The National Park Service is calling for an increase in a number of fees at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, and is even proposing a fee for charging EV vehicles.
Under the proposal, increases in camping and cave tour pricing would take effect in 2024, and an EV charging fee would take effect then, too. Details and a page for leaving comments can be found here.
The proposed fees also are listed below.
“Mammoth Cave utilizes its recreational fee program to focus on projects that improve the visitor experience,” said Superintendent Barclay Trimble. “We have recently used the funds to replace deteriorated and unsafe benches and equipment at the park’s outdoor amphitheater, repaired handrails at the cave’s Historic Entrance that were damaged during a windstorm, and funded cave guides for our busy summer season. The funds we collect are essential to an investment in services and improvements that are necessary to serve the hundreds of thousands of visitors we receive each year.”
One new service covered in the park’s fee approval process is for the use of EV charging stations that will be installed in the visitor center parking lot within the next year. The new stations are planned to be Level 3 chargers, the fastest on the market today. Three chargers are currently proposed.
At least 80 percent of the fees collected at Mammoth Cave are used to fund projects that address deferred maintenance needs, enhance visitor programs and services, protect resources, and improve and rehabilitate visitor facilities. The remaining 20 percent helps support projects in other National Park Service units that do not charge entrance fees, like nearby Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Recreational fees are collected in the park under the 2004 Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Expanded amenity fee (campground, tours, day use, etc.) increases require annual comparability studies and are determined by comparing the cost of Mammoth Cave tours, campsites, and EV charging fees with the cost of privately operated businesses of similar duration and visitor experience. The park keeps fees in line with private operators and must not over or under charge for tours and visitor amenities.
Comments on these proposed fees are being taken through July 28.
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Comments
These seem to be very reasonable increases. I hope they help keep this a fabulous place to visit!
I understand the benefits to the parks, but I would argue that rate increases only benefits those with more disposable income. This is making the parks less and less accessible to those who really need it, lower and lower-middle income folks. Increasingly, it's becoming almost impossible for a family to afford going to the parks because they face resort pricing. Parks are not for the affluent. They are for all people.
The real reason these increases are necessary is because congessional leadership will not appropriately fund the parks as they should. We need Congress to step up and appropriately fund the parks. Otherwise, we are back to the old European model of parks for the wealthy, not parks for the people.