WTA's Goals for the State Legislature — and How You Can Help

Washington state’s legislative session — this year Jan. 8 through March 7 — is an important time for trail advocates like you to speak up in support of public lands and trails as legislators work to prioritize funding and policies for the state.Hikes on state land like Weldon Wagon Road are supported by WTA's advocacy work during the state legislative session. Photo by trip reporter gumbypuppy.

WTA plays a key role in raising hikers’ voices to ensure that the issues hikers care about are front and center with lawmakers. This legislative session, we’re also supporting state land managers’ — Washington State Parks, Department of Natural Resources and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife — funding requests so that they are able to provide high quality recreational experiences on their lands.

• WTA’s State Legislative Wins for Trails
• WTA works with partners and lawmakers to improve access to and protection of the places we love. In recent years, we’ve helped double funding for the No Child Left Inside program, secured a historic funding level for Natural Resource Conservation Areas and created new state funding for the maintenance of trails and public lands.

In 2022, WTA led a coalition of partners and trail advocates to win game-changing funding for the three state land managers to address a backlog of vital fixes for trails, roads, bathrooms, campgrounds and more. In 2023, we solidified the win by ensuring all three agencies had the same investment level secured ongoing — which means the funds don’t have to be approved every year. These investments are already making changes to improve experiences in the outdoors and to better protect the natural resources of our state’s recreation lands.

Trail at Blanchard Mountain before and after new maintenance funding. Photo courtesy Department of Natural Resources.

For this year’s state legislative session, we are supporting land management agency partners' requests that support staff who protect and maintain our public lands: an investment in Department of Natural Resources’ Conservation Corps program; funds to provide affordable housing for Washington State Parks seasonal staff, and additional tribal relations staff capacity for Washington State Parks.

WTA’s top priorities for the 2024 legislative session include:

Operating Budget

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)

Supporting WDFW’s proposal to add language to its statutes that will allow the agency to more easily manage conservation and recreation areas, water access sites and trails in partnership with nonprofit organizations, volunteers and other agencies for recreation and non-recreation stewardship activities.

Department of Natural Resources (DNR)

Securing funding for DNR’s Conservation Corps program ($1.82M) and Youth Education and Outreach Program ($1.65M) to ensure that restoration work on public lands and trails continues and enable DNR to provide workshops to educators on natural resource management and create programming for youth to take part in field-based experiential learning opportunities to learn more about careers in natural resources.

Washington State Parks (WSP)

Advocating for increased investments within state Parks’ Tribal Relations team and staff housing. With increasing efforts to engage tribal organizations across Washington state, additional capacity ($153,000) within the Tribal Relations team at WSP is essential for State Parks to successfully build and maintain relationships with Washington’s tribes. To increase and diversify its workforce, WSP must provide more affordable housing options. Due to Washington state’s higher cost of living, State Parks has had difficulty recruiting and retaining many of its temporary workers during the summer season. A $500,000 investment will provide employee housing for several park locations.

• Operating vs. Capital Budget
• The operating budget covers services and functions of Washington state’s government. The capital budget addresses investments in physical resources, like acquiring lands or building facilities. WTA’s work touches on both sections of the budget, and also legislation, or policies, that affect public lands.

Capital Budget

Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO)

Supporting an additional investment in RCO’s Community Forest Program ($5.78M) will complete the funding provided in the 2023-2025 capital budget to support two critical Community Forest projects on Whidbey Island and in the city of Hoquiam.

Washington State Parks

Securing funding for Nisqually State Park ($3.7M) to enable WSP, in partnership with the Nisqually Tribe, to construct a roundabout at the entrance to Nisqually State Park and ensure efficient traffic flow in and out of the park.

Want to speak up for the trails you love?

Join our Trail Action Network

You’ll receive one to two email action alerts per month to support funding and policies to make sure that everyone can safely access the outdoors.