What is the actual cost of maintaining a national park?

Answer 1

The cost depends on the size of the park. Larger parks with larger staff requirements, more infrastructure, and more visitors, have larger budgets than smaller parks. To establish a park, all that initially needs to happen is for the President to sign a bill establishing the park. The land would then have to be purchased from its holders, which is a major initial cost. Facilities and roads cost millions of dollars to create. The U.S. National Park Service budget for fiscal year 2008 is over $2.25 billion.

Answer 2

The cost varies on many factors including the size of the park, the management goals and the responsibilities of the park to the law, projects such as repairs or construction, and the number of visitors. The National Park Service, which operates over 390 units, had a budget of $2.5 Billion in fiscal year 2009. That works out to about $6.5 Million per park, but this is not indicative of how much it costs to run a single park. Some are just way more expensive than others. See http://home.nps.gov/applications/budget2/tables.htm