By Jasper Ward Steve Gorman
WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to increase entrance fees at U.S. national parks for visitors from other countries, even as his administration seeks to cut national park spending by more than a third.
The additional revenue generated by higher fees from foreign tourists will raise hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation and deferred maintenance projects to improve national parks, the White House said in a statement.
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The executive order directs the Interior Department, parent agency of the Park Service, to increase entrance fees paid by park visitors from abroad, but does not say by how much or when the new rates would go into effect.
It was also unclear how many of the agency’s 433 park units would be affected. Only about 100 sites managed by the Park Service currently charge for admission and fees vary.
The order also directs the Park Service to ensure that U.S. residents receive priority access over foreign visitors in any of its permitting or reservation systems.
Currently, U.S. citizens in effect pay more than foreign tourists to visit the nation’s scenic natural wonders and historic landmarks because their admission fees as well as a portion of their U.S. tax dollars support the cost of national parks, the statement said.
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“Charging higher entrance fees to foreign tourists is a common policy at national parks throughout the world,” the statement added.
The executive order comes as the Trump administration has proposed cutting more than $1 billion from the Park Service budget in fiscal 2026, which would represent a reduction of more than a third of the agency’s budget from the prior year.
The administration’s cuts to the federal workforce have already aggravated a staff shortage in national parks across the country.
Permanent staffing at the Park Service since Trump took office in January has dropped 24%, while just 4,500 of the 8,000 seasonal workers his administration pledged for this summer have been hired, according to an analysis on Wednesday from the National Parks Conservation Association, a watchdog-advocacy group.
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Reduced personnel levels at some national parks, including Yosemite in California and Big Bend in Texas, have forced closures, reduced programming and impeded emergency response operations, the NCPA said.
Visitors have continued to flock to national parks in record numbers in recent years, with admissions soaring to a new high of 331 million last year, up 6 million from 2023.
Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Jasper Ward in Wasington and Ismail Shakilan in Ottawa; Editing by Sonali Paul and Kim Coghill
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Jasper WardThomson ReutersJasper Ward is a breaking news reporter in Washington. She primarily covers national affairs and U.S. politics. Jasper was previously based in The Bahamas where she covered the collapse of FTX and the subsequent arrest of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried. She was a part of the Reuters team that won the Gerald Loeb Award for breaking news for its FTX coverage.