Cover Page MENU     Visitor Fees: Table of Contents Appendix     Contents     Executive Summary     Introduction     Recent Legislative History     Current Status     Results of Analysis      Potential Changes		Visitor Fees in the National Park System: A Legislative and Administrative History ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RECREATION FEE SYSTEM V. POTENTIAL CHANGES A. CHANGES TO THE EXISTING RATE STRUCTURE 1. Entrance Fees Entrance fee rates vary throughout indicated by the following table: Number of Parks Rate for Single-Visit Entry Per Person Per Vehicle 15  1 34 14  1  1 66 $ .50 .75 .50 .50 .50 1.00 ---- ---- 1.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 Currently, fee rates are established on a park-by-park basis. However, Systemwide criteria could be established for uniform fee rates, such as each park's operating budget or classification (national park, national monument, etc. ). The following table indicates a possible rate structure based on the operating budget of each park: Size of Budget No. of Parks Rate Per Person Per Vehicle Over $3.0 million  6 $1.50 $3.00 1.0 - 2.9 million 11 1.00 2.00 Under 1.0 million 49 .50 1.00 With this rate structure and assuming that 95% of the visitors arrive by non-commercial vehicle where applicable, revenue would increase an estimated $1.8 million. Vehicle rates would increase at 24 parks and decrease at 4. Per person rates would increase at 16 parks and decrease at 1. (See Table III in the appendix for a park-by-park breakout). If the rate structure were based on the entrance fee area's classification, rates could be established as follows: Classification Rate Per Vehicle Per Person National Park $3.00 $1.00 National Monument 2.00 .50 National Seashore 2.00 .50 National Historic Site 1.00 .50 National Historical Park 1.00 .50 National Memorial Park 1.00 .50 National Military Park 1.00 .50 Revenue would increase an estimated $3.9 million with this rate structure. Forty-two parks would have higher per vehicle rates. These parks are either national parks, national monuments or national seashores. Seventeen national parks would have higher per person rates. Rate decreases would occur only at Colonial NHP for entry by non-commercial vehicle and at Minute Man NHP for entry by bus, bike or on foot. (See Table IV In the appendix for individual park data). Negative public reaction to a fee rate increase is not anticipated to be great if rate increases are reasonable. A recent study prepared for the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, "Evaluation of Public Willingness to Pay User Charges for Use of Outdoor Recreation Areas and Facilities," concluded from a public survey that rate increases would be acceptable to most visitors at public parks. A survey will be conducted this summer in 43 areas of the National Park System, as part of BOR's Nationwide Outdoor Recreation Plan. It will ask park visitors if they support some method to supplement the shrinking Federal recreation dollar, including potential entrance fee increases. Results of this survey may be useful in deciding whether a rate increase will be accepted by visitors to areas in the National Park System. Last April the National Park Service Advisory Board voted in favor of the principle of entrance and user fees to cover a portion of park operations and maintenance costs. In the 1976 Fee Report, park personnel strongly favored the establishment of a multi-day entrance pass. This pass would be consistent with current NPS policy which encourages private enterprise to provide food and lodging outside park boundaries and discourages construction of such facilities within the parks. As mentioned previously, Congress is considering legislation which would authorize this type of passport. Finally, consideration should also be given to eliminate entrance fees. This action would obviously provide equal treatment to all visitors at all parks. However, if these fees are eliminated, consideration should be given to the benefits of entrance fees. The primary benefit is the revenue produced by these fees ($10.6 million in 1976). This includes revenue from Golden Eagle Passport sales. These revenues are used to fund (1) fee collection costs (for entrance and user fees), (2) visitor transportation system planning and operations, and (3) exhibit and audiovisual facilities. An important secondary benefit of entrance fee collection has been information provided the visitor at the entrance station. Information is provided to make visitors aware of all opportunities for enjoying the park, as well as to communicate a respect for park resources and to warn of dangers that may exist. Two other "fringe" benefits of the fee program are less