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At a celebration in North Dakota on the 110th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, future President Theodore Roosevelt told those gathered: “We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.” President Roosevelt would do his part in stewarding our tremendous national heritage by protecting more public land than any other president in American history. From New River Gorge, our newest national park, to Yellowstone, our oldest, these natural marvels have inspired generations of Americans and welcome tens of millions of international visitors every year. We owe it to future generations of Americans to maintain these parks and ensure our children and grandchildren can enjoy their natural heritage.
Frustratingly, despite broad interest in our parks, the National Park Service has amassed a deferred maintenance backlog of nearly $23 billion. Roads, trails, campgrounds, water systems, and buildings have fallen into disrepair. Elderly and disabled Americans visiting our national parks are now especially impacted.
Tackling this backlog and restoring our beautiful national parks requires creative solutions, and it’s imperative that any new policy put Americans first while stewarding our natural heritage. One way to solve this problem is by charging international visitors a surcharge for entry, with the potential to generate over a billion dollars in additional revenue by more fairly sharing the cost of park maintenance.
Enter the PATRIOT Parks Act, which empowers the National Park Service to do exactly that. International visitors don’t have the same stake in our natural heritage and don’t pay taxes for regular park maintenance. It only makes sense to charge these individuals a higher entry fee. Because international visitors are very willing to pay higher entry fees, a surcharge could raise huge amounts of revenue for our parks while hardly affecting visitation.
A recent paper from the Property and Environment Research Center shows that even a $100 surcharge on international visitors at Yellowstone would only decrease total visitation by 1.3 percent, all while generating enough revenue to more than cover the park’s entire annual maintenance costs. Charging a $100 foreign visitor surcharge across the entire national park system could provide $1.2 billion in new revenue.
This policy isn’t an unprecedented idea. From Nepal to Chile to South Africa, a foreign visitor surcharge is a common practice around the world. It’s not unfair for parks in other countries to charge international visitors more, and it wouldn’t be unfair for American parks to do the same.
Similar policy is common practice between states. From West Virginia to Utah to Montana, many states charge out-of-state residents higher rates for fishing or hunting licenses. This practice is built on the same simple logic that out-of-state residents don’t pay state taxes and therefore don’t have the same stake in the state’s wildlife management as in-state residents do.
In the same way, an international visitor surcharge for our national parks is just common sense. After President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the National Park Service to implement a surcharge, many of America’s leading conservation groups voiced support for the policy, from the National Wildlife Federation to Ducks Unlimited to Conservation International.
The PATRIOT Parks Act would make President Trump’s policy permanent, empowering the administration and park superintendents to find the right surcharge that works for each park. It would build on the historic measures in the Great American Outdoors Act, signed by President Trump during his first term, which established the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund and permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This support is critical, but our parks need additional funding. International visitors should be pitching in to keep our parks pristine.
We cannot allow America’s natural heritage to stagnate or decline. Properly maintaining our national parks is critical to continue cultivating adventure, inspiring awe, and offering visitors the opportunity to counteract the decadence of the digital age for future generations of Americans.
The purpose of the national parks is clear, engraved on Yellowstone’s Roosevelt Arch: “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.” To help our national parks live up to that mission, Congress should quickly pass the PATRIOT Parks Act.