Fort Vancouver proposes stockade fee hike

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site was categorized as a “Group 1” national park through a process that started several years ago.

Now the National Park Service is proposing fee increases that will establish standard admissions among four groups of parks, said Greg Shine, chief ranger and historian at Fort Vancouver.

Cindy David, regional fee program manager, says the groupings are based on the designation of each park. Here are the groups, with proposed per-person entry fees for 2016, and a regional example for each:

Group 1: National historic sites, national military parks, national battlefields, national battlefield parks, national memorials/shrines, national preserves, national parkways. $7. Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Group 2: National seashores, national recreation areas, national monuments, national lakeshores, national historical parks. $10. Lewis & Clark National Historical Park.

Group 3: National parks. $12. Mount Rainier National Park.

Group 4: Big-destination national parks. $15. Olympic National Park.

o Mailing address: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Attention: Proposed Fee Increase, 612 East Reserve St., Vancouver, WA 98661

o On the Web: parkplanning.nps.gov/Proposed_Fee_Increase_Fort_Vancouver_NHS

Officials at Fort Vancouver are proposing a two-step increase in the entry fee to the reconstructed stockade — from $3 a person to $5, and then to $7 in 2016.

The proposal is part of a larger initiative to increase and standardize various fees at National Park Service locations. There are about 400 national parks, and 131 charge entrance fees.

The financial impact at Fort Vancouver will be less than at many other national parks around the country, Chief Ranger Greg Shine said.

“The key at Fort Vancouver is that the entrance fee is just for the stockade,” Shine said. All other resources affiliated with the historic site are free, including Pearson Air Museum, the Vancouver Barracks grounds, all the events and living history re-enactments outside the stockade, and the McLoughlin House Unit in Oregon City, Ore.

Many other national parks are looking at fee increases for a range of activities, including camping and vehicle entries.

The Fort Vancouver fee structure also is lower than at many other national parks. As part of the notification from Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, the 131 fee-charging national parks have been placed in four groups.

“Fort Vancouver is in the lowest group,” Shine said.

At top-level attractions, Jarvis is recommending a $15 entrance fee.

The increased revenue would help the entire National Park Service system improve facilities and services as it approaches its 2016 centennial, Jarvis wrote in an August memo to regional administrators.

Renovation project

Fort Vancouver earned about $40,000 in entry fees in 2014, Shine said.

“Eighty percent of the money remains in the park,” Shine said.

Projects funded through that 80 percent of entry fees include repair and maintenance of facilities, creating new trail maps, replacing viewing decks along the Columbia River waterfront, adding accessible trails, adding picnic tables throughout the park, and replacing playground equipment at the popular playground near the Visitor Center.

The other 20 percent of the fees goes to the National Park Service, and individual parks can compete for grants from that pool of money. And that’s what is helping Fort Vancouver remodel its Visitor Center.

Renovating the Visitor Center, which is temporarily relocated at Pearson Air Museum, is a $1.7 million project, well beyond the revenue stream provided by local entry fees.

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site is seeking public feedback over the next month on the change, via written correspondence or a Web link.

Entrance fees are not charged to children younger than 16 or people who hold a variety of federal passes.

Fort Vancouver also offers a $10 annual pass; it would increase to $20 and then to $30 in 2016, and would continue to allow entry to four adults.

The new $5 fee could be implemented in May.

“That could depend on comeback from the public,” Shine said.