WASHINGTON – A Senate panel appeared ready Tuesday to approve legislation to enable Acadia National Park in Maine to continue to benefit from revenue generated by higher entrance fees.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s subcommittee overseeing national parks heard testimony from several witnesses on legislation that would make permanent an entrance fee hike that was enacted in 1997 and is slated to end next year. Acadia’s daily fees were raised from $5 to $10 under a demonstration program launched six years ago.

The program also took fee revenue that previously went to the federal government’s General Fund and directed 20 percent to the National Park Service’s systemwide fund and 80 percent to the collecting parks.

Acadia National Park has retained about $11 million in fees since the increase six years ago, according to Ken Olsen, president of Friends of Acadia, who supports the bill.

He said that his organization has matched the increased park fees by a 2-to-1 ratio, helping establish Acadia as the first national park with a privately endowed trail system.

The increased funds, along with a $1 million gift from L.L. Bean, and contributions from local businesses, helped establish the park’s Island Explorer propane bus system. The system of 17 environmentally friendly buses carried its one-millionth rider last week.

Olsen said that his organization largely supports the current legislation, although he told the panel he would like to see the bill’s limit on collection costs loosened.

As written, parks would only be allowed to use 15 percent of their fee revenues on collection, and Olsen believes that because of the park’s complex, porous boundaries, Acadia uses about 25 percent of revenues on that expense. Another witness opposed making the fee plan permanent, at least for public lands managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.

Robert Funkhouser, president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, said that fees had not resulted in better facilities or maintenance at those agencies. He added he was less opposed to the National Park Service’s increased fees, because of their better service to the public and long history of using entrance fees for maintenance.

Committee leaders said they expected to approve a version of the bill in the coming weeks. “There are some details that we don’t have settled,” said subcommittee Chairman Craig Thomas, a Wyoming Republican. “But we hope to get it tailored to meet everyone’s needs, and get it out and passed later this year.”