NPS Fees August 25, 2016, 06:25:09 pm Making it easy to readCopyright The Wall Street JournalHappy 100th Birthday, National ParksYellowstone could cover its operating budget with a daily fee of $11. Glacier could do so for $7.19.By TERRY L. ANDERSONAug. 24, 2016 6:04 p.m. ETAs the National Park Service celebrates its 100th anniversary on Thursday, Americans should take a moment to consider how they can ensure the health of their national treasure for many generations to come.Few federal agencies command more widespread support than the NPS. A 2015 Gallup poll found that 73% of Americans were satisfied with the government’s handling of national parks, despite their overall dissatisfaction with the federal government. There are now 84 million acres in the national-park system, including 59 national parks, 20 of which were added after 1980, and 353 national monuments, battlefields and historic sites. Every year Congress creates more parks, often referred to as “Park Barrel Politics.”But, loved as they are, the national park systems and monuments aren’t being treated well. Adding more parks makes matters worse.There is already a backlog of maintenance projects, including deteriorating roads, buildings and sewage systems, that will cost $12 billion to fix. Each year the NPS goes to Congress asking for funding for its operating budgets but almost always gets less than it requests. Between 2005 and 2015, the federal budget grew by 39%, yet the NPS operating budget increased by only 1.7%. Meanwhile, park attendance in 2015 reached a record 305 million visits.A simple change would allow parks to increase fees to cover their operating costs. When the first national parks were created, they were expected to be self-supporting. Receipts for Yellowstone and Yosemite in those early days often exceeded expenditures.Adjusted to 2016 dollars, entry fees then were astronomical. Mount Rainier, the first to allow cars in 1908, sold 1,594 auto permits at a price of $475 in today’s dollars. In 1916 seasonal auto permits, also in today’s dollars, ranged from $120 at Glacier and Mesa Verde to $240 at Yellowstone. Today the price of a seven-day pass to Yellowstone for one vehicle is $30.What would entrance fees have to be today to cover operating costs? Not very much. Yellowstone, with more than four million visits in 2015, could have covered its operating budget with a daily fee of $11. This means that a family of four would pay $44 a day—less than the cost of a trip to the movies. The entrance fee to Disney World costs more than $100. Other parks could cover their operating budgets for less: at Grand Canyon, $7.63; Glacier, $7.19; Grand Teton, $6.40; and Smoky Mountains, $2.Another simple change would be to charge higher fees for foreign visitors, who pay no U.S. taxes. Differential pricing is common in parks outside the U.S. Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve charges its citizens $10, compared with $70 for noncitizens. With foreign visitors to U.S. parks making up as much as 25% of the total, charging them more would provide a substantial budgetary boost.Congress is also working on a simple budget fix. The National Park Service Centennial Act, presented to Congress earlier this year and sponsored by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D., Ariz.), calls for raising the price of a senior-citizen lifetime pass to $80—the current price of a regular annual national park pass—from a mere $10. No doubt there will be a backlash from AARP, but if the NPS sold 600,000 senior passes, as it did in 2015, at $80, it would generate an additional $42 million for operating costs or maintenance.If Americans love their parks as much as they say, the NPS centennial celebration is a perfect occasion to take parks out of politics and politics out of parks by giving the gift of operating-budget autonomy. If entrance fees covered the NPS’s annual operating costs of approximately $2.5 billion, congressional funding could be used to start work on the maintenance backlog. Freeing the NPS from politics would also better connect the parks bureaucracy with its customer base and change its focus from Washington to “America’s best idea.”Mr. Anderson is a distinguished fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. 1 Likes
Re: NPS Fees Reply #2 – August 25, 2016, 07:07:18 pm I very rarely do this, but here's a way to get around some paywalls:1. Google.com2. Enter title of the article (Happy 100th Birthday, National Parks)It works in this particular case. 1 Likes
Re: NPS Fees Reply #4 – August 25, 2016, 08:37:03 pm Just by chance we wandered into Yellowstone NP yesterday for a short stay before moving on SE and found that today was the National Park Service's 100th birthday! Lots going on here at the Mammoth Springs Park Headquarters as this is the first national park. Easily got into the campground early afternoon. The Yellowstone Post Office was hand stamping outgoing cards & letters with a Yellowstone Park centennial cancellation stamp including park service centennial stamps. The things we happen upon traveling is astounding! Mike & ElizabethQuoteHappy 100th Birthday, National Parks - WSJ Don & Dorothy2007 MB tricked out the way we want it. Ou
Re: NPS Fees Reply #5 – August 25, 2016, 08:51:40 pm Worked for me. Both with Safari and Mozilla. Interesting article. I wonder though how far our Senior Pass "bump" and it's additional $42 million to the NPS would go. Hachoo! Oops, there it goes. Seriously though, the NPS has done a darn good job from what I've seen with the money they have been budgeted. I do, however, remember a lot of closures at the State Park level 20 odd years ago.Have things gotten better? I've only re entered the "Park Systems" ball park in the past year and am currently unclear of the present day playing field.Kent
Re: NPS Fees Reply #6 – August 25, 2016, 08:55:51 pm Quote from: JCT - August 25, 2016, 08:09:38 pmI tried that; didn't work for me.Sorry, Joan. I should have specified that I tested it on the Safari browser on both an iPad and Mac. You do see a pop-up ad, but that's easily closed to reveal the entire article.
