Individuals who for years have visited the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve will soon be required to pay for the experience.

The California Fish and Game Commission voted in August requiring visitors to obtain a Lands Pass — at a cost of $4.32 per day or $24.33 per year — before entering the state-owned, 752-acre reserve, of which about 50 acres are accessible to the public via a trail system.

The commission’s decision particularly affects users of the roughly 800-year loop trail at the lower end of Big Canyon and visitors of Vista Point, a viewing area off Eastbluff Drive, members of the Newport Bay Conservancy said.

Children younger than 16 and those with a hunting, fishing or trapping license are not required to purchase a pass to enter the reserve. School and organized youth groups also are exempt from the fee, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website.

Flowers bloom in the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve. (File photo)

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, namely how the agency plans to enforce the regulation, said Howard Cork, a Newport Beach resident and former president of the Newport Bay Conservancy. He said it also could result in people avoiding certain areas of Upper Newport Bay.

“People will have to apply online to obtain the pass prior to visiting, which is very impractical, regardless of whether it’s justified or not,” Cork said. “If people see that going on this little loop trail will cost them 4 bucks versus nothing in another area, I know which people will choose.”

Carla Navarro, reserve manager at the Back Bay Science Center, said the Lands Pass regulations will likely be implemented in spring 2017.

The pass requirement for Upper Newport Bay has been in place since 1988. However, the agency never enforced collecting the fee.

In June, Newport Beach city officials expressed concern to the state that the Lands Pass requirement would create confusion and frustration for visitors.

“Respectfully, we think that California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s effort to collect the Lands Pass fee at Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve will be minimally successful at best,” City Manager Dave Kiff wrote in a letter. “At worst, thousands of individuals and groups will be confused as to precise Lands Pass requirements depending upon their use patterns.”

The push to collect an entry fee was prompted after the Department of Fish and Wildlife determined it doesn’t receive enough revenue to manage its land, according to a staff report published in August. In response to the revenue shortfall, officials decided to expand the Lands Pass program to 36 new areas, including the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, and begin enforcing entry fees on seven sites, including Upper Newport Bay.

This isn’t the first time the state officials have attempted to enforce the entry fee.

In 2013, the agency put signs up along Back Bay Drive explaining that visitors would be required to pay an entry fee to use the reserve, Cork said.

“Some of us thought it was a spoof,” he said. “The fact their reserve has no boundary and you have no idea when you’re in it and when you’re not ... it struck us as rather humorous.”

When Cork realized it was a real regulation, he wrote a letter in protest. State officials told him they agreed that there were a lot of practical issues related to levying a fee.

Lands Passes are available on the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website and can be purchased in person at several boating stores in Newport Beach. For more information, visit wildlife.ca.gov/licensing/lands-pass.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN