Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Please Note! Stand-alone (not course-related) trips that do not have fees associated with them are exempt from WA DNR permit requirements, as long as the group size is 12 or fewer on NRCA land, or 25 or fewer on State Forest land.
Official Washington State DNR website - Washington State DNR
Staff applies for a Land Use License annually for activities taking place on Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) managed lands. Staff must apply for a separate Land Use License for each DNR region where we run activities that fit the permit requirements below.
Permits are required for:
- All fee-based trips, regardless of number of participants. This includes all activities that are exclusively for course participants, such as field trips, SIG outings, and conditioners.
- On NRCA land, all activities with more than 12 participants require a permit, even if the activity is free. Learn more about NRCAs here.
- On State Forest land, all activities with more than 25 participants require a permit, even if the activity is free.
Please note that stand-alone (non-course-related) trips that do not have fees associated with them are exempt from permit requirements, as long as the group size is 12 or fewer on NRCA land, or 25 or fewer on State Forest land.
As part of the Land Use License, DNR requires The Mountaineers to collect signed waivers from participants in permitted activities taking place on DNR land. Mountaineers staff manage the administration and collection of digital waivers.
2020 Calendar Year
For 2020, The Mountaineers submitted a list of trips that required permits to DNR staff in December 2019 for review and approval of the trips as a part of our annual Land Use License.
Our current Land Use License with the South Puget Sound Region of DNR can be found here.
Our current Land Use License with the Northwest Region of DNR can be found here.
We ask that volunteers who are leading permitted trips download the Land Use License to their phones so they have it on hand in case they are questioned by DNR staff during the trip.
Note - we have a very small amount of flexibility to add more permitted trips on DNR land during the 2020 calendar year. Regular trips that do not require permits can continue to be scheduled. Please contact staff at info@mountaineers.org if you have a pressing need to run a new permitted trip on DNR-managed land in 2020.
Below are links to the WA DNR permitting calendar. Use the iCal feed to get calendar alerts.