2020 National Parks Fee Free Days (USA)

Acadia National Park | credit: NPS

A number of national parks across the USA will waive entrance fees on five days in 2020.

National Parks Fee Free days encourage people to get outdoors and spend time with  friends and family in U.S. national parks.

The National Park Service (NPS) will offer the following fee-free days in 2020:

• Monday, January 20 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Saturday, April 18 – Start of National Park Week / National Junior Ranger Day
• Tuesday, August 25 – National Park Service Birthday
• Saturday, September 26 – National Public Lands Day
• Wednesday, November 11 – Veterans Day

This fee-free opportunity applies to entrance fees only and does not affect fees for camping, backcountry reservations, tours, or other special uses.

Normally, 110 of the 419 national parks in the country charge an entrance fee, while the other 309 national parks do not.

The National Park System includes more than 84 million acres and is comprised of 419 sites, including national parks, national historical parks, national monuments, national recreation areas, national battlefields, and national seashores. There is at least one national park in every state.

source: National Park Service

DOI Economic Report for 2015

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently released its Economic Report for Fiscal Year 2015.

The report highlights a variety of Interior investments in recreation, conservation, water, and renewable energy.

According to the report, DOI investments led to $106 billion in economic output, and supported 862,000 jobs.

The report includes information regarding the economic and culture value of U.S. public lands.

The report found that national parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments, and other public lands managed by Interior hosted an estimated 443 million visits, supporting $45 billion in economic output and about 396,000 jobs.

In total, the report identifies about $300 billion in economic output and 1.8 million jobs supported through Interior’s activities including: tourism and outdoor recreation at parks, monuments and refuges, water management, energy and mineral development on public lands and waters, wildlife conservation, hunting and fishing, support for American Indian tribal communities and U.S. island territories, as well as scientific research and innovation endeavors.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell noted that many of Interior’s activities have economic values that are not easily calculated, and are not included in the report’s totals.

“Much of the value of our lands and historic sites cannot be expressed in dollars,” said Secretary Jewell. “Beyond their contributions to clean air, clean water and wildlife habitat, many are priceless treasures that belong to all Americans and help define our cultural heritage for present and future generations.”

The DOI report differs from other economic contribution studies in that it is a comprehensive analysis of the economic impacts from DOI activities. This report includes data from reports produced by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service (NPS) that focus on impacts from specific agencies and activities.

A separate economic analysis of the U.S. outdoor recreation sector is being compiled by the Federal Recreation Council and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

That report will document the industry’s value and contributions to the national economy, specifically shedding light on the role public lands and waters play, and will develop a baseline for informing future decision-making, governance and long-term management of public lands and waters.

source: U.S. Department of the Interior

BC Canada Parks and Protected Areas

The Province of British Columbia (BC) is home to more than 1000 national parks, provincial parks, recreation areas, conservancies, ecological reserves, and other protected areas.

BC parks and protected areas facts:

 - British Columbia has one of the largest protected areas systems in North America

 - British Columbia has the highest percentage of its land base dedicated to protected areas of all provincial Canadian jurisdictions.

 - Since 2004, the area of parks, conservancies, ecological reserves, and protected areas has increased by more than 3.3 million hectares.

- British Columbia is home to some of Canada's most popular national parks including Glacier National Park, Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, Kootenay National Park, Mount Revelstoke National Park, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, and Yoho National Park

Highest Mountain in North America - Denali

A new, official height for Denali has been measured at 20,310 feet, 10 feet lower than the previous elevation, According to the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Denali (also known as Mount McKinley) is the highest mountain on the North American continent. It is located in the USA, in the state of Alaska.

According to USGS, the new elevation is due to advances in technology to better measure the elevation at the surface of the Earth.

To establish a more accurate summit height, the USGS partnered with NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS), Dewberry,  CompassData, (a subcontractor to Dewberry), and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to conduct a precise Global Positioning System (GPS) measurement of a specific point at the mountain’s peak.

Denali National Park where the mountain is located, was established in 1917. Each year, more than 500,000 people visit the park.