JOSHUA TREE AND OTHER NATIONAL PARK FEE HIKES UNDER RECONSIDERATION

The Department of the Interior is reconsidering the fee hikes it proposed last year that would have dramatically increased the costs to enter 17 national parks, including our own Joshua Tree National Park. More than 100,000 comments were received in just 30 days last fall, of which the vast majority opposed raising entrance fees to $70 for a one-week vehicle pass into the parks. Officials are still considering raising the entrance fees, but a more modest fee of 10 percent, or $20 for annual passes. Also under consideration are options for increasing fees for buses or charging a per-passenger fee for tour buses. The proposed fee increase would have generated $70 million in revenue for improvements to address a $12 billion maintenance backlog of aging infrastructure in national parks.