By Arwyn Rice
Peninsula Daily News
FORKS — Woodcutting on state lands is one activity that will no longer be free beginning Friday.
Visitors must purchase a Discover Pass to explore the more than 7 million acres of lands managed by State Parks, the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Fish & Wildlife.
Any recreational activity — including hiking, picnicking, camping, fishing, hunting, water access, plant gathering and woodcutting — will require the pass, Sue Trettevik told about 25 members of the Forks Chamber of Commerce last week.
“Woodcutting is recreation?” an audience member asked, spurring laughter.
Under land-use rules, wood gathering and cutting for personal use is considered to be a recreational activity, Trettevik said.
“If it isn’t commercial, it’s recreational,” she said at Wednesday’s luncheon.
If purchased at a manned state park office or kiosk, the annual Discover Pass costs $30 per vehicle — with permits not transferable between vehicles — and daily passes are $10.
The price goes up if they are purchased anywhere else.
The passes are $35 and $11.50 at www.discoverpass.wa.gov or by phone at 866-320-9933 from outlets that sell hunting and fishing licenses.
The fine for using state property without a pass is $99, which can be reduced to $30 if the person cited purchases a pass within 15 days, she said.
The cost of the pass does not include other fees, such as fee-based campgrounds, hunting and fishing licenses, or other permits, Trettevik said.
Several audience members suggested combining permits into one all-access permit for multiple uses.
The Discover Pass looks much like fishing or hunting licenses and is designed to be hung from the rear-view mirror.
Some vehicles could have multiple permits, which would be difficult to display all at once, audience members pointed out.
“We’d pony up for a combined permit,” said Erik Rohrer, Clallam County District Court judge in Forks.
“Give me one pass. I’d rather not have to buy any other passes,” Rohrer said.
Discover Passes are part of an effort to replace funding lost in the most recent round of state budget cuts.
The state park budget was cut by $10 million for the 2011 fiscal year, while DNR and DFW’s budget each lost about $1 million, according to state documents.
Profits from the passes will be divided between the parks (84 percent), natural resources (8 percent) and fish and wildlife (8 percent), Trettevik said.
Those numbers are equivalent to the funds each lost to budget cuts and will go directly into the agencies’ funds.
It will not be sent to the general fund, she said.
Funding the DNR will help pay for fire prevention services.
The equivalent of one-third of Washington state residents must buy passes to replace the funding lost during the cuts, Trettevik said.
Many of those purchases will come from out-of-state visitors, taking much of the burden off state residents, she said.
No one knows what percentage of visitors to state lands are not Washington residents.
The new permit purchase system will log where purchasers are from and will give the state its first statistics on who visits state lands, Trettevik said.
While there was some grumbling about having to pay for something that has been free, an unidentified audience member compared the situation to California, which announced the planned closure of 70 of its 278 parks in May.
A new fee that will keep parks open is better than closing them, the audience member said.
Oregon and California state park systems have offered annual day-use permits for more than a decade, but those passes are required only for parks that have entry fees, according to those states’ park websites.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