vandalism as well as better care of facilities and park resources by visitors. Recommendation For Systemwide uniformity and equity to visitors, entrance fees should be estabished on the basis of park operating budgets, park classification or some other Systemwide criteria. No general change in entrance fees has been initiated since 1972. The suggested change does not exceed the current ceiling listed in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which sets the single-visit vehicle entrance rate ceiling at $3.00 and the individual entrance rate ceiling at $1.50. This is solely a regulatory ceiling and does not involve legislation. Any fee change that exceeds this ceiling would require posting in the Federal Register and 30 day public review. Changes should also be discussed with the appropriate Congressional Committees beforehand. In addition, the Service should recommend the Administration support legislation to establish a multi-day entrance pass with a reasonable fee. 2. User Fees As stated in Section IV, there is considerable range in user fee rates. Camping fees differ the most, ranging from no charge to $4 per night. The following table indicates the number of campgrounds and campsites for which various fee rates are charged. Number of Campgrounds* Number of Campsites Fees Per Night 96 25 82  1 83 22 309 1,813 2,651 9,175 130 11,696 3,602 29,067 None $1.00 2.00 2.50 3.00 4.00 Average campsite fee: $2.44 per night *Includes only family campgrounds with automobile access. No backcountry or group campgrounds. The quality of services and facilities at campgrounds also varies widely from park to park. Recommendation A uniform and equitable rate structure, on a park-by-park basis, is needed for camping as well as for certain kinds of tours, elevator service, and backcountry use. User fee rates and services should be evaluated and recommendations for each park made for implementing a more uniform, equitable rate structure based on the cost of providing services and facilities. Fee rates for camping and certain tours should be in line with rates for similar commercial services in close proximity to parks. Fee rate increases for camping should not exceed the $4 ceiling listed in the Code of Federal Regulations without revision. B. BETTER COVERAGE OF VISITORS TO FEE PARKS A third of the 116 parks currently charging fees reported potential to collect more fees by extending the collection season and hours. Many noted that this would cost more in staffing dollars, but that increased revenues would more than off-set costs. Several parks also stated that new or improved collection facilities would facilitate more effective operations. Extension of collection coverage would also result in a more equitable fee system. Recommendation Each park's collection season and hours should be examined with regard to visitation patterns, services provided, and cost of collecting fees. Extensions of collection seasons and hours should be implemented where justified. C. POTENTIAL FEES The Service could increase revenue by charging user fees for services now provided free or by establishing entrance fees where they are not now charged. This would also provide greater uniformity through-outthe System. 1. Entrance Fees In the 1976 fee reports from the parks, most reported no potential for establishing new entrance fees. Some gave reasons including inability to control access, legislative restrictions, and limited facilities. Others did not comment. Parks which reported potential for charging new entrance fees are shown in the following table: PARKS WHICH REPORTED POTENTIAL FOR ENTRANCE FEES Park Est. Capital Costs Required Est. Annual Oper. Cost Est. Revenue Cedar Breaks $76,000 $52,000 $100,000 Chaco Canyon 4,000 11,000 24,000 Custer Battlefield 10,000 13,000 50,000 Devil's Postpile 5,000 5,000 9,000 Haleakala 60,000 50,000 280,000 Joshua Tree 36,000 56,000 200,000 Mt. McKinley 200,000 24,000 146,000 Saratoga 27,000 25,000 80,000 Whitman Mission 12,000 12,000 19,000 $430,000 $248,000 $908,000 Recommendation Implementation of fees at these parks should be favorably considered. Inquiries should be made at those that did not comment to see if fee potential exists. Furthermore, the Planning Process should be re vised to include an evaluation of whether fees should be charged. 