Trump Admin Wants Hike National Park Fees

FEATURING BEN SCHREIBER – Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has proposed sharply raising entrance fees to some of the nation’s most popular parks during peak season months. Parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Joshua Tree National Park, which attract visitors from all over the world, may see their fees go up as high as $70 per vehicle. Currently many parks charge about $30.

Some have likened the proposed fee hike to Uber’s surge pricing, which takes advantage of high demand to gouge more money from people. But National Parks have traditionally been a low-cost vacation option for Americans, and at a time when the Trump administration is boosting tax-payer dollars on military hardware, the park fee hike is hard to fathom.

Secretary Zinke, who was also charged with reviewing designations of national monuments by Trump, has concluded that the nation’s newest monument, Bears Ears in Utah, would be shrunk down despite protests by native American groups.

Post public comments on the National Park fee hike proposal HERE.

Ben Schreiber, Senior Political Strategist with Friends of the Earth U.S.