Trail Closures

It seems that the bad economy is hitting everywhere and everything. Even Washington State Parks are not immune.

In poking around their website, it looks like there is a potential budget reduction of $23 million which means some parks might need to be mothballed (closed). For more information and to have your voice heard, check out their site.

Here's a snippet:

With our state and nation in a deep economic recession, the Governor and Legislature are faced with a budget challenge. Washington State Parks must do
its part in reducing expenditures in the 2009-11 budget to help meet the
challenge.The Governor's budget proposal, announced in December, was based on a revenue forecast that predicted a 5.7 billion revenue shortfall. The Governor’s
budget requires State Parks to take a 10 percent budget cut (approximately $10
million in general fund). More recently, the state’s revenue forecast was
predicted to have a revenue gap of more than $8 billion. As the Legislature
creates its budget for the Governor to sign in late spring, this greater
challenge may require State Parks to make even deeper expenditure reductions
that will affect parks and services. Legislators have asked State Parks to
prepare a scenario that would reduce the State Parks budget by approximately $23 million. The Legislature will adopt and the Governor will sign a final budget
into law in late spring, then the Commission will implement the final budget.

Public comment may be sent to pao@parks.wa.gov. All comment received from
the public will be shared with the Commission.