2. User Fees In the 1976 Fee Report, the parks identified 23 potential user fees and 5 potential special recreation permits for which fees could be charged. Specifically for user fees these include: Camping - 11 parks Backcountry use permits - 4 parks Miscellaneous user fee activities - 8 parks Many parks reported that funds would be required to upgrade facilities and cover collection costs. Insufficient information exists to pro vide reasonable estimates of additional revenue or whether these fees would be cost-effective. (See Table V in the appendix for details). Congress has set policy for user fees and special recreation permits. The House Report to the LWCF 1972 amendments states: "It seems so abundantly clear as to be almost axiomatic: That the users of Federal recreation areas should contribute more to Federal recreation programs than non-users; That frequent users should contribute more than occasional users; That users of more sophisticated facilities should pay more than users of modest facilities; and That users of modest facilities should pay more than non-users of any special facilities." (p. 2827 ) Special recreation permits may also carry a user fee for "group activities, recreation events, motorized recreation vehicles, and other specialized recreation uses . . . ." (P.L. 92-347). However, there are several legal restrictions on charging user fees. User fees may not be charged for certain facilities used by the general public. Camping fees may be charged only if certain facilities and services are provided. (See Section II for details). Recommendation In view of the legislative restrictions and limited data, each potential user fee and special recreation permit should be investigated separately for cost-effectiveness, additional capital investment, and staffing requirements. The potential for charging a user fee, such as parking, at those parks where access control prevents the implementation of an entrance fee should also be considered. D. COVERING COLLECTION COSTS The method of calculating fee collection costs vary from park to park. There are no standard guidelines used for calculating costs. This has resulted In difficulties in determining how much revenue should be returned to parks to cover costs. Thus, some parks may be receiving more than enough, others less. For those parks which receive less than enough to cover costs, fee collection is a burden. A number of changes have been suggested which would alleviate this burden or even provide a positive incentive to collect fees. These suggestions range from covering collection costs to returning all money collected to the parks which collect it. One suggestion is that a portion (e.g., 50%) of the fees collected be returned to fee parks with the remainder to be used for Servicewide needs. Recommendation The Service should establish standards for determining collection costs and then guarantee reimbursement for all these costs. Such standards would ensure that all parks were using the same method when determining fee collection costs. Guaranteeing a fair reimburse ment would assure that fee collection is not a burden to other park programs. The Service has serious reservations about the feasibility of returning fee revenue to parks on any arbitrary basis. Such a system fails to take into account several important factors: It would allocate money to parks without regard to need. It would favor the large parks, which now collect the most fees over the recently authorized areas where the need is greatest. If fees were returned on a proportional basis, the amount returned would not necessarily cover the cost of new collection activities. These drawbacks severely limit the usefulness of this optional method of returning fee revenue. If the policy objective is to collect more revenue equitably, then recommendations contained in this paper would accomplish that objective more effectively than would returning fees on a proportional basis. TABLE III. ENTRANCE FEE PARKS (ranked by operating budget) PARK OPERATING BUDGET (in thousands) PROPOSED ENTRANCE FEE RATE REVENUE (in thousands) Yellowstone NP $ 7,602.9 $3 per vehicle $ 1,202.2 Yosemite NP 5,444.3 $1.50 per person 1,245.8 Grand Canyon NP 3,895.6 1,587.3 Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP 3,690.0 457.3 Everglades NP 3,475.4 376.4 Glacier NP 3,327.7 215.5 Mt. Rainier NP 2,838.6 $2 per vehicle 281.2 Shenandoah NP 2,671.5 $1 per person 854.8 Grand Teton NP 2,554.3 354.5 Rocky Mountain NP 2,157.3 560.9 Colonial NP 2,109.1 261.7 Gulf Islands NS 1,409.8 111.8 Mesa Verde NP 1,294.1 198.7 Lassen Volcanic NP 1,258.8 78.0 Cape Cod NS 1,213.8 222.8 Carlsbad Caverns NP 1,181.7 356.4 FDR/Vanderbilt NHS 991.1 98.2 Crater Lake NP 945.8 $1 per vehicle 101.4 Zion NP 932.8 50¢ per person 166.9 Petrified Forest NP 715.7 175.8 Chick-Chatt NMP 706.7 6.5 Morristown NHP 663.4 22.9 T. Roosevelt NMemP 624.2 24.8 Badlands NM 591.8 128.8 Minute Man NHP 581.3 955.0 Bryce Canyon NP 578.9 62.9 Edison NHS 551.7 9.9 Saguaro NM 440.2 12.5 Bandelier NM 435.8 27.7 Pinnacles NM 374.4 23.2 Castillo de San Marcos NM 361.3 261.1 Colorado NM 358.4 19.2 White Sands NM 331.7 