Your Dollars At Work

Your Fee Dollars

The current Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) allows the National Park Service to collect and retain revenue and requires that fee revenue is used to enhance visitor experience. At least 80 percent of funding from recreation fees stays in the park where it is collected, and the other 20 percent is used to benefit parks that do not collect fees or parks which generate only a small amount of revenue. Of the more than 400 national parks in the National Park System, only Mesa Verde is one of 108 parks among the 400 national parks that charge an entrance fee.

 

This wayside offers a closer view of Square Tower House features that are not as easily observed from the overlook.

NPS Photo Mimi Gorman

Projects Supported by Your Recreation Fee Dollars

• All the Ancestral sites which you visit require stabilization efforts and a commitment to preservation. Current efforts are focused on Far View Reservoir and Coyote Village.
• Most ancestral sites that visitors experience have a wayside or information sign. These help to advance the visitor perspective and knowledge of the site. Due to damage from environmental elements, safety concerns, and a need for relevancy, waysides require replacement. Square Tower House has been replaced. Far View waysides are in progress. Should be seen in 2025.
• For your health and safety the hand dryers in the VRC restrooms were replaced.
• Those beautiful color brochures with a map that guide visitors through the park were partially redesigned, updated and reprinted for distribution.
• Access to Step House required rehab of the trail and retaining walls
• Creating ways to include tribal perspectives and input to interpretive media and programs which staff bring to all visitors.
• Annual reopening of archeological sites for Visitor Satisfaction.