The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is currently in the process of holding advisory committee meetings to obtain recommendations on recreation management objectives for the public lands they manage. The DNR contacted the Mountaineers to request the club's representation on one of these committees. As a result, Leesa Wright, the Mountaineers' Public Policy Associate, has become a member of the Reiter Foothills Advisory Committee. Reiter Foothills is directly adjacent to the new Wild Sky Wilderness and encompasses the popular Index Town Walls used for the club's Aid and Big Wall climbs. The area is also a popular place for kayakers to drop into the Skykomish River. Of particular concern from the management prospective that requires DNR to manage their lands for the good of the public trust, is the fact that this area is very heavily used by off road vehicle (ORV) users. Improvements in technology to ORVs which allow them to access areas once only reachable on foot or by water course, along with a sharp increase in ORV ridership in the past few years have led to serious environmental damage, loss of solitude and increasing public safety concerns.

If you are concerned about the Reiter Foothills area please take a moment to fill out the DNR's online survey.

By their own admission, the DNR has done a poor job alerting diverse groups of users to the existence of the survey and, as a result, the nearly 1300 responses they have received so far are heavily stacked in favor of off road vehicle users. Let DNR hear from you!