There are fears that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will bring an end to the Every Kid In A Park program.

A program that has sent millions of fourth graders and their families to national parks and other public lands since 2015, when the Every Kid In A Park program was launched by the Obama administration, could be ended by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, according to an organization that views the initiative as crucial to teaching youth the wonders of the outdoors and building tomorrow's public lands advocates and stewards.

"It’s an incredibly successful program that we support, of course," Jackie Ostfeld, founder and chair of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, said Wednesday evening during a phone call. "There are rumors that the secretary does intend to end the program, and there may be confirmation of that any day now.”

Interior and National Park Service staff did not respond Wednesday to questions about the fate of the program. However, back in March the Interior secretary told a Senate committee he viewed it as part of the reason the Park Service has a nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog.

"I've spent a lot of time in a (park) kiosk, and it's amazing, in our parks, which the maintenance (backlog) as you know, we're far behind," Secretary Zinke told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee while explaining the Trump administration's FY2019 budget proposal for the Interior Department. "But when you give discounted or free passes to elderly, fourth-graders, veterans, disabled, and you do it by the carload, there's not a whole lot of people that actually pay at our front door."

Under the program, fourth graders can visit the Every Kid in a Park website to obtain a free pass that provides access to federally managed lands and waters – including national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries. The pass is valid each year from September through the end of the following August, and grants free entry for fourth graders and up to three accompanying adults (or an entire non-commerical vehicle for drive-in parks) at more than 2,000 sites across the country.

Every Kid in a Park has been part of a multi-pronged approach to inspire the next generation to discover all that the nation’s public lands and waters have to offer, including opportunities to be active, spend time with friends and family, and serve as living classrooms to build critical skills, the Park Service has said.

"I suspect because it's an Obama-era program and it's one of many programs that the administration is cancelling," Ms. Ostfeld replied when asked why the secretary wants to end the program. "I can’t think of any other reason why they would do that. It’s very popular, and costs next to nothing.”

While she didn't have an exact annual cost of the program, she said that during the first year or two she understood the administrative costs were around $100,000/year. At the same time, according to the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, the initiative has served as "a low-cost and popular public-private partnership that helps boost local economies while improving our children’s health and connections to nature. In the program’s first year, more than two million fourth graders downloaded the Every Kid pass. Over the first two years, nearly $5 million in private funding has been leveraged to support transportation costs for children from low-income schools across the United States."

Ms. Ostfeld said the program targets low-income families and seeks to build diversity in the ranks of park visitors. "The program is serving the purpose to make all people feel safe and welcome in our public lands," she said. "It's very clear that it’s not a priority for the secretary.”

"... It would be shameful to cancel such a successful program, when children today are spending less time outdoors than during any other time in U.S. history," she added. "Congress can overturn this misguided decision by moving swiftly to pass the bipartisan Every Kid Outdoors Act.”

The legislation Ms. Ostfeld referred to earlier this month gained unanimous, bipartisan support from the House Natural Resources Committee. However, it still must be acted upon by the entire House, as well as the Senate, and that could take months. The timing is a particular problem, she said, because there currently are no efforts to continue the Every Kid In A Park program for a fourth consecutive year, and getting it set up for the 2018-19 school year takes time.

"It would take the agency several months to prepare for the program," Ms. Ostfeld said.

The Every Kid In A Park program has been a major initiative of the National Park Foundation, which has raised private funds to support it.

In support of Every Kid in a Park, the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, is raising funds to help connect fourth graders to America’s public lands and waters through transportation grants. As part of the Foundation’s Open OutDoors for Kids program, the Every Kid in a Park transportation grants seek to remove barriers to accessing our nation’s public lands and waters, with a special focus on underserved and urban communities. With cutbacks in school funding for field trips, this strategic funding will help provide comprehensive access to all national parks. Transportation grants were recently awarded to the national park units participating in the program.

A wide array of programs across the country made possible through the Park Foundation can be found here.

The program also has been embraced by entities outside the federal government. Back in 2015 the concessionaire at the Badger Pass ski resort in Yosemite National Park said fourth graders who have received an Every Kid in a Park pass to the national parks can get a lift ticket by presenting their pass at the ski area.

At Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, the Estes Park Visitor Center encouraged fourth-graders to use their passes in Rocky Mountain National Park by presenting them with a free Estes Park backpack filled with goodies that could be used while visiting the area.

The Outdoor Foundation and Outdoor Industry Association in 2016 launched its Parks4Kids campaign to leverage the latest in crowd-funding technology to allow companies large and small in the outdoor industry and other sectors to raise money to fund local projects that connect young people with the country’s national parks. To kick-off the campaign, OIA and Outdoor Foundation pledged $250,000 – giving school and nonprofit partners a boost to their fundraising efforts and challenging others to join the effort.

“This program is unique because it recognizes that our industry is comprised of brands and retailers, large and small, who have varying resources but are united by wanting to support kids, families and schools in their local communities and in doing so increase participation in outdoor activities. Outdoor industry companies can bring this effort right into their local cities and towns by going online and sponsoring a field trip by their local 4th grade class. We hope everyone in the outdoor industry will donate to an individual or adopt a school and help every single 4th grader in America have a national park experience,” Amy Roberts, executive director of Outdoor Industry Association, said at the time.