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Sleeping Bear Dunes to increase entrance fees

Flickr user David Wilson
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https://flic.kr/p/9Zbk7H

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is raising entrance fees to match the payment structure of national parks across the county.

 

 

The National Parks Service has established a four tier payment structure for national parks.

 

Parks like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone are a four and the Sleeping Bear Dunes is a two.

 

Parks officials at Sleeping Bear Dunes said entrance fees will be raised from the current 15 dollars per vehicle to 20 dollars.

 

Scott Tucker is the Superintendent at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. He said with the revenue from higher fees they will work to improve the services they already provide.

 

“I think anybody could say we can always use a few more dollars to not only manage sleeping bear dunes to great standards, but also to the standards that visitors expect when they come to a national park site. So, by increasing fees is it going to increase our footprint of resources that have to be maintained? No”.  

 

Tucker said the fees are in place to help fund operational costs that the core budget from congress doesn't always cover.

 

He said the park is accepting comments to see how people feel about fee increases.

 

“It will give us an opportunity to also open up the conversation at least for what fees do for the park and how the fees are spent. Eighty percent of the fees that come into the park stay here at sleeping bear dunes and are used for sleeping bear dunes projects”.

 

The fees are expected to take effect on January 1st of 2018.

 

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