CommunityLink Local news Top Stories Sports Features Business Opinion Obituaries Weather News of record News archives Recreation Golf Hiking, Etc. They include some of the most scenic and valued public land in the nation. Just one park, Deception Pass, has more yearly visitors than Grand Canyon National Park. Despite this popularity, Washington parks are crumbling. The system is perpetually underfunded by a cash-strapped Legislature.
Conditions are substandard, and the mass closure of parks looms as a possibility.
To at least begin to reverse this sorry trend the state Parks and Recreation Commission has decided to collect a fee from the 90 percent of state parks visitors who now use the facilities for free. It had decided to do this, with a good deal of trepidation, by charging for day-use parking. This is one way to raise some of the revenue the Legislature cannot or will not appropriate, for even the most basic maintenance of the state's park system. It would be eminently sensible and a sad necessity. People who love and use the state parks can contribute to their upkeep, and should.