Free entrance at national parks, other public lands in Oregon on Aug. 4

Published 1:58 pm Thursday, July 29, 2021

A new fee-free day is beginning this year at national parks and other federal lands in the Pacific Northwest and across the country, celebrating last year’s passage of the Great American Outdoors Act.

Starting this year, every Aug. 4 will be celebrated as Great American Outdoors Day.

It is one of nine fee-free days recognized by federal land management agencies in 2021.

In Oregon, it will mean free entrance to national park sites like Crater Lake National Park and Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, as well as several BLM sites that charge day-use fees including Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area on the Oregon Coast. No national wildlife refuges in Oregon charge day-use fees.

The U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will not recognize Great American Outdoors Day in 2021, meaning day-use fees will still apply in all national forests.

After congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act with strong bipartisan support, then-President Donald Trump signed the act into law on Aug. 4, 2020. The legislation provided $9.5 billion over five years to address a maintenance backlog at national parks, and guaranteed funding for the existing Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was established in 1965 to provide funds to local, state and federal agencies looking to acquire land and water for the purposes of conservation and recreation. The fund was chronically underfunded for its entire existence, but is now guaranteed to meet its original budget cap of $900 million annually.