Beginning in mid-April the National Park Service at Acadia National Park in Maine will not accept cash for park entrance fees or other Park Service transactions.
According to a park release stating that cash sales would end April 14, the Park Service said such sales represent less than 5 percent of in-person sales in the park and that rangers spend up to eight and a half hours per day documenting, reporting, and transferring cash receipts.
"Moving to a cashless system will reduce the amount of time park staff spend managing cash and increase their availability to collect fees, increasing the amount of fee revenue available to support critical projects and visitor services," the release said.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit challenging decisions by the Park Service not to accept cash in parks is continuing to wind its way through the legal system.
The original lawsuit in the matter was dismissed in late February when U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly ruled that most of the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the lawsuit, mainly because they were never actually denied entry to a national park, and because they couldn't make a plausible argument that a park requiring payment via a credit card in the future would cause them irrevocable harm. But in March an amended complaint expanded on the constitutional and statutory issues that the Park Service allegedly violates with the cashless policy. It also maintained that one of the original plaintiffs, Toby Stover, who remains the only plaintiff, is harmed every time she tries to visit the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a national historic site, at Hyde Park, New York, because it won't accept cash for the $15 entrance fee, a point noted on the park's website.
The National Park Service has asked for an extension until April 22 to respond to the amended complaint.
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