Everglades National Park Raising Admission Fees

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HOMESTEAD (CBSMiami) - It's going to cost you a bit more to visit Everglades National Park next year.

Beginning January 10th, the entrance fee will increase from $25 to $30 per vehicle for seven days. Individual entrance fees will increase from $8 to $15 and the park's annual pass will cost $55.

Visitors entering through the park's water boundary by boat, paddle craft or guided tour will also have to pay an entrance fee consistent with motor vehicles. Visitors towing a boat through the park's main entrance station will be charged only one entrance fee, as the previous boat launch and paddle craft fees will be eliminated in the new year.

Eighty percent of collected fees stay in the park, while the other 20% support National Park Service units across the nation that do not charge fees, such as Biscayne National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. Of that 80%, at least 55% of the fees will be used to fund maintenance projects in the park.

Everglades National Park has some ambitious plans over the next few years.

They include replacing channel markers and improving channel corridors in Florida Bay and the backcountry, bringing back accommodations and a restaurant in Flamingo, repaving the remainder of the Main Park Road, and reconstructing the Flamingo Visitor Center.

The park also plans to launch the long-awaited free Boater Education Program in 2019.

The fee entrance increase is part of a two year plan.

In 2020 when vehicle and vessel fees will increase to $35, individuals to $20, and the annual park pass to $70.