a four-year program called
the Servicewide Entrance Fee Pricing Structure to "simplify and align"
entrance fees throughout the National Park System. This new plan puts
in place a new four-tiered fee structure based primarily on the
legislative designation of individual park units. Many entrance fees
will continue to be adjusted as the fee structure is fully implemented
by the end of 2009. Eleven to thirteen parks will have their fees
adjusted in 2007, which will be followed by approximately 85 parks in
2008. Beginning in 2011, the Park Service also plans to adjust all
entrance fees according to cumulative Consumer Price Index (CPI)
calculated since 2007, and increased every 3 years thereafter.
The National Parks Pass Program was created in 1999 (PL 105-391) to
provide park visitors with unlimited entry to national parks that
charge entrance fees. The legislatively set price of $50 for the
National Parks Pass was popular with individuals and families who
access a number of national parks multiple times per year. However, the
National Parks Pass, Golden Eagle Pass ($65), Golden Age Pass (a one
time cost of $10), and Golden Access Pass (free for citizens with
disabilities) were all abolished December 31, 2006, when a new pass
called the "America the Beautiful Pass-National Parks and Federal
Recreation Lands Pass" replaced it. Both the elimination of the
National Parks Pass Program and the creation of the new America the
Beautiful Pass are two required elements of the Federal Lands
Recreation Enhancement Act of 2004.
The new "America the Beautiful Pass," or simply "Interagency Pass,"
became available for sale on January 1, 2007. Unlike the National Park
Pass Program, the new pass covers recreation opportunities on public
lands managed by four Department of the Interior agencies - the
National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land
Management, and the Bureau of Reclamation, and by the Department of
Agriculture's U.S. Forest Service. NPCA has no position on fees for
non-parklands that are covered by the Interagency Pass.
The Interagency Pass program provides four separate passes. The $80
Interagency Pass provides entrance to all national parks and other
public lands that charge entrance and/or "amenity" fees such as fee
picnic areas. U.S. citizens 62 and older can pay a one-time fee of $10
for an Interagency Senior Pass. The Interagency Access Pass is free for
individuals who show documentation of permanent disability. The new
pass program also awards volunteers who contribute 500 hours of service
on a cumulative basis. In the coming years, 100 percent of the revenue
from the passes will benefit the selling agency with at least 80
percent of the revenue staying at the site where the pass was sold.
Parks that collect less than $500,000 per year retain all of the
revenue.
Discussion:
NPCA is not yet confident that the parks will benefit financially like
they did under the former National Park Pass Program. To the extent
that the new Interagency Pass complicates fee collection for the parks,
we do not support it. We encourage Congress to reconsider allowing the
Park Service to sell the annual National Parks Pass for national parks.
This former pass had wide spread support due largely to the fact it was
considered such a good value.
NPCA has been a long-standing proponent for allowing the Park Service
to retain entrance fee revenue and supported the earlier Fee-Demo
program for the parks. However, we believe that fee revenue should not
be relied upon to fund core operations that should come from federal
appropriations. At this time, we are evaluating the new Servicewide
Entrance Fee Pricing Structure and the agency's plan to increase
entrance fees according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) every three
years beginning in 2011. We encourage Congress to examine the current
state of the fee program, including its structure and any modifications
that may be advisable.
Our continued support for entrance fees is contingent upon them
remaining reasonably priced for all Americans, especially those
demographic groups that have not historically visited the parks. As
Park Service studies show, many ethnic groups in the United States are
less likely to visit the parks due to the associated travel and
entrance fee costs. NPCA is committed to diversity in the parks and
wants to ensure that our national parks remain affordable so that all
Americans may be inspired by our shared national heritage.
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