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| Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Orange County is one of the sites where you'll have to pay a fee to enter in 2018. Credit: Wolfgang Sauber/Wikimedia Commons |
If you love to visit California's wildlife areas and ecological reserves, get out your wallet. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recently announced plans to charge visitors for a land pass at 42 sites throughout the state.
You'll be required to pay $4.32 for a day pass and $25.10 for a 2018 annual pass -- and you won't be able to buy them at the site you're visiting. Passes are available online, by phone at (800) 565-1458, and in-person where hunting and fishing licenses are sold (here's a list of locations).
Popular places that will now require the pass include:
--Bolsa Chica and Upper Newport Bay (Big Canyon Unit) ecological reserves in Orange County;
--Batiquitos Lagoon and San Elijo Lagoon ecological reserves in San Diego; and
--Elkhorn Slough Ecological Reserve in Monterey County and San Jacinto Wildlife Area in Riverside County.
Check out the complete list of state wildlands that will be requiring a fee.
Most sites will require visitors to buy a pass as of January. it won't be required at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve until February.