Remember when the National Parks Pass died and the pricier America the Beautiful Federal Lands Pass arrived? Wondering how sales have gone? Let's take a look.

When the $80 ATB pass replaced the $50 National Parks Pass on January 1, 2007, the idea was that one pass could get you into all public lands where an entrance fee was charged. (Of course, you didn't need the ATB to do that, as you could upgrade your National Parks Pass for $15 and use it to get into other public lands where fees were charged, but that's another story.)

Under the ground rules, 100 percent of the sales price of these passes goes back to the agency that sold the pass. So, in terms of NPS revenues, one of the gambles created by the ATB pass was whether there were more folks who, for instance, use Forest Service lands than parks and so would be likely to purchase their ATB pass at a Forest Service site, not a national park, and thus ensure that those revenues stayed within the Forest Service.

Well, in looking at revenue figures since the ATB arrived three years ago, it looks like just about a wash for the Park Service. Jane Moore, the agency's fee program manager, provided the Traveler with this update on 2008 pass sales:

2008 Pass Revenue

Total for the interagency program: $29 million with approximately 760,000 passes sold.

2008 Breakdown:

U.S. Bureau of Land Management --$260,000

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- $290,000

U.S. Forest Service -- $1.7 million

National Park Service -- $24.7 million

Internet/toll-free phone/third-party sales -- $1.9 million

Revenue Distribution:

Central sales revenue (the $1.9 million figure above) is used to fund the administrative costs of the program (fulfillment, printing, shipping, web orders, inventory management, program administration, start up costs etc)

All revenue from field sales of the passes remain in the agency where the pass was sold. Most agencies allow the field sites to retain 80-100 percent of pass revenue for site specific projects that benefit visitors.

2009 Pass Revenue Stats for the NPS

$24.2 million in pass revenue

In 2006, the last year for the National Parks Pass, the Park Service took in $22.2 million. In 2005 it received $18.6 million, and in 2004 pass sales totaled $20.3 million. The slightly higher Park Service revenues for 2008 and 2009 (higher by roughly $2 million-$3 million annually) can be traced in part to the fact that while senior pass sales were included in ATB sales, they were not included in the National Park Pass sales for years prior to 2007, according to Ms. Moore.