The Maui News

Gold star families and U.S. military veterans will be allowed free access to national parks, national wildlife refuges and other federal lands managed by the U.S. Interior Department beginning Veterans Day on Wednesday.

This includes Haleakala National Park and the Kakahaia National Wildlife Refuge on Molokai and the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge in South Maui.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt signed the order in October.

Entrance fees for the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System, and standard amenity recreation fees for Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation sites will be waived for veterans and gold star families. Additionally, lands and waters managed by the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are included in the program.

For purposes of this program, a veteran is identified as an individual who has served in the U.S. armed forces, including the National Guard and Reserves, and can present one of the following forms of identification:

• Department of Defense Identification Card.

• Veteran Health Identification Card.

• Veteran ID Card.

• Veterans designation on a state-issued U.S. driver’s license or identification card.

Gold star families are next of kin of a member of the U.S. armed forces who lost his or her life in a “qualifying situation,” such as a war, an international terrorist attack or a military operation outside of the United States while serving.