Fee-free days have long been a fairly banal part of federal public lands management, as opportunities for national parks and forests to waive parking and entrance fees in honor of national holidays or to encourage people to get outside. But the program has now received a “patriotic” face lift.
As part of its “America-first” approach to public lands, the Trump administration has made some big changes to the fee-free holidays, starting in 2026.
The biggest update is the administration’s move to restrict the fee waivers to U.S. residents only. Nonresidents will still have to pay entrance and parking fees on the fee-free days, officials said, though they did not say how the rule would be policed.
Additionally, the days themselves have changed drastically for 2026. In November, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a new slate of fee-free days for the National Park Service that removed holidays honoring Black Americans and celebrating public lands, replacing those holidays with those that celebrate the United States more broadly (as well as President Trump).
For 2026, the National Park Service will no longer celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the first day of National Park Week, National Get Outdoors Day, Juneteenth, the anniversary of the Great Outdoors Act or National Public Lands Day as fee-free holidays. Instead, it will honor Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday, Independence Day weekend, the National Park Service’s birthday, Constitution Day and Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday.
From 2025 to 2026, the only fee-free holiday carried over by the National Park Service will be Veterans Day.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the National Forest Service, announced a slightly different slate of fee-free days for 2026. The USDA will continue to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day, National Get Outdoors Day and National Public Lands Day, in addition to all the new days — with the exception of Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday.
Fee-free days do tend to change over time, just not all at once. Most recently, under the Biden Administration, Juneteenth gradually replaced Presidents Day as a fee-free holiday at the federal public lands agencies.
Each agency has some discretion to make its own fee-free holidays. For example, the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers typically celebrate their own birthdays on July 16 and June 16, respectively, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service usually waives parking fees on the first Sunday of National Wildlife Refuge Week. None of those three agencies has announced its calendar for 2026.
Here are the fee-free days on public lands for the new year:
Jan. 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day (U.S. Forest Service only)
Feb. 16: Presidents Day
May 25: Memorial Day
June 13: National Get Outdoors Day (U.S. Forest Service only)
June 14: Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday (National Park Service only)
July 3-5: Independence Day weekend (U.S. Forest Service celebrating only July 4)
Aug. 25: 110th Birthday of the National Park Service (National Park Service only)
Sept. 17: Constitution Day
Oct. 27: Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday
Nov. 11: Veterans Day
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