To my mind, the U.S. National Park System (NPS) is invaluable.
Its 85 million acres span all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and every U.S. territory. In these parks are geothermal and geological wonders; billions of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish; and landscapes that are among the most majestic on Earth. Just as importantly, the system preserves battlefields and burial grounds, petroglyphs and presidential homes, internment camps, ranches, boatyards, Underground Railroad sites, and much more, and they collectively tell the messy, glorious story of the United States of America.
The NPS’s heritage is incalculable, but it is, in fact, possible to put a monetary value to our national parks. I’m not an accountant, but even basic back-of-the-envelope math proves that our national parks bring in more cash than they spend.
Adding up the productivity of the national parks
Department of Interior records show that in 2024, the parks received $3.475 billion from U.S. taxpayers. That’s not chump change. But it’s a tiny sum in comparison to the revenue that visiting the same parks brought in 2024.
For that $3.475 billion outlay, our national parks in turn put a whopping $55.6 billion into our economy, again according to official government documents.
We also know that the parks supported 415,000 jobs, which feeds local economies.
Accountants who parsed these figures in 2023 found that $19.4 billion of that gross came in the form of in taxable wages and earnings. So if you consider that the median tax rate is 14.5% (according to TaxFoundation.org), then roughly two-thirds of that original tax funding for parks, or $2.71 billion, is returned to the government in income taxes on wages alone.
We also know that some $9.9 billion of those revenues (in 2023, according to the study cited above) was spent on lodging—hotels, motels, and specialty accommodation.
The federal government gets part of that revenue, too. National Parks Traveler has a terrific article on how the parks operate their hotels. Long story short: the hotels are publicly owned, but run by private companies that send a concession fee to the NPS.
The National Park Service reports that its concessions bring in more than $1 billion a year. If you add that to the estimated $2.71 billion generated in wage taxes, then we have already surpassed the $3.475 billion the parks took in federal funding.
But that’s not nearly the end of the income stream. There are the admission charges that about a quarter of the National Parks levy. In 2024, 331,863,358 people visited America’s 63 National Parks, a new record. Visitors also flocked to National Monuments, National Scenic Trails, National Battlefields, National Preserves, and other venues within the park system.
The NPS shows on https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/fees-at-work.htm that fees contributed $1,242,675,985 to the NPS budget between 2020 and 2023—that was money collected on site that the parks didn’t have to request from our taxes. Considering the record attendance the parks saw in 2024, fee revenue last year was likely over $365,000,000, which once again goes back into the system.
The parks also receive significant money (and voluntarism) from private philanthropy. In 2024, the National Parks Foundation, one of many non-governmental groups that support the NPS, gave over $70 million.
Even these rough figures are more than enough to close the case: It seems pretty clear to anyone who is looking at the numbers that as a group, our National Parks pay back or exceed every cent they accept in taxes.
And that’s before we even begin to talk about how national park units are spectacular revenue generators for those who live near them. Parks lift the success of local economies and mom-and-pop businesses across this nation. The Department of the Interior put that type of revenue at $26.4 billion in 2023 alone.
The parks’ nourishing effect on the communities around them put their value way over the top: Americans get a lot more money out of our parks than we put in.
Trump’s cuts can’t be about economic value
Which makes Trump’s hasty firing of park rangers and his hiring freeze so confusing.
It also makes this week’s move by the Trump Administration to terminate 34 leases on National Park properties (the latest victims of a far longer list of targets) seem downright bizarre. The places being targeted are all actively used by visitors and/or the NPS, which clearly puts more money into the economy than it spends.
Trump says its about money, but the facts tell a different story. The parks do pay for themselves and on top of that, they buoy their communities—why, then, would Trump want to undermine them?
Who benefits from rangers being fired and the shuttering of these facilities and lands? Certainly not the communities who benefit from the huge numbers of visitors who flock to these places annually and spend generously as they vacation.
Certainly not the countless travelers from across the planet who have life-changing, mind-expanding vacations in these parks.
Certainly not all the critters, and priceless landscapes that these parks protect as future American heritage.
And most heartbreakingly, certainly not our children and grandchildren who are being robbed of their birthright.
If you are as appalled as I am by these dangerous moves by the Trump Administration, call your Congressional representative and your senators and let them feel your ire.
We all need to stand up, get loud, and protect the parks that belong to us, inspire us, and feed us, the American people.