An Open Letter to the Washington State Representatives on the Matter of the Possible Closure of Our State Parks.

Dear Washington State Representative,

I am writing you today voicing my concern on the possibility of the shutdown of our state parks. I only assume that I am far from the first to express their opinion on the matter, yet I am hoping that my conjecture will not fall upon deaf ears or be passed off as just another commoner with no valid speculation. As someone who frequents our state parks multiple times a year, I wish for my voice to be heard.

We, the people of the 42nd state to enter the Union, both love and highly value our state parks. Whether it be Flaming Geyser State Park near Black Diamond, Bridgeport State Park on Rufus Woods Lake, or Blind Island State Park off of Shaw Island in the San Juans, we use the parks to get back to nature and escape the rat race that we subject ourselves to most days out of the week. We the people use the parks for a wide variety of activities — from hiking and camping to weddings and photography shoots. While the state parks may be just an item on an budget report to you, they mean far more to the vast amounts of citizens that visit these parks each and every day.

Citizens, I might add, that voted you into your office.

If it is a budget issue that might cause the closure of the state parks, let’s look at how much money you’ll be losing, not saving. You will be losing 1.4 million day-use and overnight visitors to these parks. Included in that is nearly 11,000 paid camping and overnight reservations. Just one week of closure would cost the state $2 million in revenue. Not to mention that you would be shutting down the state parks at what is arguably the incline of the most profitable period of the year. Meaning that the numbers that I have given you might be on the more conservative side.

Not to mention that it would also affect 26,000 state employees. Twenty-six thousand. Individuals with families. Individuals with bills and debts. Individuals who would be forced to find work elsewhere in an already over-saturated job market. The impact of this alone would be staggering on the economy.

If you move to have the parks shut down, I move that you refund those who have already paid for reservations that they will no longer be able to use. If you deny us the privilege of the use of state land, then we should be reimbursed for our inconvenience. After all, there should be no reason that we should suffer both loss of time and money due to the choices of our representatives. I believe that would only be fair to all parties involved.

In closing, I hope that you reconsider the closure of the state parks this summer. While I fully acknowledge that the state of Washington must maintain a balanced budget, it would be far more detrimental than beneficial to shut down the 130 parks that we pay to visit. We the people risk more than the loss of spent income — we lose the experiences and memories that would have been made there. Encounters that we would have reminisced upon years later.

Please do the right thing and keeps our parks open.

Sincerely,

A Washington State Citizen