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By Natalie Alms,
Senior Correspondent, Nextgov/FCW
By Natalie Alms
|
Congress instructed the government to roll out digital park passes by January 2026 in a law signed by former President Joe Biden just before he left office.
The government will debut digital versions of its popular park pass series next year, as well as new designs for the passes, some of which will now feature photos of President Donald Trump, the Interior Department announced Tuesday.
Interior also previewed a “new resident-focused fee structure” that will charge international tourists more to visit the most popular national parks or to purchase park passes.
The digital park passes have been in the works for years.
Lawmakers instructed the government to offer digital passes no later than Jan. 1, 2026, in a bipartisan outdoor recreation package signed into law by former President Joe Biden in January of this year. Moving the park pass series into digital form has been an ambition of some lawmakers since at least 2022.
Beginning in January, the America the Beautiful park passes will be available for people to purchase and store digitally on their mobile devices. Users will also be able to link them to their physical, plastic copies of the cards.
The annual park pass was already rolled out digitally on Nov. 20. The America the Beautiful pass series includes a variety of pass options with different prices and eligibility restrictions, including one for senior citizens, another for military service members and veterans, and others that will be offered digitally next year.
The digital, annual passes can be stored, managed and accessed from a Recreation.gov account, mobile app or mobile wallet. People purchasing them can also pay more to get a physical pass, too.
That may be useful, as the government warns those purchasing the digital version that some parks don’t have cell phone coverage, and others are unstaffed and require vehicles to display passes — meaning that a visitor would need to either print their digital pass or bring a physical one.
The National Park Service flagged funding and internet connectivity as major barriers to rolling out digital passes in 2023, when it asked vendors for information and potential solutions on a digital system.
The changes come as the National Park Service continues to reckon with workforce losses — staffing is down 24% since January, according to the National Parks Conservation Association — and the lingering effects of the shutdown, during which the parks were partially open, against the wishes of former National Park superintendents, while 64% of the workforce was furloughed.
The new, “America-first” fee structure also announced alongside the digital passes on Tuesday will up the price of annual passes for non-U.S. residents and add a $100 charge on top of the standard entry fee for them to enter the most popular national parks next year.
There will also be additional free days for Americans to visit the parks, including Trump’s birthday, which is on Flag Day.
The new designs include an annual pass that features President Donald Trump alongside George Washington. Trump is shown saluting troops on the military pass. Other passes feature Independence Hall in Philadelphia and Theodore Roosevelt. The new designs also nod to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States by including the America 250 logo.