President Trump’s “America First” policy is paying off big time for Acadia National Park in Maine.
The popular park is among eleven nationwide where Trump instituted new fees for foreign visitors to pay for entrance into the facilities.
The combination of nonresident annual park passes and additional per-person fees for international visitors at the parks have raised $22.5 million since January 1.
The fee increases mean that international visitors must pay $250, rather than $80, for an annual America the Beautiful Pass, and pay a $100 per person surcharge at the busiest parks, Acadia among them.
“This ‘America First’ pricing is providing our parks with the resources they need to fund critical improvements and enhance visitor experiences across the country,” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the Daily Signal.
The fees are helping chip away at a $24 billion backlog in deferred maintenance projects, federal officials said.
Besides Acadia, the parks with the new fees include Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion.
Established in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson, Acadia holds the title of the first national park east of the Mississippi River.
Conservationists like George B. Dorr and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. shaped the park, with Rockefeller funding and designing the park’s famous crushed-stone carriage roads.
The 49,000-acre park includes about half of Mount Desert Island, part of Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula and portions of sixteen smaller outlying islands.
The park, which attracts some four million annual visitors, contains the tallest peak on the nation’s Atlantic coast, Cadillac Mountain.