Re: NPS Fees Reply #7 – August 25, 2016, 10:35:56 pm Interesting. I can X out the pop-up on the page IF the site link is clicked using Google and/or Bing and resd the article. Using Duck Duck Go and/or Ixquick, the pop-up has no X and the page is "greyed out", i.e., available only to subscribers. (Safari or Chrome produce the same result.) Beats me why this is!?
Follow-ups Addons/Ease of Use/Popup ad & malware blockers Re: NPS Fees Reply #8 – August 26, 2016, 11:05:53 am I use the following addons. They tend to block popup ads and other sorted malware. They disguise your IP address. This tends to give a measure of web surfing privacy. Not fool proof but good enough to block super cookies and others unnecessary web trackers on your personal property. GhosteryAdBlockuBlock OriginBe aware when you install this stuff it will break 'ease of use'.
Re: NPS Fees Reply #9 – August 27, 2016, 09:46:27 am From the Washington PostNational Park Service turns 100, and some sites are showing their age - The...
Re: NPS Fees Reply #10 – August 27, 2016, 12:02:20 pm Last year, we made the mistake of visiting Rocky Mountain NP on the free weekend in August.Lots of folks wanting the same deal as us seniors get. It was a zoo.We have spent the last couple of weeks on the Oregon coast and are, as always, are impressed with how well Oregon takes care of its parks and campgrounds and how reasonable the fees are. Not sure if the state adequately funds the parks or if the parks keep their gate receipts, instead of turning them over to the state's general fund.One thing for sure, it helps bring in hundreds of millions of tourist dollars, something my home state, California, fails to recognize. Another thing Oregon does is to enlist an army of park hosts to care for their parks, with full hookup sites in return.We see the same in many Arizona state parks.I vote to let Oregon take over and operate the NPS...well maybe.Looking through the window at a cold, dark, foggy forest.Larry 4 Likes
Re: NPS Fees Reply #11 – August 27, 2016, 12:11:52 pm "Not sure if the state adequately funds the parks or if the parks keep their gate receipts, instead of turning them over to the state's general fund."-----https://www.oregon.gov/oprd/Documents/2015-17_Adopted_Budget.pdf
Re: NPS Fees Reply #12 – August 27, 2016, 01:26:15 pm Quote from: Larry Wade - August 27, 2016, 12:02:20 pm"... Another thing Oregon does is to enlist an army of park hosts to care for their parks, with full hookup sites in return.We see the same in many Arizona state parks..."LarryInteresting. At Serrano in the San Bernardino mountains, each camp host has a spot at the head of each campground loop. The same is true in Yosemite Valley. Not certain if each host has full hook ups though.Is this not the case in all of the California campgrounds?The hosts are a constant presence and very outgoing. It's a pleasure to see them. A fine group of people would be difficult to find (except here at LDO).Kent
Re: NPS Fees Reply #13 – August 27, 2016, 02:03:19 pm I agree with Larry! We also have spent a couple of weeks along the Oregon coast recently, and I have been extremely impressed. They have a lot of hosts, good ranger programs, and very well maintained sites (at least the ones we were at). Maybe that was you, Larry that I passed at Umpqua Lighthouse state park a few weeks ago?-Rebecca
Re: NPS Fees Reply #14 – August 27, 2016, 02:28:36 pm Having been a frequent visitor to NFS, BLM and Oregon State Parks in 13 years of fulltiming, my preference would be to see BLM take over all recreational aspects of the NFS. BLM's campgrounds are unique in that they are operated by BLM, not concessionaires. In organized campgrounds, camp hosts are BLM employees. The fees are a fraction of NFS fees. Campgrounds vary from bare bones dry camping to full hookups. One can *always* speak with someone with a pulse when calling a regional office. Rangers and hosts have, without exception, bent over backwards to ensure requests during Ladeze group events are met with smiling cooperation, whether it be removing trash, delivering firewood, cleaning shelters, giving advice and advising on current trail and road conditions, locations of nearby boondocking areas - the list is endless. I have never had a bad experience in areas overseen by BLM, and it is the first website I consult when exploring a new area.BLM's recreational division far outshines NFS' management of campgrounds, some that haven't seen improvements since they opened in the 1940's yet charge $22.00 to $25.00 a day.
