Advocate for Public Lands and Recreation in Olympia This Legislative Session

The 2025 Washington state legislative session began this week, kicking off a new year of opportunity to advocate for our state-managed public lands. We share a state legislative preview, including what we’ll be advocating for this session and how you can take action over the next couple months.
The Mountaineers The Mountaineers
January 17, 2025
Advocate for Public Lands and Recreation in Olympia This Legislative Session
Climbing trip to Frenchman Coulee, Columbia Basin Wildlife Area near Vantage. Credit Steve McClure.

If you've sea kayaked in Deception Pass, climbed the Royal Columns at Tieton, or hiked Blanchard Mountain, you know how important state-managed lands are for Mountaineers programs. Amid growing visitation to Washington’s state parks, wildlife areas, and Department of Natural Resources lands, state agencies need more resources to sustainably manage increased use, mitigate climate change impacts, and better protect natural and cultural resources.

The 2025 state legislative session - which kicked off earlier this week - brings a challenging budget climate as well as opportunities for the recreation community to advocate in Olympia and virtually for continued investment in our state lands and the outdoor opportunities they support.

Just like at the federal level, public lands and outdoor recreation are popular, bipartisan issues with legislators across Washington state. The recreation community has achieved several key legislative wins for state lands in recent years, including securing a record high funding level of $120 million for Washington Washington and Recreation Program (WWRP) - the state’s largest public funding source for outdoor community projects.

Now that the session is underway, we share more on the current lay of the land in Olympia, what we’ll be advocating for this year, and how you can join our efforts.

Advocating for Public Lands and Recreation in the Legislature This Year

The Washington state government operates on a two-year budget cycle. Legislators will be charged with passing the 2025-2027 state operating and capital budgets by the end of the session in late April. This year, a constrained budget forecast means that we’ll need to defend public lands funding against budget cuts. It will be critical that lawmakers hear from constituents about the importance of outdoor recreation as they make decisions on how to address a more than $10 billion budget shortfall.

Successful efforts to defend Washington’s climate progress in last November’s election safeguarded funding for state lands and waters generated by the state’s Climate Commitment Act. This revenue will continue to invest in state lands as natural climate solutions. In addition to CCA funding, there’s a great need to defend current investment in our state land management agencies - Washington State Parks (State Parks), the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW).

Washington voters elected new statewide leaders, including Governor Bob Ferguson and Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove. This year, we’ll be focused on building relationships with these new leaders and their staff and communicating the importance of conservation and outdoor recreation to Washingtonians, as well as the need for continued investment in state lands and sustainable outdoor access.

The Mountaineers and our partners will continue to advocate together in the legislature to defend recent investments and strive for targeted opportunities for additional funding for the outdoors. In the coming months we’ll be meeting with lawmakers, writing advocacy letters, and engaging with land managers, Tribes, and our recreation partners to rally support for important initiatives to fund public lands.

Our 2025 State Legislative Priorities

We look forward to elevating action opportunities to support these state level priorities. Here are our top funding priorities this session.

Funding for State Agencies and Tribes to Study and Address Recreation Impacts

This year, we’re continuing our advocacy efforts through Outdoor Alliance Washington to advocate for funding for state land management agencies and Tribes to  better manage recreation on state lands and protect natural and cultural resources. To further address Tribal concerns about recreation impacts on Tribal treaty rights, we’re advocating for $3.4 million in operating funding to support Tribal participation in the State-Tribal Recreation Impacts Initiative. We’re also supporting agency requests for operating funding so land managers can address recreation impacts on their lands. Specifically, we’re asking for $984,000 for DFW, $724,000 State Parks.

Addressing the Maintenance Backlog on State Lands

In 2022, we celebrated a landmark win for state lands with the passage of $15 million in annual ongoing operating budget funding for the State Parks, DNR, and DFW, which will help these agencies begin tackling the deferred maintenance backlog on their lands. These resources have already made a difference by helping land managers hire additional staff, restore decrepit facilities at trailheads and campgrounds, and maintain roads and trails critical to recreation access.

This session, we’re advocating with our partners at Washington Trails Association to ask the legislature to maintain $5 million in annual ongoing funding for maintenance and operations for each agency, despite proposed cuts. This investment has become a significant percentage of each agency’s maintenance spending: 20% for State Parks, 40% for DNR and nearly 50% for WDFW and maintaining as much of this funding as possible moving forward is critical.

We’re also supporting two capital budget requests from the Department of Natural Resources: $2.9 million to improve safe and sustainable recreation on DNR lands and another $2.9 million to renovate and update the agency’s natural areas across the state. These projects would improve public access and protect natural resources at popular recreation sites like Mount Si, the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River area, and Tiger Mountain State Forest.

Additional Priorities

In the last two legislative sessions, we helped secure historic investments for priority programs like No Child Left Inside - which has benefited our Mountain Workshops, the WWRP, and DNR’s Trust Land Transfer Program. These programs are critical to efforts to connect youth to nature, fund conservation and recreation projects, and preserve state forests. This session, we’ll come together again with coalition partners to advocate to maintain these landmark investments.

Get Ready to Advocate

There’s no replacement for constituent advocacy, and as an outdoor enthusiast, you’re poised to translate your connection to Washington’s special outdoor places into compelling narratives for advocacy. Maybe there’s a state park you visit with your family every year or a climbing area on DNR or DFW lands that sparked your passion for climbing in Washington.

We encourage all Mountaineers that want to advocate for the lands they love to consider joining our staff at upcoming lobby days organized by our partners at the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition (February 11) and Washington Trails Association (March 18). These lobby days are great opportunities to tell your story.

As the 2025 state legislative session progresses, we’ll keep our community updated on opportunities to join our advocacy and share why investing in state lands is important to you. In the meantime, think about a personal story you might tell about your recreation experiences in Washington, learn more about Washington’s state-managed public lands, and get ready to advocate by taking our Advocacy 101 eLearning course. We look forward to amplifying your voice this session.