You pay your money, you get your recreation

Earlier this month, I told staffers of a U.S. Senate committee about my annual ritual where a woman in a Park Service uniform passes me a map of Yellowstone, brochures on bison safety and my National Parks Pass. I turn over $50 to her, and for the next year I have access to everything from the Gates of the Arctic to the Everglades.

It's all part of the six-year-old Fee Demonstration program that uses the funds to improve trails, repair outdated sewage systems and provide general maintenance where the fees are collected.

Not a bad deal, I think.

Last year, Fee Demonstration provided the Park...