Parks get short-shrift

The Park Service proposes to increase the entrance fee of $30 to $70 so they could attempt to fix the maintenance backlog.

Ever since Reagan and Bush the budget for the National Park Service has been cut and the fees have been increased.

Now Trump’s budget proposes another annual $297 million cut. The increase in fees will never match the cut in the budget. Plus it will prevent many less privileged people who are also the rightful co-owners to visit our national treasures because they cannot afford fees like this.

Apparently, our government lets these national treasures deteriorate while spending untold billions to keep military bases around the whole world.

Most of our politicians were not even aware that we maintain 900 military personnel in the African nation of Niger alone, plus hundreds, probably thousands more, in other African nations.

When I first visited our national parks in 1963 entrance and even camping was free and park programs were much more extensive than now.

Because of funding reductions, the Park Service was forced to hand over camping services to commercial concessionaires who, of course, increased the camping fees exorbitantly.

I still can afford those fees, but many citizens cannot.

Cecilia Nolthenius

Coeur d’Alene