Popular I-90 trailheads, bathrooms will feel budget crunch, WA says

Get ready to flex those leave-no-trace practices. Popular hiking trails close to Seattle are likely to see less maintenance this year.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources announced campsite closures and service reductions because of budget cuts to its recreational program last week. The cuts do not include lands managed by other state or federal entities, such as Washington state parks or the U.S. Forest Service.

The cuts stem from a legislative session in which Washington lawmakers sought to close a roughly $2 billion gap.

For Seattle-area residents looking to get out to the mountains, all DNR-managed recreation sites near Snoqualmie Pass will see the impact of reduced service, including more trash, less staff presence, messier and worse-stocked bathrooms and poorer maintained trails, said DNR spokesperson Courtney James.

These sites include the Rattlesnake Mountain Scenic Area, Tiger Mountain State Forest and the West Tiger, Mount Si and Middle Fork Snoqualmie Natural Resources Conservation Areas, among others.

All DNR-managed bathrooms near Snoqualmie Pass will also see a seasonal closure starting Oct. 1 through next April. These bathrooms are typically double-sided, and the closure will include one side being locked to reduce maintenance costs, James said.

James encouraged people to practice responsible recreation by leaving no trace, packing out any trash, planning ahead and respecting posted closures.

DNR also announced several other impacted campgrounds around the state that will see full or seasonal closures and reduced service, including the Bear Creek Campground in Forks and the Harry Osborne State Forest in Sedro-Woolley.

The sites were chosen for reductions because they are expensive to maintain due to their popularity, require longer travel distances for staff or had sustained storm damage, DNR said.

DNR said it saw its recreational program get reduced by 20% in 2025 and then cut by an additional $580,000 during the 2026 legislative session, amounting to $8 million in cuts during the biennium budget. This session also saw $60 million restored to DNR's wildfire prevention and community resilience programs, cuts the agency had repeatedly decried since 2025.

DNR's recreation budget is made up of grants, a portion of the state gas tax and a portion of Discover Pass sales. DNR's program has 60 field staff across the state. Additional help from the Washington Conservation Corps crews, which provided the equivalent of 70 additional field staff, were also not funded in the most recent legislative sessions, DNR said.

In a statement, Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove said that while the final cuts came in less severe than earlier proposals," the cuts "move us in the wrong direction."

"At a time when more people than ever are relying on our public lands, we should be expanding recreation access, not reducing it," he said.

Michael DeCramer, a senior policy and planning manager with the Washington Trails Association, said in an emailed statement that the cuts sadly do not come as a surprise.

DeCramer said DNR projected last year that it would need $9 million more in funding each year to keep up with the cost of maintenance of its recreation lands.

People going outdoors should expect to see "substantial repair and maintenance work delayed or skipped all together, as well as poorly maintained roads, trails and campgrounds, he said.

DeCramer encouraged the public to put in more effort packing out trash, and consider volunteering on a trail maintenance project.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.