Prepare to pay to visit California wildlife areas and ecological reserves

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.