The park is among 50 national parks where entrance fees will be increased or newly established by spring.

Under a scheduled announced yesterday by the National Park Service, fees will increase at Volcanoes from the current $3 to $5 for individuals, from $5 to $10 for vehicles, and from $15 to $20 for an annual pass, effective Feb. 1.

No other parks in Hawaii were on the Park Service list. But the agency has been ordered to institute or increase fees at 50 more parks by January, and a Park Service spokesman said another Hawaii park could be on that list.

The fee hikes were ordered earlier this year by a Congress searching for ways to pay for a backlog of needed projects and maintenance at the cash-strapped parks.

The increases are part of a three-year pilot program, but could become permanent if they prove successful.

To make the increases more palatable, Congress called for 80 percent of the additional money to be used for improvements in the park in which it is collected.

Under the current system, all entrance fees are funneled into the national treasury.

Volcanoes park ranger Mardi Lane said the extra money collected at Volcanoes, which park officials estimate at $350,000, would be used for a variety of projects, including:

Upgrading the park's 100 miles of hiking trails.

Upgrading the restroom facilities.

Repairing the leaky roof over the visitor's center auditorium.

Improving exhibits and renovating the interior at the visitor's center.

Building a bigger information station at the end of the popular Chain of Craters Road in the park's coastal area.

For Hawaii residents who use the park frequently and buy an annual pass, she noted, the increase will amount to only $5 a year.

"In the islands, there is wide support for our parks and programs," she said.

Entrance fees will increase at many of the nation's best-known and most popular parks, including Everglades National Park in Florida, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and California's Yosemite National Park.

"Even with the pilot fee increase, a family of four can enjoy a week's visit to Yosemite, Yellowstone or Glacier national parks for less than it costs to see a first-run movie," said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, defending the increases.

Paul Pritchard, president of the National Parks and Conservation Association, a citizens' group that monitors the national parks, also defended the fee hikes, saying they are long overdue.

"These new fees will be a down payment on the resource protection, restoration and general maintenance that the parks desperately need," he said.

"They will help the parks, and in the long run, visitors will benefit, too," Pritchard said.

"Even with the increases, national parks are still the best education bargain around."

A national poll conducted last year for the conservation organization found that nearly 80 percent of those surveyed would be willing to pay higher park fees if the money was used for park maintenance.