ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine — Starting on May 1, entrance and camping fees at the only national park in Maine will increase.
The hike in fees will range from an increase of $5 to $20, depending on what kind of activity or how long a visit is planned, according to John Kelly, park planner for Acadia.
The increases are part of a system-wide upward adjustment for all National Park Service properties that charge entrance fees, Kelly said Thursday. Some park properties will have lower increases, and some higher, depending on the approximate number of visitors they attract each year, he said.
The purpose of the increase, Kelly said, is to help offset increasing expenses for the park, which had an estimated 2.5 million visits by users in 2014, the highest such estimate for Acadia in 15 years. The last time the park adjusted its fees was in 2004, but expenses for personnel, operations and maintenance have all gone up over the past decade.
“It’s just a matter of the cost of doing business,” Kelly said.
He added that, as is already the case, all revenue from entrance and camping fees will stay with the National Park Service. Acadia’s ongoing revenue split keeps 80 percent in Acadia and sends the remaining 20 percent to the National Park Service, he said.
The vast majority of what Acadia keeps goes toward funding operations in Acadia and local transportation services, such as the Island Explorer bus system and the ferry service between Stonington and Isle Au Haut, where Acadia owns and maintains 2,700 acres of woodland and rocky shoreline. Fee-funded operations include maintenance, law enforcement, visitor programs and habitat restoration, to name a few.
Kelly said the park has many points of entry and that the fee applies to all parts of the park, not just at the staffed fee station on Ocean Drive.
By stepping up its education and enforcement efforts, and with help from the higher visitation level, the park boosted its fee revenue by nearly $1 million last year, he said. In 2013, the park collected $1.84 million as its majority share of the entrance and camping fees. Last year, it collected $2.83 million through the same mechanism — an increase of 54 percent from 2013.
Still, Acadia officials estimate that only 60 to 70 percent of visitors pay entrance fees, he said. Park officials plan to continue to push up their fee collection rate with more education and enforcement efforts this summer.
“We need to get as great a compliance rate with that entrance fee as we can,” Kelly said.
For most tourists who visit Acadia from out of state, the fee increase will be less than $10. Seven-day passes for day users (the park does not sell passes for less than a week) will increase from $20 to $25 for each vehicle. Starting this year, motorcyclists will be issued separate passes that will cost $20.
Weeklong passes for visitors who enter on foot or by bicycle will increase from $5 to $12. People who buy annual passes good for the entire season (May 1 through Oct. 31) will face an increase from $40 to $50.
Fees also will increase at park campgrounds. Walk-in campers will see an increase from $14 to $22 per person per night, while fees for campers with vehicles will go up from $20 to $30. Recreation vehicles with electric or water hookups will have to pay a nightly rate of up to $40, up from the $20 they have been charged.
Acadia also plans to open a new campground late this summer on the Schoodic Peninsula, according to Kelly. He said the harsh, snowy winter has delayed construction at the site off Moore Road in Winter Harbor, pushing back the expected opening from June until Sept. 1.
Last fall, in a prepared statement about the then-proposed increases, Acadia Superintendent Sheridan Steele said the park should not provide any unfair competition to any nearby, privately owned campgrounds.
“We certainly want to keep recreational use of the park affordable but we also have an obligation to keep our prices in line with surrounding campgrounds,” Steele said.
Stephanie Clement, conservation director for the nonprofit group Friends of Acadia, said Thursday that the decision to raise entrance fees is a “good idea.” The higher fees still will be fairly low for the return that park visitors will get, she said, and they will help fund park infrastructure improvements in time for its 100th anniversary in 2016.
Current and recent infrastructure improvement projects include ongoing repairs to Thunder Hole, one of the more popular sites in Acadia, and the renovation last year of several Island Explorer bus stop facilities.
“The park is still an incredible bargain for outdoor enthusiasts and families,” Clement said.
