Trump administration proposes $70 entrance fee for national parks

[Saya]

Link

The U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, announced plans Tuesday to increase entrance fees at 17 parks during their busiest five-month periods as a way to raise new revenue for infrastructure improvements. Under the proposed fee change, beginning next year, entries for cars would jump from $25 to $70 between June 1 and October 31.

"One of the basic ideas from the very beginning was that parks would be accessible to all Americans regardless of income level," said Jim Northrup, who retired in January from his position as superintendent of the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. "When you take an entrance fee at a national park and you increase it from $25 for a seven-day pass for a car to $70, that is a huge increase and is going to be a real deterrent for many people to visit national parks."

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[TheStrxggler]

Welp. Didn't want to see that Supervolcano in Yellowstone up close anyway.

Still, that does really suck.

 

[Everyday Math]

 

[Laille]

You could raise revenue for infrastructure improvements by not wasting taxpayer money on golf outings every week too, Donny.

 

[Sölf]

I wonder how long this will be "the busiest season" with those prices attached to it.

 

[ahoyhoy]

Fatboy probably hasn't been to a park in decades.

Too much walking and not enough gold.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Is this how they plan to get back at the National Park Service for rebelling against the administration early on? This is such a shame. The national parks in the US are so beautiful and they should be easily accessible for everyone

 

[DeusOcha]

160% fee increase, for national parks. Wow.

 

[THErest]

Gut environmental protections.
Almost triple national park entrance fees.
???
Profit.

 

[Saya]

Gut environmental protections.
Almost triple national park entrance fees.
???
Profit.

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I guess the ??? is to sell off some of the land for industrial purposes. I hope it doesn't come to that, but with Trump you have to prepare for the absolute worst.

 

[Clydefrog]

They would privatize the National Parks if they could.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

Should make mar a lago a national park while you're at it

 

[Pirate Bae]

I understand the wanting to improve infrastructure for the parks but this ain't the way to do it.

National Parks cost just as much as amusement park tickets. Smh.

 

[nihilence]

You could raise revenue for infrastructure improvements by not wasting taxpayer money on golf outings every week too, Donny.

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This always seems to be the easiest, yet most often overlooked solution.

"We don't have enough to help education or health care, btw I've got a bunch tax paid flights to catch that aren't work related."

 

[FullMetalTech]

This is why we cant have nice things. Thats gonna bring down tourism more than increase it.

 

[WhateverItTakes]

Decrease the attractivity of a public service so they can justify cutting support? Learning from the Tories I see.

 

[Ravensmash]

Decrease the attractivity of a public service so they can justify cutting support? Learning from the Tories I see.

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Yeah, exactly my thought.

Expect headlines slamming their waste of resources next, haha.

 

[captscience]

There's actually a very legitimate conservation argument to be made for reducing the number of visitors to some our most popular National Parks. Overcrowding has become quite a big problem.

That said, raising fees probably isn't the best way to go about it, and obviously this administrations doesn't give a damn about the environment.

 

[BigBadGiantHand]

Decrease the attractivity of a public service so they can justify cutting support? Learning from the Tories I see.

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My first thought as well.

These guy are basically Captain Planet villians.

 

[MilkBeard]

Those parks are going to be real empty. For shame. There's a reason why things like this should have low-priced entry. We can see where this is going too.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

Copying that Uber surge pricing model

 

[Deleted member 135]

Increase price massively
Attendance drops like a stone
Trump: "Look! People don't use our national parks, lets sell them to private companies!"
America's natural heritage is destroyed
Putin: "All according to keikaku..."

 

[Not]

Can I just say I really, really dislike our current government?

 

[less]

Increase price massively
Attendance drops like a stone
Trump: "Look! People don't use our national parks, lets sell them to private companies!"
America's natural heritage is destroyed
Putin: "All according to keikaku..."

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Seems like a reasonable scenario with the Trump admin. Well, Putin probably doesn't give a damn about parks being destroyed.

 

[Deleted member 6949]

That's a lot of money. I guess the parks are just for rich people, just like health care.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Raising prices may bring down attendance but there's been a real problem of people ignoring park rules and getting animals as well as themselves hurt or killed these last few years despite constant and repeated warnings. Let's not act as if allowing everyone acces is a good thing either.

 

[Dernhelm]

Guess someone showed him how much his golf trips were costing, and hell if he isn't paying for his own golf trips.

 

[Not]

Raising prices may bring down attendance but there's been a real problem of people ignoring park rules and getting animals as well as themselves hurt or killed these last few years despite constant and repeated warnings. Let's not act as if allowing everyone acces is a good thing either.