Re: NPS Fees Reply #15 – August 27, 2016, 02:57:24 pm One of the problems with volunteer jobs with the NPS is that they want 40 hours a week. Sorry, but I gave that up 8 years ago and no plan to go back. We have done three volunteer gigs in 8 years and I learned that I will never camp host again or, in general, work with the public. We did enjoy a 3 month stint with the COE but we weren't camp hosting just maintaining trails and such however, 3 months was about a month too long for us.That said, our current political atmosphere suggests that congress wants to privatize as much as possible which will lead to increased costs.Jim
Re: NPS Fees Reply #16 – August 27, 2016, 03:05:50 pm The content at this link might interest some who enjoy camping, in campgrounds or in the "wild", on BLM lands:NLCS 1 Likes
Re: NPS Fees Reply #17 – August 27, 2016, 07:17:02 pm Quote from: Larry Wade - August 27, 2016, 12:02:20 pmLast year, we made the mistake of visiting Rocky Mountain NP on the free weekend in August.Lots of folks wanting the same deal as us seniors get. It was a zoo.We have spent the last couple of weeks on the Oregon coast and are, as always, are impressed with how well Oregon takes care of its parks and campgrounds and how reasonable the fees are. Not sure if the state adequately funds the parks or if the parks keep their gate receipts, instead of turning them over to the state's general fund.One thing for sure, it helps bring in hundreds of millions of tourist dollars, something my home state, California, fails to recognize. Another thing Oregon does is to enlist an army of park hosts to care for their parks, with full hookup sites in return.Off subject butIf I remember right Arizona closed many if not most of their parks a few years back. Such a short view of things.We see the same in many Arizona state parks.I vote to let Oregon take over and operate the NPS...well maybe.Looking through the window at a cold, dark, foggy forest.Larry
Re: NPS Fees Reply #18 – August 27, 2016, 07:56:45 pm Many years ago, the government adopted a transportation tax on gasoline. That tax was dedicated to construction and maintenance of the country's highway system. It was the primary funding source for the interstate highway system. With completion of the interstate system, there was a surplus. The government immediately began looting that surplus, using it for other purposes rather than reducing the tax. Today, the transportation system is falling apart, and the transportation fund is empty because the funds have been used for other purposes.I would be quite comfortable with the NPS setting fees to cover its costs, but I believe that as soon as the needed maintenance was completed, the fees would remain high, but would be used other than in the Parks. I don't know what the answer is, but I sure do not want to create a fund that the thieves in Congress can loot for other things.Ken F in WY
Re: NPS Fees Reply #19 – August 28, 2016, 11:07:02 am Quote from: Kenneth Fears - August 27, 2016, 07:56:45 pmI would be quite comfortable with the NPS setting fees to cover its costs, but I believe that as soon as the needed maintenance was completed, the fees would remain high, but would be used other than in the Parks. I don't know what the answer is, but I sure do not want to create a fund that the thieves in Congress can loot for other things.Ken F in WYWe 'solved' this problem in Oregon by making most all government fee (taxes) users fee. And added that that fee can ONLY be used for the propose it was made for. For instance the gas tax can only be used for highway and road building/improvement and the State Police. As an aside, discussions about taxes and other State policies can be full of misunderstand because each State and Local government has a different methods about the rules and regulations of taxes and other policies. For instance Oregon, California and Washington has wildly different tax policies. California has a sales, property and income tax, Washington just has a sales and property tax and Oregon just has a income and property tax. From there is get even more complicated. The take home lesson is there is no universal method and use of laws and taxes in the United States.
Re: NPS Fees Reply #20 – August 28, 2016, 07:16:06 pm Well, the Transportation Trust Fund was, by federal law, to be used ONLY for transportation infrastructure. That lasted only until the interstate highway system was done, then Congress changed the rules. Social Security was also dedicated, to be used ONLY for that, until Congress wanted some of those $$. At the State level, perhaps the rules can be made to stick but the NPS is Federal. If the NPS is well funded, it WILL be looted by Congress when they decide that is a good way to fund something else.Ken F in WY
Re: NPS Fees Reply #21 – September 23, 2016, 12:48:50 pm This was written by the owner of a company that operates some Forest Service campgrounds. He describes how some in the USFS feel about concessioners.Coyote Blog
Re: NPS Fees Reply #22 – September 23, 2016, 12:57:14 pm The number of designated Wilderness areas has increased dramatically in the last decade. Access to Wilderness areas is only by foot, your's or a horse's. That does not seem like a bad thing to me. I think some lands should be preserved. There are a lot of folks who have no respect for anything and will trash any property, including their own. OTOH, these area's become off-limits to those who are not able to hike or ride a horse.Just some food for thought. 1 Likes
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