UPPER DELAWARE RIVER, NY and PA — The National Park Service (NPS) plans to increase the fees it levies on commercial users of the Upper Delaware River, with fees to comprise 1.5% of revenue in 2025-26 and 2% in 2027-28, to cover the costs of managing the river. 

The river's commercial users have protested the move, with canoe liveries saying they will have to pass the increase along to their customers. They've called on the NPS to negotiate a more reasonable fee—but the NPS says its hands are tied. There's a federal law that requires NPS units to recoup what they spend in managing commercial activities, and the previous rates charged in the Upper Delaware were too low to be in compliance with that law, according to the NPS. 

The NPS originally announced the rate increase in July. Since then, the NPS and liveries have not come any closer to finding an accord. 

"These added costs just keep adding up to where [families are] going to be priced out of coming to the area," said Amy Salvia, owner of Indian Head Canoes, speaking at a February 6 meeting of the Upper Delaware Council. 

NPS Superintendent Lindsey Kurnath maintained the necessity of the increases. "I'm going to do my job to bring this park unit into alignment with the law. [Currently,] we are out of alignment with the law," she said. 

Making up for expenses

The law that allows the NPS to implement fees is a part of the "Commercial Use Authorizations (CUA),” which is under the National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998. One of the terms of a CUA is that the park service shall "require payment of a reasonable fee… to be used, at minimum, to recover associated management and administrative costs."

Private companies are allowed to operate within the boundaries of the NPS under the CUA.  

As Kurnath explains it, "If [a park unit] is going to have any kind of commercial operation, you need to recover all the costs of running that program."

The increase in costs is proposed by the NPS to bring the Upper Delaware closer to compliance with the law. 

The money the Upper Delaware park unit brings in from CUA fees doesn't currently cover what the NPS spends in managing the Upper Delaware's CUA program. According to minutes from a July 2024 presentation before the UDC, the NPS recoups less than 30% of its costs under the current fee structure. 

There were 105 CUA holders in the Upper Delaware River as of 2023, including canoe liveries, fishing guides, camps and food trucks, according to the NPS. 

An organized opposition to the fee increase has arisen from the four largest canoe liveries along the river: Indian Head Canoes and Rafts, Kittatinny Canoes, Lander's River Trips and Silver Canoe and Whitewater Rafting. They say the increase is too much for them to absorb into their operations, and they will need to pass the additional costs on to their customers. 

"These fees cannot just get absorbed within company profits," said Salvia. "It's too much." For specific details on the new fees, see sidebar. 

The minutes from the July 2024 presentation quote NPS administrative officer Tara Harbert as saying that the park unit is not trying to generate new revenue by raising the fees. It's just trying to cover the costs of the CUA program, she said. 

A price passed along

The CUA fee used to be a set fee based on the number of guests, Rocco Baldassari, representing Kittatinny, told the UDC in July. He said the change to a gross revenue structure will mostly affect the area's larger liveries. 

Salvia said the NPS raised CUA fees already in 2017, and that the liveries absorbed the hike into their profits at that time. However, she said, the 1.5% would need to be passed along to the liveries' customers—potentially as a line item on their bills marked "NPS fee," so they would know where their money was going. 

The liveries raised concerns that increased costs would deter families from coming to the area. Rick Lander, owner of Lander's Canoes, told the UDC in July that charging more for CUAs will "drastically change the river valley," according to UDC minutes. 

The fee increase might not cause a drastic change in price.  

 A NPS fee of 1.5% would add an extra 0.98 cents per person to that average river trip, the River Reporter calculated based on the average rate of canoe liveries of $65 per adult for a one-day trip at weekend rates (excluding Kittatinny, which did not have easily accessible rates on its website).

Beyond the numbers

The pushback about the change in CUA fees is part of a long history of tension between the liveries and the NPS. 

The NPS originally arrived in the Upper Delaware in the 1970s, and met fierce resistance from canoe liveries and other riverside landowners, who feared the federal government's overreach and its impact on their livelihoods. While a compromise was reached with the signing of a River Management Plan in 1986, the relationship has not been entirely smooth paddling, and the occasional sign reading "Get Out, NPS" can still be seen dotted here and there throughout the Upper Delaware, a reminder of the early turmoil. 

In discussing the CUA fee increases, the liveries called their partnership with the NPS into question. They questioned what they got out of the partnership—they don't use the NPS-maintained river launches for their business, nor do they operate along the whole stretch of the river the NPS covers, they said. 

As for enforcement and water patrols, one of the categories in the NPS' budget for administering the CUA program? "Honestly, I don't even know what that means," said Salvia. "There is a lack of visible enforcement along the river."

The NPS adds value to the Upper Delaware River by making sure its scenic qualities and the quality of its water remain in good condition, Kurnath told the UDC in a July 2024 presentation about the UDC's aims. 

Speaking again with the UDC in February, Kurnath expressed frustration with the liveries' past contributions to the partnership.

"I think the liveries just got a screaming deal for 25 years," she said. "I'd be angry if I lost my promo code too, right?" 

Not a national park

The CUA structure and regulations are common across all national park units. However, the Upper Delaware isn't a typical national park—in fact, it's not a national park at all. It's a unit of the National Park Service; where in a national park the majority of the land is owned by the federal government. Here, the majority of the land is privately owned. 

The Upper Delaware's special status is protected by the River Management Plan, the document that outlines the terms of the partnership between the NPS, local municipalities, the states of New York and Pennsylvania and all of the river's other stakeholders. The UDC came into being as a venue at which the different stakeholders could meet and resolve their differences. 

It's the liveries' view that the NPS breached the River Management Plan by raising CUA fees the way it did. 

The NPS announced the rate increases to liveries and to the UDC early in July. That unilateral announcement goes against the "social contract" of the River Management Plan, according to Tom Shepstone, a consultant who was one of the contributors to the original plan. 

Shepstone recommended that the NPS work with the UDC and the liveries to come up with an alternative plan that better reflects the unique nature of the Upper Delaware. 

Allen Crouthamel, owner of Silver Canoes, agreed; "That's a concern of mine is, 'Is the park service willing to sit down and discuss this with us to work towards a solution?'"

Speaking at the UDC in February, Kurnath reminded the council they had discussed the CUA fee increases in July, and that council members had been able to express their frustrations at that time. 

Besides that, "I'm unclear of the benefits of additional dialogue," said Kurnath. The clarity of the law's requirements—a National Park unit must recover its costs from administering a CUA program—left little room for negotiations, in her view. "There's not much you can tell me that will make me want to continue violating the law."