President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday raising entrance fees at US national parks for foreign visitors, a move aimed at offsetting steep cuts to the National Park Service budget and addressing a mounting staffing crisis. The White House said the increased revenue from higher fees charged to international tourists would generate hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation and deferred maintenance projects across the country’s national parks. However, the order did not specify the amount of the increase or when it would be implemented. The directive tasked the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, with determining the new fee structure. It remained unclear how many of the 433 park units under its management would be affected. Currently, only about 100 national parks and sites charge admission, with fees varying widely across locations. In addition to the fee hike, the executive order instructed the Park Service to prioritize access for US residents over foreign tourists in its permit and reservation systems. The White House justified the move by noting that American taxpayers already bear a significant portion of the cost of maintaining national parks through federal funding and their own entry fees. “Charging higher entrance fees to foreign tourists is a common policy at national parks throughout the world,” the White House said in a statement. The announcement came amid the administration’s proposal to slash more than $1 billion from the Park Service budget in fiscal year 2026—more than a third of its funding compared to the previous year. The cuts have exacerbated an ongoing staff shortage in national parks, which are bracing for heavy tourist traffic during the July 4 holiday. Since Trump took office in January, permanent staffing at the Park Service has declined by 24%. Meanwhile, only 4,500 of the 8,000 seasonal workers promised by the administration for the summer had been hired, according to a Wednesday analysis by the National Parks Conservation Association, a watchdog group.
