Yosemite Amasses Millions

From Fees

Officials don't yet know how to
spend the $10.8 million.

By Michael Doyle
The Fresno Bee - August 11, 1998

Yosemite National Park is endowed with cash that officials don't yet know how to spend.

The popular park has collected millions of dollars under a new fee system that helps parks help themselves. Yosemite officials, however, are so busy coping with massive flood rebuilding that they haven't pinpointed how to use entrance fee revenues that have totaled $10.8 million in the past 22 months.

"At this point, we haven't decided what the best use of the money is," park spokesman Kendell Thompson said Monday. "There are so many possibilities ... and we don't want to waste it."

While Yosemite officials weigh options, Congress is preparing to keep the dollars flowing by extending the "temporary" fee increase that has made it more expensive to visit many national parks and forests nationwide.

With government money harder to come by, and parks scratching for improvements, many lawmakers consider the fee increase a winner even as some park visitors grumble.

"We've heard some complaints," Thompson said "but we've also heard people who are pleased that the money is being kept in the park."

Though some California lawmakers want to roll the fees back, they're fighting an uphill battle. The main question appears to be how long Congress will extend the fee-increase program that quadrupled entrance fees at Yosemite, to $20, and doubled them at Sequoia-Kings Canyon, to $10.

Originally a three-year "pilot program" ending next year, the fee increase would run to 2001 under a House bill and 2005 under a Senate measure.

"It's an outstanding success, and we'd like to see it become a permanent program," National Park Service spokesman Dave Barna said Monday.

Under the same program slated for extension, the Forest Service has started charging $5 overnight fees for backpackers in the Desolation Wilderness of Eldorado National Forest. Visitors to the remote Mono Lake Visitors Center now pay an entrance fee, as do Mount Shasta climbers.

As with the National Park Service fees, most of the money raised by the Forest Service is retained locally.

The money has paid for improved Desolation Wilderness trails, increased ranger patrols at Mount Shasta and new Mono Lake interpretive programs.

"It would be overly idealistic to think that people would be happy about paying a fee for something they used to get for free," Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said, but "people notice a difference on the ground."

Park and forest officials like the higher fees because, for the first time, they get to keep most of the money in their own park. Entrance fees used to be kicked back to Washington. Now, 80% of the fees collected pay for local improvements, and the other 20% is spread among the nation's smaller parks.

Most lawmakers like the new fee system because it helps whittle away at a multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog without forcing tough budget trade-offs. The fee revenues are supposed to augment whatever annual funds Congress provides.

"I am not saying this is a perfect program," House parks subcommittee chairman Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, said in recent debate, "but I think we are headed in the right direction and we will be able to take care of our parks."

Not all agree.

Last week, Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, and Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, introduced a bill to eliminate the new Forest Service fees. The two worry that higher fees deter poorer visitors. That issue is being studied by a park service social scientist.

But so far, these congressional skeptics are in a distinct minority. The House rejected efforts to end the fee program next year by a 341-81 margin, with all of the San Joaquin Valley's House members supporting the fees.

This year, the National Park Service anticipates receiving more than $140 million from park entrance fees. At Sequoia and Kings Canyon, the money raised is helping to restore Lodgepole campground and to groom trails.

Other federal agencies are starting to wake up to the potential. The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees more than 15 million acres in California, is studying where recreation fees might be raised.

1997 NATIONAL PARK REVENUES

US Park	Fee	Total Raised
Yosemite	$20	$3,390,000
Sequoia- Kings Canyon	$10	$654,249
Death Valley	$5	$482,000
Golden Gate	$1	$511,000
Desolation Wilderness	$5	$121,000
Mono Basin	$2	$95,000
Whiskeytown	$5	$28,300
Angeles/Los Padres/Cleveland/San Bernardino	$30/year	$1,400,000

Sources: National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service