Deadline looms for input on proposed fee increases at Olympic National Park

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Comments on an Olympic National Park proposal to raise fees are due by the end of the year.

Some of the fees would more than double under the National Park Service proposal.

The price of a seven-day vehicle pass would go from $15 to $25, and the cost of an annual pass would climb from $30 to $50, both a nearly 67 percent hike.

An individual pass without a vehicle would rise from $5 to $12, a 140 percent increase, and the motorcycle fee would jump from $5 to $20, a 300 percent increase.

Campground fees, currently $10 to $18, would range from $15 to $25 under the pricing model for parks in the category that includes Olympic National Park.

Ranger-guided snowshoe walks at Hurricane Ridge would double, from $5 to $10.

The nation’s 131 national parks that charge entrance fees are considering fee hikes to fund maintenance projects, not day-to-day operations.

All are collecting comments on the proposal.

Comments forwarded

Olympic National Park officials will forward comments on the proposal by mid-January to the Park Service’s regional office in San Francisco, according to Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman.

The regional office will submit a report on the proposal to the national office in Washington, D.C., by March 2.

A decision is expected later in the spring, Maynes said.

The goal “if supported by civic engagement” is for all parks to align with proposed fee increases by 2017, according to an Aug. 19 memo to regional office directors from Park Service Director Jon Jarvis that was obtained by The Denver Post.

“If there is significant public controversy, a park may choose not to implement new fees, may phase in the new rates over three years, or delay the new rates until 2016 or 2017,” Jarvis wrote.

Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum told Port Angeles Business Association members in November that phasing in fees is a possibility.

80 percent in park

Eighty percent of the entrance and camping fees collected at Olympic National Park are used to improve and maintain facilities within the park, officials said.

The remaining 20 percent supports projects in parks that do not charge fees, including the Lincoln Memorial and National Mall.

The park has $23 million in “critical deferred maintenance” projects as part of $200 million in maintenance projects that need to be completed, Maynes has said.

Fee revenue has funded rehabilitation of 90 miles of park trails and electrical service in the Kalaloch campground and is now being used for a current $1.14 million project to renovate the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center, park officials have said.

Six park sewage systems, 350 buildings throughout the park and “countless” bridges need to be monitored and maintained, Creachbaum has said.

The park’s visitation is up 28 percent over 2013, Maynes said, with 3,343,749 recreation visits recorded through the end of September.

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