It’s on the list, another potential victim of the state budget. Park and Recreation officials will meet today in Olympia and figure a way to deal with a $23 million budget cut over the next two years which includes temporarily closing, or worse, Mt. Spokane State Park.



According to Richard Roesler, as an example of a way to prioritize parks, “commissioners have been given a list of more than 30 (Ed.---out of 121 total) parks, ranked by visitation, where closure would save the state at least $150,000 a year.” Visited by 485, 000 annually, it was the only park in the area that could face closure.

We love Mt. Spokane, even though it’s imperfect. We ski in the winter. We hike during the summer. It was one of our seven wonders. The thought of it closing is extremely damaging to our recreation, our near nature sensibilities so close to home. But local businesses would feel it much worse.

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