Olympic National Park decides against fee increase -- but is this a good thing?

• Published February 26, 2008

Olympic National Park won't increase entrance fees until 2010 at the earliest.

Like anyone else, I'm happy to get a bargain, but I'm not sure that this is the best deal for the park. I think the park could use the additional money a fee increase would bring in.

Olympic National Park proposed increasing the one-week entry pass last year -- from $15 to $25 for each vehicle and from $5 to $12 for a person walking or cycling into the park. That would have been a big increase, but the park would still have been a screaming deal. One week -- 7 days -- for $25 works out to $3.57 per day. That's less than most of us pay for a fancy cup of coffee, a movie or a Big Mac meal at McDonald's.

And the park uses entry fees to pay for services and keeping the place going. According to a park press release, entry fees pay for about $1.8 million in park upkeep and services each year. We're talking about trail maintenance, replacing bridges, restrooms, campgrounds, exhibits and so on.

The park does need work -- especially on trails that get hammered every winter. I hope that the park comes back to the public with another proposed fee increase for 2010. Our national parks are precious, but we've got to do a better job of taking care of them. Our parks need to take better care of buildings, campgrounds and trails. We need more rangers to protect our parks and park visitors. People from around the world visit our national parks -- which they consider miracles.

I do think national parks should have a one-day entry pass -- say for $5 or so. Lots of park visitors don't spend a week in a park. Yellowstone, Glacier and other giant national parks are possible exceptions to this trend. It is harder to pay $15 for a 7-day visit when you're at Olympic National Park for a one-day visit to the Hoh Rain Forest.

Of course, visitors can also buy annual passes. A year-long pass to Olympic is $30.

Our parks do need more money, and it looks like the federal government isn't about to start surge in park budgets. It is hard to pay money to visit lands we already own, but I've started thinking of those fees as upkeep -- just as we pay for oil changes and tuneups to keep our cars and trucks going.

Those entry fees keep our parks going.

Chester Allen