Your Fee Dollars at Work poster. Click the poster for a detailed web page describing the ways fees are collected and used in the National Park Service system.
Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout are native only to the Upper Rio Grande Basin in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve contains excellent habitat for this rare trout. Part of your fee dollars support the complex process of reintroducing this trout here.
USFWS
Projects at Great Sand Dunes Funded by Your Fee Dollars
National parks have experienced record-breaking visitation, with more than 1.5 billion visitors in the last five years. Throughout the country, the combination of an aging infrastructure and increased visitation has put a strain on park roads, bridges, campgrounds, waterlines, bathrooms, and other visitor services and led to a $11.6 billion deferred maintenance backlog nationwide.
The additional revenue from entrance fees at Great Sand Dunes support:
- The renovation of the visitor center interior exhibits
- The restoration of Rio Grande Cutthroat Fish habitat along Sand Creek
- Replacement of exterior doors on comfort stations and visitor center
- Rehabilitation of the entrance station
“Entrance fees collected at Great Sand Dunes support infrastructure projects that enhance the visitor’s experience. In recent years, the park has been able to use fee revenue to maintain, repair and improve our facilities, enhance essential visitor services such as events and programs, restore critical habitat for the wildlife that visitors come to see and enjoy, and to support our law enforcement rangers in their public safety duties.
