The United States built the site to ensure equitable access to public lands. Then everything went wrong

We know that Booz Allen Hamilton is making a lot more money than it originally expected. In the contract, the company estimated it would earn $87 million in the first five years, and a total of about $182 million over 10 years if the contract was extended, which it did.

According to its billing, Booz Allen Hamilton billed more than $140 million in the first four years of the contract. The Forest Service did not return our Freedom of Information Act request for more recent numbers, but one analyst, Canadian sales strategist Blair Enns, predicted they could make $620 million by the time their contract expires in September 2028.

The increase in traffic is one reason for this. But the model has also changed since 2016. That year there were fewer than 3 million bookings through the site; In 2023 there were nearly 9 million. BAH says there are now 5,800 properties and more than 128,000 locations and activities to book. More facilities have switched to using the Rec.gov system, and things that used to be free or nonexistent are now run through Rec.gov, where they come with a fee. This includes things like free Christmas tree cutting passes for fourth graders (now with a $2.50 fee!) and timed entry passes to national parks, which were introduced in 2021, and are nominally free but have a $2 processing fee. Booz Allen Hamilton receives a percentage of each permit application fee, even if you don’t get a permit.

This may be news to you, as it is not clearly defined on the site. As one former ranger, Betsy Walsh, told me, she would often talk to people who were surprised. “People want to support the parks, so they don’t incur fees,” says Walsh, who worked at several parks before being laid off from her job at Thomas Edison National Historical Park during the 2025 DOGE layoffs. “But you’re not supporting the parks. You’re supporting a private company.”

It’s not transparent. In the past few years, several groups have gone to court claiming that this is also illegal.

In 2022, a Nevada hiker named Thomas Book sued the Bureau of Land Management, stating in his complaint that the $2 fee to visit Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area violates FLREA, which states that public input is required to set fees and that it must be clear how much money is left on the landscape. BLM moved to dismiss the case, but the district court ruled in Kotb’s favor regarding the public participation aspect of his lawsuit. But the fees never changed.

The following year, seven plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit: Robin Wilson and others. v. Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging that the company “forces American consumers to pay unwanted Ticketmaster-style fees to access national parks and other federal recreational lands.” BAH filed a motion to dismiss, alleging that the plaintiffs did not understand the contract. “Certainly, some federal agencies charge reservation fees to users to help cover the government’s costs of operating Recreation.gov, including USDA’s payments to Booz Allen. But these fees are charged by agencies at their own discretion,” her memo asserted. More than six months after filing the lawsuit, the plaintiffs filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss their case. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.