Help stop the expansion and development of state park | Letter to the editor

Posted

The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) is on the brink of implementing  irreversible plans for the major development of Miller Peninsula State Park. 

This existing, unique, 2,800-acre state park, with its miles of tranquil trails, has grown into a haven for horseback riders, mountain bike enthusiasts, and low-impact hikers. It has largely been maintained and improved on by groups of dedicated volunteers at little financial expense to taxpayers. 

Now the WSPRC is pushing plans to turn the area into a major destination park with lodging, hundreds of RV sites, and features such as paved roads and zip lines, at a price tag of at least $25 million. 

These are plans that were designed in 2005. As with most everything, 20-year-old plans for our area’s future are blind to the realities of the present.

This plan has never examined all of the areas it would impact. Highway 101 and Diamond Point Road traffic, aquifer depletion, wildfire danger, environmental climatic impact, wildlife, etc. As of yet, no on the ground surveys have been conducted, (including an EIS and SEPA reports), yet the state is now about to purchase an additional 21 acres to expand the park, at a price of more than a million taxpayer dollars. If this purchase goes through, the state will have no other option than to make the major development a reality.

The state is acting inappropriately with our money. The plan is ill-prepared, outdated, incomplete, and does not acknowledge Washington state’s own plans for future planning as regards to it’s climate crisis policies.

We need state parks for the future, not the past. Act now before it’s too late.

Contact our representatives, governor, and the WSPRC and let them know your thoughts.

Dean Massey
SEQUIM