EDITORIAL: National Park Service wants to gouge visitors

It’s known as a trial balloon. It’s when somebody — often a government official — tosses out an idea to gauge the reception. To see how it “floats.”

That’s what the National Park Service did this week when it announced a proposal to more than double user fees at some of the nation’s most popular tourist destinations — including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion — during peak vacation season. Under the plan, the price for entrance to 17 parks, located mostly in the West, would jump to $70 a vehicle, up from $30. Fees for individuals, motorcyclists and tour operators would also skyrocket.

Park service officials argue the increases are necessary to pay for neglected maintenance and infrastructure projects. They estimate the new policy would bring in an extra $68 million.

But the park service had barely ignited the burner of this helium craft before efforts to shoot it down commenced.

“If there isn’t a question or consideration of equitable access to a lot of communities,” Jose Gonzalez of Latino Outdoors told USA Today, “it’s only going to increase the disparity in terms of who is able to access our national parks and public lands.”

Others said the Interior Department should seek the proper appropriations from Congress. “If this administration wants to support national parks,” Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement, “it needs to walk the walk and work with Congress to address the maintenance backlog.”

No doubt, the park service has a long wish list of “projects” on the drawing board. What government agency doesn’t? Problem is, the park service has trouble separating the wheat from the chafe. A 2013 report compiled by Tom Coburn, a Republican senator from Oklahoma at the time, found that despite the maintenance buildup, the park service “continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring thousands of addition acres of new park land that has drawn little interest from the public.”

The park service proposal amounts to price gouging, pure and simple. If a private-sector operation tried something similar, Congress would convene hearings. Members of the public have until Nov. 23 to weigh in on the money grab — parkplanning.nps.gov/proposedpeakseasonfeerates — and should do so. This is one trial balloon that deserves to quickly crash and burn.