After receiving intense backlash from hundreds of thousands of outdoorsy Americans, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is moderating his idea to exorbitantly raise entrance fees at the most highly visited national parks, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Over the month-long public comment period, the Washington Post reported that the National Park Service website was flooded with outraged comments from people irate over the proposed hike of entry fees from $25 to $70 at several popular parks.
According to the Washington Post, a price raise is still on the table, but one small enough to avoid driving the incensed masses away from what could be a record-breaking year for visits.
Vito and Guido aren’t going to be happy that Zinke is cutting into their skim.
It’s outrageous that our national parks cost a dime, but that ship has unfortunately sailed. I can think of few public expenditures more worthy than encouraging
our citizenspeople to go see the most beautiful and spectacular parts of our nation. Same deal as the Smithsonian. It’s what we work for, what we strive to protect and improve and grow.This motivates, even underlies, a sense of civic duty. I can see why the GOP hates it.
Edit: not “our citizens”, people. The Grand Canyon and Isle Royale and the National Air and Space Museum are bitchin’ sales pitches to the best and the brightest from around the globe.
Every time an Amazon employee uses a national park a kitten dies.
I love how these are the ‘people’s parks’ but yet they can’t USE them (too expensive) and these jackholes are constantly selling the mineral rights.
On the other hand, we are loving our national parks to death. While the backcountry remains relatively unscathed, the areas around the main attractions are mobbed, with corresponding trashing of everything in sight. Idiots handfeeding the wildlife and setting the campsite on fire. Staff completely overwhelmed and underpaid. Periodically they have to drop everything to rescue some incompetent fool from a totally preventable predicament in the backcountry. A $70 entry fee might help weed out the worst of them, although they’ll probably just end up destroying a campsite in the national forest instead.