Providing Recreation Opportunities
The contract with TREAD for trails conditions assessment in Quincy Lakes is ongoing. Partnership Coordinator Browning and Recreation Planner Andersen are managing the contract and having weekly meetings with TREAD. Browning and Andersen have also been writing a scope of work for a trail inventory in Cowlitz and Methow wildlife areas that will begin in July.
Providing Education and Outreach
The Ambassador Program will be launching on July 1. Partnership Coordinator Browning has been coordinating volunteer talking points and logistics with the Washington Trails Association (WTA). WTA held an online training session the week of June 25.
Browning has been creating content for kiosks that will be delivered by June 30 to Region 4. Three panel kiosks are being designed currently for a few different locations around the state.
Other
Travel Management Rulemaking: Staff members recently held a meeting on several draft rules related to travel management. The draft rules will address illegal trail building, keeping motorized routes on roads that are open to that use, and adopt policy that would consider all routes closed unless designated open. There is a lot of internal (and outreach) work that needs to be done before the third rule can be pursued, but the official rulemaking process will begin on the other two.
Route Inventory: There has been a big effort to determine the process for inventorying all the roads and trails on WDFW managed lands. More recently staff members have developed a tool through a GIS app that contractors or interns can use to collect baseline data on each route, including those that are unauthorized. Now that we have a process in place, WDFW staff members are hoping to streamline the work and expand beyond the Columbia Basin and Methow wildlife areas to other wildlife areas across the state.
Utilizing Closures to Evaluate Recreation Impacts: WDFW natural resource economist, biologists, and staff members involved in the Methow Wildlife Area plan have been discussing the opportunity to use seasonal closures to measure the impacts of recreationists on mule deer habitat use and fitness. It might also be used to evaluate use patterns by the recreationists.