74.4 Ft. Pulaski NM 317.1 14.6 Sagamore Hill NHS 395.4 38.8 Appomattox Court House NHP 248.3 21.8 Ft. Davis NHS 247.8 12.0 Great Sand Dunes NM 244.6 31.9 Craters of the Moon NM 240.3 15.8 Chiricahua NM 226.6 8.2 Pea Ridge NMP 204.4 14.3 Devils Tower NM 201.8 21.3 Black Canyon of the Gunnison NM 183.3 37.6 Longfellow NHS 180.2 4.9 Montezuma Castle NM 173.2 63.1 Salem Maritime NHS 173.2 1.1 Adams NHS 172.4 15.1 Ft. Union NM 164.2 2.6 Andrew Johnson NHS 158.6 1.6 Arches NP 161.4 29.7 John Muir NHS 158.6 6.1 Walnut Canyon NM 144.6 23.0 Casa Grande Ruins NM 142.7 19.0 Capulin Mountain NM 138.2 12.3 Scotts Bluff NM 128.7 10.4 St. Gaudens NHS 123.7 3.3 Tumacacori NM 122.1 14.2 Tuzigoot NM 115.3 12.6 El Morro NM 111.0 4.8 Pipe Spring NM 105.9 4.1 Aztec Ruins NM 97.7 17.1 Tonto NM 90.8 5.7 Natural Bridges NM 87.8 6.9 J.F.K. NHS 82.6 .1 T.R. Birthplace NHS 71.7 2.8 TOTAL $11,310.0 TABLE IV. ENTRANCE FEE PARKS (ranked by NPS classification) National Parks (18) Current Entrance Fee Rate Proposed Entrance Fee Rate Potential Revenue (in thousands) Per Person Per Vehicle Yosemite $ .50 $3.00 $3/1.00 $1,189.2 Grand Canyon .50 2.00 1,536.9 Shenandoah .50 2.00 1,241.5 Yellowstone .50 2.00 1,164.0 Rocky Mountain .50 2.00 814.7 Carlsbad Cavern 1.00 3.00 519.2 Grand Teton .50 2.00 501.8 Sequoia/Kings Canyon .50 2.00 460.3 Mt. Rainer .50 2.00 408.5 Zion .50 2.00 370.8 Everglades .50 2.00 364.5 Mesa Verde .50 2.00 295.6 Petrified Forest .50 1.00 518.6 Crater Lake .50 2.00 225.2 Glacier .50 2.00 208.7 Bryce Canyon .50 2.00 181.9 Lassen Volcanic .50 1.00 153.4 Arches .50 1.00 87.6 National Monuments (26) Current Entrance Fee Rate Proposed Entrance Fee Rate Potential Revenue (in thousands) Per Person Per Vehicle Muir Woods $ .50 $ --- $2/.50 297.0 Castillo de San Marcos .50 --- 261.1 Badlands .50 1.00 251.1 White Sands .50 1.00 145.0 Montezuma Castle .50 1.00 122.8 Black Canyon of the Gunnison .50 1.00 73.4 Great Sand Dunes .50 1.00 62.2 Bandelier .50 1.00 54.0 Pinnacles .50 1.00 45.2 Walnut Canyon .50 1.00 49.9 Devils Tower .50 1.00 41.6 Colorado .50 1.00 37.5 Casa Grande .50 1.00 37.1 Aztec Ruins .50 1.00 33.3 Craters of the Moon .50 1.00 30.8 Fort Pulaski .50 1.00 28.4 Tumacacori .50 1.00 27.7 Capulin Mountain .50 1.00 24.1 Tuzigoot .50 1.00 24.5 Saguaro .50 1.00 24.4 Scotts Bluff .50 1.00 20.2 Chiricahua .50 1.00 16.1 Natural Bridges .50 1.00 13.4 Tonto .50 1.00 11.1 El Morro .50 1.00 9.4 Pipe Spring .50 --- 4.1 Fort Union .50 1.00 5.0 National Seashores (2) Current Entrance Fee Rate Proposed Entrance Fee Rate Potential Revenue (in thousands) Per Person Per Vehicle Cape Cod .50 1.00 $2/.50 289.6 Gulf Islands .50 1.00 153.0 National Historic Sites (12) Current Entrance Fee Rate Proposed Entrance Fee Rate Potential Revenue (in thousands) Per Person Per Vehicle F.D.R./Vanderbilt .50 ---- $1/.50 91.4 Sagamore Hill .50 ---- 38.8 Adams .50 ---- 15.1 Fort Davis .50 1.00 12.0 Edison .50 ---- 9.9 John Muir .50 ---- 6.1 Longfellow .50 ---- 4.9 Saint Gaudens .50 ---- 3.3 T.R. Birthplace .50 ---- 2.8 Andrew Johnson .50 ---- 1.6 Salem Maritime .50 ---- 1.1 J.F.K. .50 ---- 1.0 National Historic Parks (4) Current Entrance Fee Rate Proposed Entrance Fee Rate Potential Revenue (in thousands) Per Person Per Vehicle Colonial .50 2.00 130.9 Appomattox Court House .50 1.00 21.8 Minute Man .75 ---- 1.9 Morristown .50 ---- 22.9 National Memorial Parks (1) Current Entrance Fee Rate Proposed Entrance Fee Rate Potential Revenue (in thousands) Per Person Per Vehicle Theodore Roosevelt .50 1.00 24.8 National Military Parks (2) Current Entrance Fee Rate Proposed Entrance Fee Rate Potential Revenue (in thousands) Per Person Per Vehicle Pea Rige .50 1.00 14.3 Chick-Chatt .50 ---- 6.5 TOTAL $12,940.3 TABLE V. USER FEE ACTIVITY PARK Camping Coulee Dam NRA Haleakala NP Badlands NM C & O Canal NHP Chickasaw NRA Glen Canyon NRA Lake Meredith NRA Mt. McKinley NP Sequoia NP Cumberland Island NS Gettysburg NMemP Backcountry Camping Permit Grand Canyon NP Grand Teton NP Shenandoah NP Backpacking Reservation Prince William Forest Park Boat Docking* and Duck Hunting Blinds* Cape Hatteras NRA Boat Tour* Curecanti NRA Technical Rock Climbing* Devils Tower NM Colorado River Float Trip* Grand Canyon NP Campground Slide Program* Rocky Mountain NP Buggy Ride* Theo. Roosevelt NP Bathhouses* Boat Ramp* Swim Beach* Buffalo NR Dune Climb* Dune Ride* Dune Toll Rd* Swim Beach* Sleeping Bear Dunes NL Off-Road Vehicles Cape Hatteras NS Backcountry Mountain Climbing Off-Road Vehicles (snowmobiles) Grand Teton NP Special Events Greenbelt Park Educational Group Day Use Prince William Forest Park Off-Road Vehicles Rocky Mountain NP *Could be implemented as Special Recreation Permits.
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