National Park Service is losing an eye-opening sum during government shutdown

October 17, 2025

National park sites across the country aren’t collecting entrance fees during the government shutdown, now on its 17th day. The longer the shutdown drags on, the more money parks miss out on: to the tune of approximately $1 million every day, according to National Park Service data crunched by the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit organization.

That means that as of Oct. 17, parks have lost about $17 million in revenue since the shutdown began.

The association calculated these numbers by pulling past fee revenue, including entrance and campground fees, from previous Park Service budget documents, which include recorded numbers from fiscal year 2023 and projected numbers for 2024. In total, these fees added up to about $350 million in fiscal year 2023.

Entrance fees are collected at just over 100 park sites in the Park Service’s portfolio of well over 400 sites, which includes sites such as national monuments and historic battlefields. The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act requires that fee revenue be used to enhance the visitor experience. About 80 percent of parks’ fee revenue is used by the park that collected it, while about 20 percent is shared with parks that don’t collect fees or that generate very little fee revenue, according to a Park Service website. yahoo!