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I just kinda suspect this is lower on the list of reasons for the GOP

 

[mentallyinept]

Decrease the attractivity of a public service so they can justify cutting support? Learning from the Tories I see.

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Came here to post this.

It's really fucking transparent this is what they are doing. They failed to gut it via the budget so they move to plan B.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Increase price massively
Attendance drops like a stone
Trump: "Look! People don't use our national parks, lets sell them to start getting at that oil!"

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Based on what I understand of recent political feuds over the national parks, this I imagine would apply for a number of them.

 

[SymbiantXenos]

See great idea to price it out of many peoples grasp.

 

[brochiller]

Trump needs to watch Ken Burns documentary about our park system.

Spoiler: the tile is national parks: america's best idea.

 

[TwntyOneTwlv]

The fat motherfucker continues to be a massive douche. The fact that he keeps surprising me might be an indictment upon myself at this point.

 

[plagiarize]

This is likely so they can then point at attendance going down, and then sell off more land to private businesses.

 

[Ithil]

Increase attendance fee to drive down visits, then go "oh look no one goes to our parks" and then say they should be sold off to fossil fuel companies.

 

[Dyle]

On the one hand the big parks have been absolutely swamped in the last two years, something about the 100th anniversary last year suddenly made people realize they exist, but such a gigantic increase, even if solely for the peak period is insane, especially given the federal government could raise the funds for infrastructure improvements without even having to make big cuts elsewhere. Something has to be done to alleviate the crowds that have been causing significant damage to the parks, but this is very far from the right solution.

 

[Sorian]

Didn't he cut their funding at some point last year? Subsidizing it back on the people again?

 

[Goat Mimicry]

My dad loves the national parks and enthusiastically voted for Trump.

Part of me really wants to rub this in his face.

 

[Septimius]

I guess the ??? is to sell off some of the land for industrial purposes. I hope it doesn't come to that, but with Trump you have to prepare for the absolute worst.

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Of course. Once they apply the new fee and no one visits, Trump can say no one cares about the national parks, and sell the land to someone that will pay for it.

Increase attendance fee to drive down visits, then go "oh look no one goes to our parks" and then say they should be sold off to fossil fuel companies.

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See! It's only logical

 

[ahoyhoy]

Decrease the attractivity of a public service so they can justify cutting support? Learning from the Tories I see.

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Couldn't wrap my head around such a huge increase but this makes a lot of sense.

Who the fuck increases the cost of something three fold unless there's extreme Scarcity or you're up to nefarious shit.

 

[Couleurs]

From a selfish perspective I'm ok with this. I live pretty close to Rocky Mountain National Park and it gets insanely crowded with people littering everywhere so hopefully this helps with that. Plus annual passes (usable at every park) are still $80 (for now anyway) so they become an even better value.

Hopefully this doesn't lead to hurting smaller parks that want *more* visitors, unlike RMNP which has talked about limiting the number of visitors allowed to enter since overcrowding is such a major issue.

 

[peteykirch]

I understand that some people will be upset having to pay for something that should be free, because 'Merica, but I don't see the real issue of going from 25 to 70 to get in.

For most people who visit these majestic parks, it's a planned out vacation that usually involves a lot of travel and other expenses, if an extra $45 is going to deter you, then well you maybe shouldn't be taking vacations.

Hell, if we're looking at a $ per hour versus return on happiness and enjoyment a $70 car pass for a week blows away what it costs an average family of 4 to go see a movie with snacks/drinks in a major metropolitan area.

 

[Ray Wonder]

Bit more expensive for sure. Wonder how much it would impact the budget for upkeep and the salaries of the people who maintain the parks.

 

[Deleted member 4783]

"When I said immigrants, I meant tourists, too!! MAGA"
-Dolan Trump, 2017.

 

[LiK]

Thank you for making people want to visit them less.

 

[Saya]

 

[tadale]

"When I said immigrants, I meant tourists, too!! MAGA"
-Dolan Trump, 2017.

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A tourist is just a temporary immigrant.

 

[Formless]

I guess the ??? is to sell off some of the land for industrial purposes. I hope it doesn't come to that, but with Trump you have to prepare for the absolute worst.

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This is exactly what I was thinking. Revenue drops because nobody is going to pay $70 for entrance. "Look, nobody is going to the parks anymore. Let's put them to good use."

 

[Deleted member 176]

He really is a great businessmen, this should balance out his new tax plan nicely.

 

[Brinbe]

Meanwhile, all that was free for Canadians wanting access to CDN parks this year. What a shithead