A fantastic piece about why the Legislature should fund WWRP at $130 million, written by Kelli Scott of the Wenatchee World.
Excerpt: Since the program’s creation in 1990, WWRP grant funds have gone toward the preservation of some of our region’s most treasured natural assets, including Peshastin Pinnacles State Park and the Wenatchee Foothills.
WWRP funding has been invested in Wenatchee’s Methow Park revitalization work, the Leavenworth Skate Park, an expansion of Rotary Park and, most recently, the purchase of land for a community park on 9th Street in East Wenatchee, among many other projects. The grant money, along with local matching funds, has gone to post-fire habitat restoration projects. It has been used to maintain access to public lands for hikers, hunters and anglers, and to secure thousands of acres in the beautiful, rugged Stemilt Basin for recreation and wildlife habitat. And WWRPdollars are now being leveraged to prevent 37 acres of floodplain on the Wenatchee River near Sleepy Hollow from being developed into a subdivision. So instead of spec homes on a floodplain, we’re getting public access to the river for fishing, floating, and bird-watching.
Read the whole piece in the Wenatchee World.