US national parks staff say new $100 fee for non-residents risks ‘alienating visitors for decades’ | Trump administration
A new $100 fee for foreign tourists entering U.S. national parks has sparked chaos and frustrating waits, with staff reporting long lines at citizenship checks and angry visitors regularly abandoning plans to frequent some of America’s most treasured landscapes.
The new fee system, introduced by the Trump administration starting January 1, has caught many visitors and National Park Service (NPS) staff off guard, with checks now required to assess nationality and tourists often turning away from entries rather than paying the extra fee. The Guardian heard reports of problems from several NPS staff members, speaking anonymously, who work in different parks across the country.
Environmental advocates have argued that the new tiered fees are also illegal under federal law and are suing to overturn them.
Under the new system, anyone who is not a resident of the United States and visits one of 11 popular national parks, including the Grand Canyon, Everglades and Yellowstone, must now pay a $100 fee on top of the existing park entrance fee. The price of an annual pass giving non-residents access to all parks has increased from $80 to $250.
This means cars or buses full of tourists face new high costs, especially if they plan to visit just one national park. NPS staff told the Guardian that this has caused anger and confusion in several national parks, with a lack of signage and online warnings about the new regime and even a shortage of new annual passes which, for US residents, now include a photo of Donald Trump on them – a portrait which, if covered with a sticker, will invalidate the pass.
“It was chaos, for the staff, it was very trying,” said an employee who works at the entrance to a large park in the western United States on condition of anonymity. Some cars full of tourists had to pay a total of $600 or more, they added. “A lot of people are turning around, some are screaming and getting angry. It’s an outrageous rate, it’s like we’re telling people we don’t want them here. That’s not the spirit of national parks.”
Another staff member at another national park said it was “inconvenient” to ask visitors for passports or green cards. “A lot of Americans will ask us why we’re doing this and then say it’s nonsense when we answer them,” the NPS employee said. “Most of our visitors are foreign tourists, so I expect a drop in visits.” Another NPS employee said the move risks “alienating visitors for decades.”
The NPS announced the fee change in November, saying the move would ensure foreign visitors “pay their fair share” for the maintenance of U.S. national parks, many of which have drawn record crowds in recent years while grappling with a growing backlog of maintenance costs.
The additional fees collected “will help maintain the beauty and proper functioning of our parks, including addressing the backlog of deferred maintenance.” an NPS spokesperson said. “The non-resident surcharge represents only a small fraction of the total travel cost (airfare, accommodation, transportation) for foreign tourists.”
The NPS said it’s too early to say how much money will be raised from the fee increase, or whether the rising costs will deter potential visitors in the future. Some other countries, such as Tanzania and Ecuador, charge significantly higher fees for foreign tourists, who are generally wealthier, to access popular parks.
The NPS was in turmoil during the first year of Trump’s second term, with the agency losing about a quarter of its staff as part of the administration’s crusade to shrink the size of the federal government. Park managers were also ordered to revise signs that display facts about issues such as slavery and the civil rights movement that the administration disapproves of.
“We’re seriously understaffed, people are working multiple jobs and now this pricing policy is pushing everyone to scramble,” said a staff member at California’s Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. “It feels like they intentionally created chaos and disrupted our workflow. A lot of people are leaving because they are so exhausted.”
The changes to fees and annual passes were made hastily and illegally, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, a green group that filed a lawsuit to overturn the decision in federal court last month. The center says government rules do not allow park rates to be changed based on nationality, and a bill to change this has not yet passed Congress.
An NPS spokesperson did not respond to questions about the legality of the new fees.
“What they did is illegal and will discourage people from coming to America’s national parks, which are revered around the world,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Instead, people will come here and talk about scams and how cheap and xenophobic the government is. »
Suckling said even the placement of Trump’s image, alongside George Washington’s, on the “America the Beautiful” passes is against the rules, because the image was supposed to have been chosen via a photo contest.
The winner of the contest was a photo of Glacier National Park, although it was the U.S. president, rather than the soaring but melting glaciers, that was visible on the 2026 National Parks Pass. Some people decided to cover the Trump photo on their pass with stickers, although the NPS warned that this action could invalidate the document.
“Any American should be able to choose to cover something like this with a sticker,” Suckling said. “Trump behaves like a two-legged tyrant. Putting his image on everything, as if he were Mussolini, is both childish and comical, but also fascistic and frightening.”
