Paul Gottlieb
Peninsula Daily News
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Olympic National Park officials are awaiting word from Washington, D.C., following reports that the Department of Interior, facing widespread opposition from elected officials and the public, is backing down from a plan to impose steep fee increases at popular national parks.
The plan as first presented would nearly triple entrance fees at 17 of the nation’s most popular parks — including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion and Olympic National Park — forcing visitors to pay $70 per vehicle during the peak summer season.
While plans are still being finalized, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, speaking anonymously, said officials have “taken the public’s suggestions seriously and have amended the plan to reflect those” comments.
Olympic National Park spokeswoman Penny Wagner said Wednesday that recent news reports were the first that park officials had heard of a possibly amended plan.
The reports appeared earlier this week in The Washington Post and from The Associated Press.
“There hasn’t been any guidance to the park level yet,” Wagner said.
“It’s not a park-based decision.
“There hasn’t been a final plan, so they don’t need to inform the park about it.”
Zinke announced the proposed fee hike last October, saying it could raise $70 million a year to pay for maintenance projects at the National Park Service.
The plan drew immediate resistance from lawmakers and governors of both parties, who said the higher fees could exclude many Americans from enjoying national parks.
Most of the parks affected by the plan are in the west, including Olympic and Mount Rainier in Washington state, Rocky Mountain in Colorado and Grand Teton in Wyoming. Acadia National Park in Maine and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia also would be affected.
The park service received more than 109,000 comments on the proposal, most of them opposed, during a two-month comment period that ended in late December.
“We’ve taken the public’s suggestions seriously and have amended the plan to reflect those,” an Interior spokesman said Wednesday in an email.
“The plan is still being reviewed and not yet finalized.”
One commenter told the agency, “If I were considering a trip to one of these parks and suddenly found that the trip would incur an exorbitant entry fee, I would not … repeat NOT take my family on this trip.”
Emily Douce, budget and appropriations director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said she was glad that the Interior Department appears to be listening to the public.
While the group recognizes that fee increases are sometimes necessary, “We were adamantly against the fee proposal that came out,” Douce said. “It was too much, too fast.”
Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said Tuesday that Zinke “remains laser-focused on rebuilding our park infrastructure” and addressing an $11 billion maintenance backlog in the parks.
The fee hike, along with a bipartisan bill pending in Congress to create a parks maintenance fund, “will provide a historic investment” in the park system, Swift said.
A bill co-sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Steve Daines, R-Mont., and other lawmakers this year would use revenue from energy production on federal lands to help reduce the long-standing maintenance backlog at national parks.
The proposed legislation would create a fund that would receive 50 percent of onshore and offshore revues from energy production on federal lands over expected amounts that are not already allocated to other purposes.
A measure introduced in 2017 by U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, who represents the 6th Congressional District — which includes the North Olympic Peninsula — would fund infrastructure improvements through a fund using existing oil and gas royalties. It has not been voted on.
The Washington Post first reported Interior’s reconsideration of the fee hike.
In October, Zinke proposed increasing $25 peak-season fees at the 17 parks to $70, the largest hike since World War II.
Walking or biking would cost $30, and riding a motorcycle $50.
Five months later, in March, Zinke testified that Interior is undecided about the new rates and is looking at alternatives, The Washington Post reported.
At a House hearing that same week, he said the aim was to not hurt families.
