Sustainable Recreation Work Group to meet in SeaTac May 7

Funding, access, and environmental impacts of recreation on agenda

OLYMPIA – The Sustainable Recreation Work Group will meet from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 7 at the Cedarbrook Conference Center, 18525 36th Ave. S., in SeaTac. The public is invited to attend.

Agenda items include: further discussion of how to sustainably fund recreation on lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and how to improve access to these lands. In addition, work group members will briefed on the environmental impacts of recreation on DNR-managed lands. The public will have an opportunity to comment during this meeting.

The following day, May 8, many of the work group members will tour the Reiter Foothills area in southeastern Snohomish County. Reiter Foothills has long been a popular recreation destination, particularly for off-road enthusiasts, and has suffered serious environmental damage due to unauthorized trail building, overuse, and littering. DNR will be completing a comprehensive recreation plan for Reiter due out this summer.

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About the Sustainable Recreation Work Group
The Sustainable Recreation Work Group is the result of legislation in 2008 to establish policy recommendations and a collaborative vision to ensure outdoor recreation is safe, enjoyable, accessible, environmentally responsible, and sustainably funded now and into the future.
The work group’s charge is to examine relevant existing laws and rules and recommend policy changes and funding alternatives for consideration by the legislature next year.

For more information about the Sustainable Recreation Work Group, visit  www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEduca ... stainable_recreation.aspx 

Recreation on DNR-managed lands
DNR manages more than 5 million acres of state-owned forest, aquatic, agricultural, conservation and urban lands. Most recreation takes place in the 2.2 million acres of forests that DNR manages as state trust lands. By law, state trust lands are managed to produce income for schools, universities, prisons, state mental hospitals, community colleges, local services in many counties, and the state’s general fund. State trust lands are also managed to provide fish and wildlife habitat, as well as to provide educational and recreational opportunities.

DNR-managed lands provide 1,100 miles of trails, 143 recreation sites, and a variety of landscapes throughout Washington State. Recreational opportunities include hiking, hunting, fishing, horseback riding, camping, motorized vehicle riding, mountain biking, and boating.
DNR is led by Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark who is Washington’s 13th Commissioner of Public Lands since statehood in 1889 and the first from Eastern Washington.