Entrance fees at Denali National Park pay for projects like this free-run pen at the park’s kennels. The pen promotes the health of the park’s sled dogs and provides a place for visitors to watch and enjoy the dogs at play/NPS

As Congress continues to put off a solution to the roughly $12 billion maintenance backlog in the National Park System, another park is raising its entrance fees to help address infrastructure and maintenance needs.

The maintenance backlog isn't new, and has been the proverbial can kicked down the road by Republicans and Democrats since at least 2000, when then-presidential candidate George W. Bush pledged to wipe out the backlog, then estimated at about $5 billion, in five years. 

There have been efforts by some in Congress to tackle the problem head-on. Most recently, legislation to provide $6.5 billion for the Park Service to spend on the backlog over five years is pending in Congress. It is similar to legislation that died without floor action at the end of the 115th Congress.

But as year after year after year goes by without substantive change, either through increases in the Park Service's annual appropriation or separate legislation to specifically address the backlog, park officials are turning to visitors to generate just a little extra funding.

Most recently, Denali National Park and Preserve, which has roughly $54 million in deferred maintenance, plans on May 1 to bump up its entrance fees by $5 to $15 per person for a seven-day pass. The annual Denali-specific pass also is going up by $5, to $45 a year. Last year the park, which saw visitation reach 594,660, collected about $2.4 million in entrance feess. The increase is expected to generate between $1 million and $1.25 million in additional revenues.

At Denali, entrance fees in the past were used to install a new entrance sign and build a free-run pen at the park’s kennels. The pen promotes the health of the park’s sled dogs and provides a place for visitors to watch and enjoy the dogs at play.

Other parks that cited maintenance backlog needs in instituting higher entrance fees have included Everglades National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Capulin Volcano National Monument, Pinnacles National Park, and Indiana Dunes National Park. That's just a sample.

In 2006, the Park Service developed a fee structure to standardize rates across the country. Four groupings were created based on park designation:

Group 1

• National historic sites, national military parks, national battlefields, national battlefield parks, national memorials or shrines, national preserves, parkways
• Annual Pass: $30; Per Vehicle: $15; Per Person: $7; Per Motorcycle: $10

Group 2

• National seashores, national recreation areas, national monuments, national lakeshores, national historical parks
• Annual Pass: $40; Per Vehicle: $20; Per Person: $10; Per Motorcycle: $15

Group 3

• National parks
• Annual Pass: $50; Per Vehicle: $25; Per Person: $12; Per Motorcycle: $20

Group 4

• National parks (Bryce Canyon, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Olympic, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion)
• Annual Pass: $60; Per Vehicle: $30; Per Person: $15; Per Motorcycle: $25

“We understand that no one likes fee increases, but this fee revenue is critical in funding a wider variety of visitor services, facility improvement projects, and resource protection efforts,” Devils Tower Superintendent Tim Reid said back in 2017. “We ask for public comment and support in taking this step in preserving a quality visitor experience at Devils Tower.”

The-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke a year ago pushed through a $5 increase in entrance fees to many parks as a way to battle the maintenance backlog. It was expected to generate $60 million a year for the park system. The increase was much lower than a highly unpopular surge-pricing proposal the secretary had been pushing. It would have more than doubled entrance fees at 17 national parks for nearly half the year.