
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993                   TAG: 9304300168
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CLINTON WANTS TO RAISE FEES AT NATIONAL PARKS

The Clinton administration is proposing to charge entrance fees at national recreation areas that now are free and wants to more than double some fees for using campsites and other public facilities, officials said Thursday.

The administration asked Congress to enact the new fees, which conservation groups called unreasonable, as a way to pay for maintaining and enhancing public recreation lands.

Some facilities that now are free - day-use picnic areas, national monuments and lakes - would be available only for a fee. The new fees would be no greater than $3.

The increases would apply to national parks as well as public lands managed by others.

Some familiar programs would be affected:

The Golden Eagle passport, now $25 a year for unlimited entry to any national park, would cost $35 next year and $50 in four years.

The annual park pass, providing unlimited admission to any one park for a year, would rise from the current $10 or $15, depending on the park, to $15 or $20 and eventually to $30.

The fee for a single entry to a national park - now $5 per car at most parks and $10 at Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Grand Canyon - would gradually increase to $16 at all parks after 1994.

Back-country campers would have to pay fees.

by CNB