Good new$ for Mount Si hikers

YAKIMA, Wash. — I was just checking in on the Washington Trails Association’s Signpost Blog this morning — the WTA’s site being a good stop for updates on trail access and funding issues — and saw that the good news (for trail enthusiasts, anyway) that Mount Si’s trail circuit will remain open.

If you hadn’t heard, the state Department of Natural Resources was anticipating such a budget hit to its recreation funding that such DNR hiking destinations as Mount Si, Tiger Mountain, Rattlesnake Mountain and Lake Spokane would have been closed. But in what will serve for those trail systems as essentially a stopgap, one-year rescue, the DNR’s anticipated recreation cut of $278,000 didn’t make it into the state Legislature’s supplemental budget. That means those popular spots will remain open, if only for a year before that same money crunch puts them in jeopardy once again.

Jonathan Guzzo, the WTA’s advocacy director, calls the situation “only a temporary victory,” noting that trail-use supporters will need to keep those cards and letters coming to their legislators. The WTA’s site also gives a primer on how go about writing those legislators as well. Check it out.

– Scott Sandsberry