Idaho’s state parks are thriving, just five years after Gov. Butch Otter proposed shutting down the parks department and eliminating funding. State funding for parks in Idaho is still less than half what it was in 2006, and that’s reflected in smaller staffs, a backlog of maintenance projects and reduced services during off-peak months. But all the parks have remained open, and they’re welcoming record numbers of visitors this summer for everything from camping to weddings to paddle-board rentals to disc golf.

“Everybody predicted we’d have to close down parks,” Otter told the Spokesman-Review in a recent interview. But he said all he really wanted back in 2010 was to “do more with less – and by golly, the Idaho folks did it.”

Budget cuts have forced states around the nation, including Washington, to consider closing state parks over the past decade, though few actually ended up taking that step. Three states are looking at that now, however, including Wisconsin and Louisiana. A proposal in Alabama would close any park that doesn’t cover 100 percent of its operating costs, according to Lewis Ledford, executive director of the National Association of State Park Directors.

Ledford said he believes that’s a shortsighted measure, as it overlooks the value parks generate for the economies of their surrounding communities. “If citizens have a chance to vote to support funds for their parks, it’s overwhelmingly being popularly endorsed,” he said. And people also are “voting with their attendance.” State park visits are soaring nationwide, with the latest estimate of annual state park visitors topping 730 million. You can read my full story here from Sunday’s Spokesman-Review, including photos and a map of North Idaho park attractions. Last week, Idaho’s state parks system celebrated its 50^th anniversary; then-Gov. Bob Smylie established the parks system in 1965.