Christmas came early for lovers of America’s public lands. Ahead of Thanksgiving, the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced it’s modernizing public lands access for Americans. The announcement is in conjunction with next year’s 250th birthday celebration.
Starting January 1, 2026, five specific changes will go into effect: America-First pricing, digital interagency “America the Beautiful” park passes, patriotic pass designs, more motorcycle access, and five additional fee-free days. The intention is to make public lands “easier and more affordable” for Americans, Secretary Burgum said on X.
Annual America the Beautiful passes—covering access to U.S. National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lands—will remain $80 for Americans and increase to $250 for non-residents. Additionally, there will be a $100 surcharge to nonresident visitors to popular National Parks including: Acadia National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Everglades National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Parks, and Zion National Park.
Back in July, the Trump administration announced its intention, through the newly formed Make America Beautiful Again commission, to adopt fee changes for international visitors. This is designed to help reduce the $23 billion NPS deferred maintenance backlog. As I explained here at Independent Women:
Among MABA’s top priorities is hiking National Park fees for international visitors, who currently pay the same entrance rate fees, about $25 to $35 per vehicle, as domestic visitors. The rationale for this price increase is to help offset the over $23 billion deferred maintenance backlog plaguing the National Park Service (NPS). … The Congressional Research Service defines deferred maintenance as “maintenance that was not performed as scheduled or as needed and was put off to a future time.” The NPS deferred maintenance backlog ballooned from $14 billion to nearly $23 billion during the four years of the Biden-Harris administration.
The surcharge, however, didn’t originate with the Trump administration. The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a free-market environmental organization, has pushed this proposal for years. PERC examined that Yellowstone Park, currently facing a $1.5 billion deferred maintenance backlog, could hypothetically add a $100 surcharge to international visitors to raise an additional $55 million annually—or five times the current revenue generated by non-residents. They argued this increase wouldn’t impact visits to the world’s oldest national park, writing “a 10 percent increase in entrance fees would reduce visitation by just 0.2 percent, with international and higher-income visitors being least sensitive to fee increases.”
Similarly, other nations have country-first national park fees for residents and surcharges for international visitors. Torres del Paine National Park in Chile charges $55 U.S. dollars for non-residents and $16 for residents. Galapagos National Park in Ecuador charges non-residents $200 to visit the famed spot. Unsurprisingly, they’ve seen continued—not decreased—attendance at their respective national parks and similar sites.
Critics of the changes argue that increased fee hikes for international visitors will discourage future visitors from coming, citing a slight decline in overall visits to the United States. As of September 2025, National Park attendance has steadily increased in the past year, with a historic 332 million recreation visits recorded in 2024. This is up from 2016, when a record-breaking 330 million recreation visits were documented. Entrance fee monies directly fund and support the NPS, with over 80% of the funds staying at the park it came from.
During his first term, President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act, geared towards addressing park infrastructure and park maintenance challenges, into law. Nearly a year into their second term, the Trump administration desires to balance its energy abundance agenda with true conservation efforts like expanding and enhancing public lands access.
To learn more about America-First pricing at federal lands, go HERE.